Brooks named MCC & Region VII Player of Week - breaks SAU record

This week’s Midwest Classic Conference and NAIA Region VII Player of the Week shouldn’t be new to those who follow the league. St. Ambrose outside hitter Andrea Brooks collected her third MCC POW award this season, thanks to helping the Bees go 4-1 over the past week, and claiming sole possession of the MCC Title.

Brooks collected 48 kills in the five matches, but her dig total was what really raised some eyebrows. She nabbed 123 digs over the five matches, and in doing so, made history.

When St. Ambrose head coach Bruce Billingsley got back from his team’s volleyball tournament over the weekend he was pretty sure Andrea Brooks had reached the 2,000 career digs plateau. What he didn’t realize was that Brooks had also became the all-time digs leader, something he never thought possible with the introduction of rally scoring.

“I was surprised because with rally scoring rules, games aren’t as long as they used to be, so there aren’t as many opportunities,” Billingsley said. “I assumed the old record wouldn’t be able to be broken.”

Brooks, already in elite company as one of less than 10 in school history with over 1,000 kills, has reached an echelon of success never before duplicated at St. Ambrose, and it’s a record that, according to Billingsley, isn’t going to fall anytime soon. The previous record of 1,948 by Emily Buchannan had stood since 2002.

“It’s going to be a very hard record to break for a number of reasons,” Billingsley said. “You really have to have a nose for the ball and an understanding of the game for one, and you also have to be a four year starter, which is very unusual.”

Brooks and Buchannan are the only two volleyballers who have started for four years under Billingsley in his 10 years at SAU. The 5-9 senior from Davenport North learned the fundamentals of the game in high school from former Queen Bee Amy Baker, and has followed in Baker’s footsteps at SAU.

Brooks has helped lead the team to their first conference championship since 2001. The Queen Bees are also just one win shy of tying the school record for wins in a season with 29, a mark they set in 1999 when the Bees advanced to the National Tournament. (The record of 29 wins is under the current, best 3 out of 5 rules. While playing best 2 of 3 prior to 1996, the season record was 46 wins in 1987).

The Queen Bees host Ashford on Saturday at 7:00 pm in the quarterfinal round of the Midwest Classic Conference postseason tournament.