{"id":6882,"date":"2018-12-06T07:40:17","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T12:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=6882"},"modified":"2018-12-07T11:00:39","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T16:00:39","slug":"hitting-her-stride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2018\/12\/06\/hitting-her-stride\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitting Her Stride"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Volleyball\u2019s always had my heart, but education comes first”<\/em><\/h2>\n

\"\"Education is a priority for Lauren Reichard, the first team All-Sun Belt volleyball player who made the conference academic honor roll for the 2016-17 season. She was also named the George-Anne 2017-18 Student- Athlete of the Year and is the first volleyball player in Georgia Southern history to be named first-team All-Sun Belt. She was also named 2018-19 preseason All-Sun Belt.<\/p>\n

When asked which award means the most to her, first team or academic honor roll, Reichard\u2019s answer provides insight into how she has approached her college career.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing named first team All-Sun Belt was one of my biggest accomplishments. I definitely didn\u2019t see it coming because we didn\u2019t make tournament, but it shows that my hard work was paying off. At the same time, school means more than volleyball. Education comes first. We\u2019re student-athletes, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reichard has been around volleyball since she was a little girl. Although she was a Pennsylvania All-State softball player in high school, she chose volleyball as her college sport.<\/p>\n

Her mom has played an influential role, too. Reichard\u2019s coach through club volleyball and Eastern York, Pennsylvania, High School volleyball teams, Jennifer James Reichard played Division I volleyball for Eastern Kentucky University and was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Volleyball team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.<\/p>\n

So, you could say volleyball is in Lauren\u2019s blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough being six feet tall helps a lot,\u201d says Reichard.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania is a long way from Georgia Southern. The first Lauren had ever heard about the University was when she was recruited by former Head Volleyball Coach, Dustin Wood. Having grown up near Lauren\u2019s home town of Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, and being familiar with the area had made Coach Wood aware of Reichard\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cDustin invited me down here for a visit and I absolutely fell in love with the campus, fell in love with the girls, the team, the whole atmosphere. I loved it from day one,\u201d said Reichard.<\/p>\n

\"\"Proud to be Part of the Eagle Family<\/h2>\n

She considers it an honor and responsibility to be named a team captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo deal with these girls every single day, just to be around them,\u2019 said Reichard. \u201cThey literally are my family. It\u2019s a great bond that we all have together. It\u2019s an honor to be a captain on the team and look after those girls. I couldn\u2019t be more happy or more proud to be a part of the Eagles team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reichard is clearly acknowledged as a true team leader on and off the volleyball court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited for her to lead us this year,\u201d said Wood. \u201cShe is one of the best leaders I have ever coached, and definitely a model student-athlete for others to follow. I really appreciate everything she\u2019s done for Georgia Southern and the volleyball program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reichard credits the Georgia Southern athletic support system with her ability to juggle academics with volleyball and help her achieve academic success.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot in place. We have Cone Hall, which is our study hall. We have all of our tutors and advisers. In season it\u2019s a lot. But you grow to adapt, and know how to deal with all that. And you realize that your school work has to be done. It\u2019s always school over volleyball.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senior business management major clearly has a head on those volleyball shoulders. \u201cI chose business as my major because of the potential job opportunities,\u201d said Lauren. \u201cMy absolute dream goal after college is to pursue a volleyball career. But if I can\u2019t do that, business is the route for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life Lessons<\/h2>\n

Volleyball has greatly influenced Lauren\u2019s approach to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s helped me in a lot of situations. It\u2019s like my stress reliever. It\u2019s made me look at stress differently than other students might. Because you have a lot more on your plate, you know how to handle all the things that are thrown at you a lot easier. It has definitely affected me positively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reichard has learned a lot about life from her volleyball experience at Georgia Southern.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest life lesson from volleyball is to push forward in anything that you want to do in life,\u201d said Reichard. \u201cPut in the work and put in the effort to do something that you love, that you want to pursue in life. Because it goes by quickly and you don\u2019t have time to redo it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wise words from the talented student athlete.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Liz Walker<\/em><\/p>\n

Statistics:<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • 2017-18 Sun Belt Commissioner’s List<\/li>\n
  • 2017 First-Team All-Sun Belt \u2014 the first Eagle volleyball player ever named<\/li>\n
  • Sun-Belt Conference 2017 academic honor roll<\/li>\n
  • In 2018, broke the Georgia Southern career blocks record set by Jennifer Charles from 2003-06 with 494<\/li>\n
  • In 2018 ranked 12th in the NCAA and second in the conference in blocks<\/li>\n
  • Ranked seventh in the league in hitting percentage<\/li>\n
  • Finished her career with 981 kills<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cVolleyball\u2019s always had my heart, but education comes first\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-6882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-fall-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}