VINCENNES, Ind. – The three-time defending Region 24 Champion Vincennes University Volleyball team picked up another local addition this week in walk on defensive specialist Brooklyn Summers from nearby Loogootee High School.
Summers comes to the Trailblazers after spending her first year out of high school at VU as a student.
Summers is a five-foot three defensive specialist who helped guide the Lions to a final record of 21-11 in her senior season in 2022, playing in all 32 matches and recording 424 set assists, 234 digs, 48 kills and 35 aces.
Summers graduated from Loogootee as a member of the Lions 1,000 Assists Club, while also leading the team in Assists twice, service points once and finished the season with the highest serve percentage twice.
Summers was also named to the All Blue Chip Conference Team in 2022 and received the team’s Mental Attitude Award in 2022.
Summers brings to the Trailblazers Championship experience as she was a member of the Loogootee State Runner-Up team in 2020 and helped the Lions repeat as Sectional Champions the following year.
Summers also comes in with some previous experience playing with fellow Blazers Dylan DeCoursey (Montgomery, Ind.) and Libby Mehringer (Jasper, Ind.) who all played for the Metro Volleyball Club.
Brooklyn is the daughter of Travis and Leslie Summers and is a Business Management major.
Summers also comes to the VU Volleyball team with a host of academic accomplishments.
Summers was named to the Indiana High School Volleyball Coaches Association (IHSVCA) Academic All-State team as a senior, graduated high school with an Academic Honors and Technical Honors Diploma.
Summers is also a recipient of the Knights of Columbus Scholarship, Butcher-Gee Scholarship and VU Academic Scholarship.
“I’ve known about Brooklyn for a while,” VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. “A good thing that she brings is that she played on the same Club team as Dylan and Libby. It’s always nice to bring different players together who played at different schools that have played together in a Club setting.”
“From what I’ve heard about Brooklyn she’s a great teammate and a hard worker,” Sien added. “She’s someone that really loves the game and someone like that will always fit in here, as well as being an exceptional student. She’s been at VU already a year as a student, so she’s coming in as a second year student, first year player.”
“Skill wise, she’ll be adding another DS / libero option for us,” Sien said. “I always try every year to get in as many of those players as we can carry. My saying is that you can never have too many defensive specialists. Plus she has some previous experience setting, which is not a bad combination to have. We’ll have a number of players this year who have that ability and experience to run an offense. That plays into the recent rule changes with how you can use your hands and she definitely has that ability to be able to put up a hittable ball.”
“Since I’ve started coaching at this level, even back at Kankakee, I always tried to recruit the local athletes,” Sien said. “I like to stay on top of the scouting reports for the teams that are local, those within about an hour away. Getting the local players and families to be a part of the program really helps build a fan base. Even though you can’t fully fill out a team every year with local athletes, we had a number of local players last year and we saw the parents and families at most every game and many of them traveled to watch us on the road.”
“Recruiting locally and in Indiana has always been a priority for me,” Sien added. “If you build that, the word gets out because then they are going to let people close by know.”
“I know it’s her first year playing collegiately, but it definitely helps when you add on a second year student,” Sien said. “They add to the maturity of the group and possibly bring some leadership to the team. If nothing else, she brings the experience of already being a VU student. She is also bringing in some State Championship experience and that’s something that you can’t buy. That’s going to be something that is going to help both your individual and team success.”
“Brooklyn loves to compete and is a positive team player,” Loogootee Volleyball Coach Shelly Lengacher said. “I am thrilled that she is going to continue playing the sport she loves at Vincennes University.”
The Vincennes University Athletic Department is excited to welcome Brooklyn Summers to the 2024 Trailblazer recruiting class.
