Heather Bown

Heather Erin Bown (born November 29, 1978) is a volleyball player from the United States, who played as a middle-blocker. She represented her native country at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. There she finished in fifth place with the USA National Team. She also competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Bown made her third straight Olympic appearance in Beijing, helping team USA to a silver medal.

Bown joined the national team in January 2000, and helped "Team USA" to win the 2003 World Cup with a 5-0 record and earn a berth at the 2004 FIVB World Grand Prix. She won a silver medal at the 2002 Women's Volleyball World Championships, where she started in all eleven matches and averaged 12 points per match.

Early life and high school

Bown was born in Orange, California and calls Yorba Linda, California home. She graduated from Esperanza High School in Anaheim where she was a three year letterwinner. She was named all-CIF twice and played club volleyball for NIKE Ichiban that won the Junior Olympics in 1996.

College

Bown attended University of California, Santa Barbara for two seasons, where her squad advanced the the NCAA regional finals in 1997. In her sophomore campaign, she was named to the all-Big West first team after finishing the season ranked ninth nationally in hitting percentage (.384).

She transferred to the University of Hawaiokinai in 1998 where she was named an American Volleyball Coaches Association First Team All-American and was the 1998 and 1999 WAC Player of the Year. In 1998, she ranked first in the WAC in hitting percentage (.389) and blocking (1.69) and led the team in kills in 24 matches. She had a career-high 30 kills vs. BYU-Hawaii. As a senior in 1999, she repeated as the WAC Player of the Year and repeated as an AVCA First Team All-American. In 1999, she led the nation with 2.25 block per game and posted 411 kills, 230 blocks and a .364 hitting percentage for the year.

Recent International Competitions

*2008
**
**U.S. Olympic exhibition vs. Brazil
**FIVB World Grand Prix (Fourth Place)
*2007
**FIVB World Grand Prix (Eighth Place)
** NORCECA Championships
** FIVB World Cup
*2006
**Pan American Cup (Fourth Place)
**FIVB World Grand Prix (Seventh Place)
**World Championships (Ninth Place)
*2004
**Olympic Games (Fifth Place)

Reference

* [http://www.usavolleyball.org/National/profiles/women/HeatherBownProfile.asp U.S. National Team Bio]

External links

* [http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=1203/bio/index.html Bio at NBC Olympics]
* [http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu/WVball/bown.html Bown at uhathletics.com]