Volleyball Star Born into the Game

SHE CAN DIG IT!

Although senior Hannah Thompson accompanied her mother, a longtime volleyball coach and former college player, to practices and matches as a child, there was a time she thought her love for the sport would have to end.

Thompson was in grade school.

“They had a new rule where the coaches couldn't bring their kids,” she said. “I can vividly remember in my head, once they told me that, I just started crying and I was like, ‘My volleyball career's over, I'm never going to be able to get better.”

But the outside hitter stayed with the sport, even playing with an elite club team. Her star turn came in her first year at Bradley, when the Missouri Valley Conference named her Freshman of the Year and placed Thompson on the all-conference teams.

“There's always a way to do something better or do an attack in a different way. It's always different every time you play.”

Currently, she’s the career leader in digs along with holding several other spots in the Bradley record book. The health sciences major also excelled academically, earning a spot as a first-team MVC Scholar-Athlete and the conference’s Commissioner’s Academic Excellence Award.

She describes herself as competitive and likes the emotion and intensity involved in a match.

“I love that feeling, and you don't really get that until you're playing. There's so much strategy to it … There's always a way to do something better or do an attack in a different way. It's always different every time you play.”