The leader of the pack
By Michelle Gardner | mgardner@scng.com | Daily Bulletin
PUBLISHED: October 8, 2008 at 12:00 a.m. | UPDATED: August 30, 2017 at 12:53 p.m.
LA VERNE – Brianna Gonzales finally had to make a choice. She had competed in multiple sports all her life, juggling as many as three early in high school. But to be really good at one, she had to commit to it full-time.
Her choice was volleyball. Soccer and track had to go.
"Soccer was my first love but I was getting a little bored with it. Volleyball seemed new so I was learning a lot faster and I liked the competitive aspect of it," she said.
University of La Verne coach Don Flora is glad she made that choice. Gonzales, 21, is the lone senior starter on a Leopard team that is 13-0 and ranked No. 3 in Division III by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
By next week they could be No. 1. La Verne will square off with No. 1 Juniata (Penn.) and No. 2 Emory (Ga.) this weekend at the Leopard Invitational, which will also include Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contender Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
"(Gonzales) is just one of those athletes that would be good at whatever sport they chose to focus on," Flora said. "But she isn't just a good athlete. She's a good leader and a good person. We're fortunate to have her."
Gonzales is a native of Whittier and grew up just a couple of miles from La Verne's SCIAC foe in that town. But she liked the idea of actually going away to college.
A couple of Division I schools, including UC Riverside, wanted her to walk on as a defensive specialist. The Cal State Fullerton soccer coach also wanted her to walk on. But going somewhere she could play sooner was more appealing.
She had a teacher in high school who played at Bonita and knew of La Verne's national reputatation. Gonzales did a little more homework on the school, made a trip to the campus and was sold immediately.
She was already familiar with the area because older brothers Andy and Anthony played baseball at Cal Poly Pomona.
"I wanted to play all the way around and that wasn't going to happen at a bigger school," she said. "I liked the idea of being part of an elite program, even if it is a Division III school. The level of play here is very good."
Gonzales, who is majoring in psychology, earned lofty accolades right away. She was a second-team all-conference selection her freshman and sophomore seasons. Last year she was named SCIAC Player of the Year and an AVCA first-team All-American.
Should the Leopards run the table in the conference again, Gonzales will likely be rewarded with the same accolades. She already has 123 kills, 101 digs and 15 service aces.
Earlier this season she was named most valuable player at the Puget Sound Invitation, where three of the Leopards' wins came against nationally-ranked opponents.
Last week she became just the second player in the school's storied history to record 1,000 career kills, joining Amy Kratochvil (2001-04). Gonzales also has worked her way up to fifth on the career digs chart.
While the individual honors are nice, they aren't what drives her. It's the chance at a national championship.
She has been close. Her freshman year the Leopards made it to the Division III national semifinals before losing to eventual champion Wisconsin-Whitewater.
This this year's team seems to have all the right pieces with junior Crista Jones, second in the conference in hitting percentage, giving the Leopards another offensive threat. Junior setter Yesenia Lopez leads the conference in assists and sophomore libero Chelsea Sleight is third in digs.
If 5-foot-11 junior outside hitter Brandy Barnett is cleared to return from a knee injury, it would give the Leopards, who have appeared in eight straight regional tournaments, yet another offensive weapon.
"It's my last shot," Gonzales said. "I can't think of a better way to go out. Individual honors are nice but not many people can win a national championship. I definitely think we have the team to do that."
Michelle Gardner | reporter
Michelle Gardner has covered high school sports and local colleges for the Daily Bulletin and Sun since 2002. She previously covered a wide variety of sports from the high school level to the professional ranks in Florida with tenures at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Naples Daily News and the Fort Myers News-Press and is graduate of the University of Florida.
mgardner@scng.com
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