Daily Freeman: 'On Brink of something great'

By: Eric Houghtaling, Freeman

KINGSTON - It was another honor-filled season that recently concluded for College of St. Rose junior and Kingston High graduate Stephanie Brink.
Brink and her Golden Knights women's volleyball teammates continued to make school history and the 6-foot-2 outside hitter took on the role this year as one of the team leaders.

St. Rose finished at 26-6, its highest win total ever.

"It's hard to really explain our success," Brink said. "This year we had the mentality that we wanted to be at the top of our conference.

We pushed hard from the start and the five freshmen on the team really meshed with the upperclassmen and made an impact right away."

The Golden Knights made their second straight appearance in the NCAA Division II tournament as an at-large team.

St. Rose won its first-ever Northeast-10 Conference regular season title at 14-0, but lost in the conference tourney finale to Bentley.

"It was great to win the NE-10 championship, but we really wanted the tournament title, too," Brink said.

"In the NCAAs, we ended up winning our first match (3-1 against New York Institute of Technology) and lost again to Dowling (3-0) in our second. We weren't ready for the season to be over, but they (Dowling) have some great players."

Brink's individual accolades, meanwhile, have almost become too numerous to count.

During the regular season, she was an NE-10 Player of the Week three times and ECAC Division II Player of the Week twice.

By the close of the conference season, she added the NE-10 Player of the Year, the Daktronics Northeast Region Player of Year and an American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Region first team selection for the second straight year.

The ultimate reward came when Brink was named to the Daktronics Volleyball All-America third team, the first St. Rose player selected as an All-American.

"I've always said that none of this would be possible for me without my teammates," she said.

"I need the pass from our setter (Shannon Campbell) to make the kill and have such a high hitting percentage. I'm surprised when I win these awards because I always think players on the other teams are amazing."

Brink finished the season with a team-best 459 kills, an average of 4.33 per game.

She also had 95 blocks, 57 digs and a hitting percentage of .382.

Eight times during the season she had 20 or more kills in a match, including a season-high 27 versus Bentley and 22 against NYIT in the NCAA tournament.

Brink reached another career milestone this year as she collected her 1,000th kill and finished with 1,063.

With 33 more kills in her senior year, Brink will become the all-time leader at St. Rose. The current record of 1,096 set by Nicole Boudreau has stood since 1993.

She already ranks first in school history in career kills per game (3.80) and hitting percentage (.371).

"I knew when I got 1,000, but I had no idea I was that close to being No. 1 all-time," she said. "For me, I go out to play and have fun on the court. I don't get caught up in all the statistics."

A childhood education major, Brink has already started thinking about the offseason and her career plans after graduation.

"I worked hard with weights last offseason and did lots of cardio work, too," she said. "I didn't play much my senior year at Kingston after I had toe surgery and I really worked on strengthening my back and one knee that gave me some problems last year. Playing in some tournaments in the spring will go a long way to help me keep in shape, too.

As for school, I have to do my student teaching soon and they suggest not doing it in-season. I'm excited about that and becoming a primary school teacher after graduation."