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Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Lori Lombard Leads Volleyball Team Into TAAC Championship
11/13/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 13, 2000
BOCA RATON, FL -
Like the flash of a high speed camera, Lori Lombard's memories of a four-year collegiate career cascade off her tongue as easy and as freely as her smile.
She flips through them as if flipping through the many photo albums she has filled as an amateur photographer. Her memories include the day she chose to come to nearby FAU, her freshman teammate and roommate climbing three flights of stairs after knee surgery, winning the TAAC Championship semifinal match her sophomore season, the day at practice when she grasped the difference between the rightside and outside, and she talks about one last collegiate memory she hopes to help create, a third-consecutive-TAAC Title.
Lori acknowledges two coaches who have had a tremendous impact on her career. The first was her high school and club coach, Pam Griffin. The second is FAU head coach Jody Brown.
"I began playing club ball in middle school," said Lombard. "My coach (Pam) told me if I wanted to continue with volleyball, I needed to concentrate on one sport and I needed to play for a club team that traveled. I convinced my parents if they would help me financially with club volleyball, I would work to earn a college scholarship."
She began playing for Oceanside where she met FAU head coach Jody Brown.
"I owe my career to Pam," said Lombard. "She got me started. She pushed me in the right direction. Jody has done the rest. I have known him so long he is like my second dad. He has taught me the technical, mental, physical and skill aspects of volleyball."
Lombard knew she wanted to play collegiate volleyball at FAU and for Brown.
"Jody knew I wanted to play for him," said Lombard. "He wouldn't just let me sign, though. He wanted me to visit other schools. In fact, one school I visited knew Jody and knew I played club for him. The recruiting coach asked `is Jody making you go to FAU'?"
The 5-8 hitter would have gone to college no matter what. She discovered the power of knowledge through her high school teacher, George Mitchell. Prior to Mitchell's recent retirement, he instilled, in many students, not just Lori, the love of humanities, philosophy and English. He also taught with Lori's father.
Once arriving on FAU's campus, the power hitter was paired with walk-on defensive specialist Stacey Carlson. The duo differed in almost every aspect but forged a friendship that will last a lifetime.
"Stacey is so competitive and she has worked so hard," said Lombard. "She came here to play volleyball and for no scholarship. I still remember her climbing three flights of stairs on her little crutches after her knee surgery. Jody asked her if she really wanted to do the rehab necessary to play again. Quitting had never entered her mind. Of course, she was playing. Now, look at her. She is on scholarship. She is a primary person on the court, a role she never dreamed of having, and she has made a great adjustment."
The duo came to FAU not knowing each other, were thrown together as roommates, have roomed together for four years, will graduate together, May 4 on time, and will remain friends despite the different roads which lie a head. Volleyball pulled them, as well as other teammates, together through experiences like traveling to Prague.
"I remember the two of us (Stacey and Lori) sitting in a restaurant where no one spoke English. We pointed to two things on the menu. I ended up eating liver," laughed Lombard.
That same freshman season Lori and her teammates were forced to watch the TAAC championship match from the Samford University bleachers.
"That was the most horrible experience," said Lombard. "It is a feeling that has driven this team ever since. The single best feeling I have had was defeating UCF in the TAAC semifinal match. It was something most of the team had worked to accomplish for three seasons."
FAU won the match the following evening for the program's first conference title and the university's first Division I post-season appearance in any sport.
Lori's junior campaign was filled with injuries, but it was a year that saw her fight through the season, earn the program's second TAAC Title, second trip to the NCAA Tournament, TAAC Championship Tournament MVP honors, and make the transition to both team leader and to an outside hitter. Helping her along the way was her sister, Jeannine, someone who's footsteps she has followed and someone whose voice she still hears from the sideline.
"I really don't hear my parents' voices, but I do hear Jeannine's," said Lombard. "I guess it is because I am used to hearing her on the court."
Lori and Jeannine have been supported all the way up by parents who attend nearly every game and who made the trip to Prague, played together in high school, club and college. Jeannine also served as a student coach in 1999.
"I had played outside in high school," continued Lombard. "I started at rightside here. One practice last year, Jeannine hit balls at me and pushed me from defense to offense until suddenly it (the difference between rightside and outside) all just made sense."
Lombard has led the team offensively and defensively the last two seasons.
Her success on the court can be easily chronicled, but when that final ball hits the court, a court she hopes has a NCAA Championship logo placed firmly upon, her volleyball days will be over. She has spent her final two years of college truly reveling in her major, almost doubling her grade point average. Upon graduation, she will leave her family, her roommates of four years (Stacey Carlson and Celena Shields) and Ashley Bodily, a roommate of three years, to study abroad.
"I want to become a teacher, a professor of art history," said Lombard. To do that, I need to learn one, preferably two, languages, before I go to graduate school, most likely at the University of Buffalo."
Despite disliking the cold weather, Buffalo will be means to an end. It is a place where she can fulfill her post-graduate requirements and spend time with her family, who live in the area.
"I love this school," said Lombard. "I love south Florida. I came to FAU 98% for volleyball, but the professors in the art department are the best. The department is expanding. They hope to start a master's and doctoral program. I hope I can teach at FAU one day. This university is growing. Football is exciting and the school spirit is better every year. With more housing, this school will be a place everyone talks about."
While FAU is becoming a place everyone wants to attend, Lombard and teammates will work towards a third TAAC Championship and another memory. A memory that may very well be etched in her mind, like so many others. Memories which flash through her mind as quick as her kills hit the floor set-up by none other than her collegiate roommate and life-long friend, Stacey Carlson.
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