Lowers makes R-MC history
Published 5:58 pm Saturday, November 28, 2015
Senior Courtney Lowers helped lead the Randolph-Macon College women’s volleyball to unprecedented heights this season.
Randolph-Macon College senior outside hitter Courtney Lowers of Suffolk lines up a kill attempt during her final season as a Yellow Jacket. She helped propel the team to its deepest postseason run in program history while continuing to re-write Randolph-Macon’s record books. (Erik Holladay/Randolph-Macon College Athletics)
Though her focus was on the team, the outside hitter from Nansemond River High School gave a performance throughout her college career that ensured Yellow Jacket fans will remember her as one of Randolph-Macon’s all-time greats.
This year, the team went 28-8, winning the Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship and earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. In that tourney, the Yellow Jackets won the Galloway Regional Final and advanced to the national quarterfinals — the Elite Eight — for the first time in program history.
“It was definitely a great experience,” Lowers said. “I kept saying, ‘This mission isn’t over yet.’ We made a goal to win the conference tournament, and we did that. And we went 11-0 in the conference, and I was like, ‘There’s so much more out of this team.’”
She noted that everyone on the team fulfilled their roles, and everything was clicking.
“This is probably the best team I’ve ever played on, personally,” she said.
For her role in the team’s success, Lowers became the first student-athlete in Randolph-Macon volleyball history to receive a spot on the All-American list. She was named Third Team All-America by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
Though it is an impressive accolade, Yellow Jackets coach Bill Rogers thought she deserved better.
“I thought it was a travesty,” he said. “She should have been first team.”
He noted she had statistics comparable to some of the first-team outside hitters.
“The problem is that very few kids in the South region outside of Georgia get All-American honors, so the coaches don’t vote,” he said. “Not enough vote compared to other regions.”
Among those voting from other regions, votes tend to go to the schools that are established and well known, Rogers said.
This year, Lowers broke her single-season kills record at Randolph-Macon that she set last year, finishing 2015 with 506 winners.
She finishes her career as Randolph-Macon’s all-time leader in kills with 1,467.
“It’s pretty cool,” Lowers said. “I look at the bigger picture of it all and see where it led my team, and I see that we as a team went and did far beyond what a lot of people were expecting us to do. So it means more than just the individual basis.”
Highlighting the importance of Lowers to that team success, Rogers said, “Her statistics for the year are pretty impressive, but I think for the last six or seven matches, they were beyond that. So statistically she raised her game and with determination and will and leadership, she, along with all the other players on the court, they really produced.”
Lowers was an All-South Region selection, and she was named ODAC Player of the Year for the second consecutive season.
As for her volleyball career, “This is the end of it,” Lowers said. “It’s been a great run and a great experience, so I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
