Nicole Fawcett

Nicole Fawcett
Nicole Fawcett in 2008 with Penn State
Personal information
Full name	Nicole Marie Fawcett
Born	December 16, 1986 (1986-12-16) (age 24) San Antonio, Texas
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Spike	310 cm (120 in)
Block	291 cm (115 in)
Volleyball information
Position	Opposite
Current club	Guangdong Evergrande
Career
Years Clubs 2005–08 2009 2010 2010–11 2011 2011–12 Penn State University Gigantes de Carolina Dynamo Yantar Usiminas/Minas Llaneras de Toa Baja Guangdong Evergrande
National team
2009–present	United States
Honours Competitor for  United States Pan-American Cup Bronze 2011 Ciudad Juárez Team Final Four Cup Silver 2009 Lima Team

Nicole Marie Fawcett (born December 16, 1986) is an American indoor volleyball player who played for Penn State University's volleyball team from 2005–2008, winning two NCAA National Championships in 2007 and 2008.

During her collegiate career, Fawcett was a four-time All-American and raked up many honors, including the American Volleyball Coaches Association National Player of the Year in 2008, National Freshman of the Year in 2005, and the Honda Sports Award winner for volleyball in 2008.

She played professionally for Gigantes de Carolina (The Carolina Giants) in Liga de Voleibol Superior Femenino, Puerto Rico’s pro league in 2009.

High school and early life

Nicole Fawcett was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1986. Her mother played volleyball at Wright State and her maternal grandfather was a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles in 1945.

She grew up in Zanesfield, Ohio and was a four year volleyball letterwinner and three year track letterwinner at Benjamin Logan High School near Bellefontaine, Ohio, where she set a school record for kills in a single season for four consecutive years and was the 2004–05 Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year.^[1]

She was a two-year member of the USA Junior National Team, including the 2004 squad that won the NORCECA gold medal in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and was a member of the 2003 USA Youth National Team. She played club volleyball for Team Atlantis Volleyball Club and holds the Ohio state record for kills.^[2] She also a regional high jump finalist in track in 2004 and 2005.

Fawcett was considered a top three recruit in the class of 2005. She said one of the reasons she chose Penn State was because Rec Hall was her favorite place to be in and that she compared it to every school she visited.^[3]

Penn State

Nicole is a 6'4'' (1.93 m) left side hitter and is known for her extremely powerful, hard kills and serves, which makes it very hard for the opposing team to defend.^[4]

2005 (Freshman)

Fawcett made Penn State history, as she was named the program's first ever AVCA National Freshman of the Year.^[5] In addition, she was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, a second team All-American, First Team All-Big Ten. She also became Penn State's first ever freshman to earn Big Ten Player of the Week honors.^[6]

During the season, she led the Lions and ranked third in the Big Ten with an average of 4.51 kills per game on .309 hitting and also ranked second in the league in conference-only matches with 4.53 kills per game. She led the team in kills on 28 occasions and recorded 31 double-digit kill matches, including a then-career-high 26 kills at Hawaiʻi.

She set an NCAA tournament record for hitting percentage in a single match, which was held since 1983, when she attacked at a career high .889 clip with 16 kills, 0 errors, on 18 attempts against Long Island.^[7]

2006 (Sophomore)

Fawcett was named a First Team All-American and was also a unanimous first Team All-Big Ten pick as she played in all 35 matches and 113 of 114 games for the year.^[8] She averaged 4.27 kills per game, good for second on the team and eighth in the Big Ten. She finished the season ranked fourth on the team and sixth in the conference in hitting percentage (.331), the only pure left-side hitter in the league within the top six.

Other awards include the Texas Invitational Most Valuable Player after leading Penn State to their dramatic comeback win over the Longhorns.^[9] She was also the LSU Classic MVP and the Penn State Invitational MVP.^[10]

2007 (Junior)

Fawcett reached exactly 1,000 kills in the first match of the season in the 3–1 win over the Texas Longhorns at Rec Hall, earning her Penn State's Golden Volleyball for 1,000 career kills.^[11] On August 31 against Cal Poly, she set a new career high for kills in a single match with 31, which was exactly five years to the day that a Penn State player recorded 30 or more kills in a match.^[12] Fawcett was one of the best outside hitters in the country, having 533 kills on the year for an average of 4.44 kills per game. The 533 kills ranked ninth on Penn State's single season record list. She led the team in aces and was one of the toughest servers in the country, having 47 aces on the year, more than her first two seasons combined. She was named an AVCA First Team All-American and a unanimous First Team All-Big Ten pick.

She helped her team win their second NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship against top seeded Stanford on December 15, 2007 at the ARCO Arena. She served championship point just a couple of hours before her 21st birthday.^[13] She was named to the Final Four All-Tournament Team as she had 19 kills and two aces in the NCAA championship match. In the National Semifinal win over California, she served the final three points, including two consecutive aces, to win the match in the 3–0 win over the Bears.^[14] She was also named the University Park Regional All-Tournament Team in her helping her team to 3–0 wins over Michigan and BYU. Throughout the NCAA tournament, she had at least two service aces in five of the six matches she played in, helping Penn State tie the NCAA record for services aces in an NCAA tournament, set by Long Beach State in 1998.^[15]

2008 (Senior)

In her final year playing for Penn State, Fawcett was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association National Player of the Year,^[16] was the Big Ten Player of the Year, and was voted as the Honda Award winner as the nation's top collegiate volleyball player.^[17]

In conference play, Fawcett had 236 kills on a .400 hitting % average. By years end, Fawcett totaled 431 kills. In the 2008 NCAA Tournament, Fawcett had a season high 24 kills against Nebraska in the National Semifinals in Omaha to help Penn State to a 3–2 win, ending Nebraska's 96 match winning streak in the state. In the fifth set vs. Nebraska, Penn State was down 10–8 before Fawcett served six straight points, which included a service ace, to swing the match in favor of Penn State. The next night, Fawcett was named a First Team All-American for the third year in a row and was announced as the Division I National Player of the Year. In the National Championship against Stanford, Fawcett had the championship winning kill and had a total of 10 kills to help the Lions win their second straight national title, and was named to the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team for the second year in a row.

Fawcett ended her career with 1,943 total kills, which ranks second in Penn State history.

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Career statistics

Season	GP/MP	Kills	K/Game	Errors	Total Attempts	Percentage	Assists	Service Aces	Digs	Solo Blocks	Block Assists	Total Blocks	Points
2005	110/34	496	4.51	158	1093	.309	15	13	198	22	66	88	564
2006	113/35	483	4.27	140	1035	.331	9	27	96	19	70	89	564
2007	120/36	533	4.44	184	1116	.313	17	47	177	11	90	101	636
2008	114/38	431	3.78	122	862	.358	16	40	210	10	73	83	517
Total	457/143	1943	4.25	604	4106	.326	57	127	681	62	299	361	2281

Professional

In March 2009, Fawcett made her professional debut with Gigantes de Carolina (The Carolina Giants) in Liga de Voleibol Superior Femenino, Puerto Rico’s pro league which began its season in January 2009. In her debut she had 16 kills and 2 blocks in a 3–2 loss to undefeated Llaneras de Toa Baja. She got 26 kills and a block in a 3–1 win over Vaqueras de Bayamon.^[18]

International competition

In June 2009, Fawcett joined the U.S. National Team.^[19]

• 2009
  • FIVB World Grand Prix (9th place)
  • Final Four Intercontinental Cup (Silver Medal)

Awards

College

Four-time AVCA All-American (2005, 2nd team; 2006, 2007 & 2008, 1st team) Four-time First Team All-Big Ten (2005–08) Four-time AVCA Mideast Region First Team (2005–08) 2009 Finalist for Honda-Broderick Cup 2008–09 Penn State Female Athlete of the Year 2008 Honda Award winner for volleyball 2008 AVCA National Player of the Year 2008 Volleyball Magazine National co-Player of the Year 2008 Volleyball Magazine First Team All-American 2008 NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team 2008 NCAA University Park Regional All-Tournament Team 2008 Big Ten Player of the Year 2008 Big Ten Player of the Week (9/1, 9/22, 10/6) 2008 Hampton Inn Penn State Classic Most Outstanding Player 2008 Chicago Classic Championship All-Tournament Team 2008 Hawaiian Airlines Classic Most Valuable Player 2008 Unanimous Preseason All-Big Ten 2007 NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team 2007 NCAA University Park Regional All-Tournament Team 2007 Volleyball Magazine First Team All-American 2007 Unanimous Preseason All-Big Ten 2007 Penn State Classic All-Tournament Team

2007 Yale Classic All-Tournament Team 2007 Big Ten Player of the Week (10/8) 2007 Penn State Golden Volleyball for 1,000 kills 2006 Volleyball Magazine First Team All-American 2006 NCAA Seattle Regional All-Tournament Team 2006 Big Ten Player of the Week (9/4) 2006 Texas Invitational Most Valuable Player 2006 LSU Classic Most Valuable Player 2006 Academic All-Big Ten 2006 Unanimous Preseason All-Big Ten 2005 AVCA National Freshman of the Year 2005 AVCA Mideast Region Freshman of the Year 2005 Volleyball Magazine National Freshman of the Year 2005 Big Ten Freshman of the Year 2005 Big Ten All-Freshman Team 2005 Hawaiian Airlines Classic All-Tournament Team 2005 Nebraska Players Challenge All-Tournament Team 2005 Penn State Classic All-Tournament Team 2005 NCAA tournament record for hitting percentage in a single match (.889) 2005 Big Ten Player of the Week (9/26, 11/14, 11/28)

High school

• Four-time First Team CBC (2002–05)
• Four-time First Team District IX (2002–05)
• Three-time District IX Player of the Year (2003–05)
• Three-time First Team All-Ohio (2003–05)
• 2004–05 Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year
• 2005 Volleyball Magazine Fab 50
• 2005 Prepvolleyball.com "Senior Ace" #3
• 2005 Ohio High Magazine Player of the Year
• 2005 Prepvolleyball.com National Senior Player of the Year finalist
• Ohio State kill record holder (1,513)

References

1. ^ "Past Ohio Gatorade winners". Gatorade. 2008-07-20. http://playeroftheyear.gatorade.com/playeroftheyear/state.php?formname=search&lvl=&sprt=VB&yr=&st=OH&search.x=49&search.y=10&search=search. Retrieved 2008-07-23. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "Team Atlantis Past & Present Players (Class of 2005)". Team Atlantis Volleyball Club. 2008-05-13. http://teamatlantisvbc.com/General/CollegeCommitments.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-23. 
3. ^ Armson, Jen (2005) Penn State Women's Volleyball Yearbook, p. 44
4. ^ Reis, Julie (2007-12-06). "School of Hard Knocks". The Daily Collegian. http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2007/12/06/school_of_hard_knocks.aspx. Retrieved 2008-07-23. 
5. ^ Fawcett named AVCA Division I Freshman of the Year
6. ^ Penn State freshman makes history
7. ^ Fawcett sets new NCAA tournament record
8. ^ Fawcett honored by the Big Ten
9. ^ Fawcett MVP of Texas Invitational
10. ^ Fawcett named LSU MVP as PSU survives LSU
11. ^ Fawcett reaches 1,000 kills as Penn State downs Texas
12. ^ Nicole Fawcett sets new rally-scoring record
13. ^ Penn State stifles Stanford for second volleyball crown
14. ^ Penn St. vs. Cal box score and play-by-play
15. ^ Penn State national championship notes
16. ^ (2008-12-19) "Nicole Fawcett Named 2008 AVCA Division I Women's Volleyball National Player of the Year" Penn State Athletics. Retrieved on January 26, 2009.
17. ^ AP (2009-01-21). "Ohioan named nation's top volleyball player". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/volleyball/2009-01-21-2609600907_x.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-26. 
18. ^ Brunskill, Jordan (2009-03-17). "Fawcett enjoying time in Caribbean on professional circuit". Centre Daily Times. http://www.centredaily.com/sports/story/1174850.html. Retrieved 2009-03-19. ^{[dead link]}
19. ^ New Players Center Stage for FIVB World Grand Prix

External links

• Fawcett at Penn State University Official Athletic Site
• USA Volleyball profile

Persondata
Name	Fawcett, Nicole
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 16, 1986
Place of birth	San Antonio, Texas
Date of death
Place of death