Aims to make the most of her senior season
Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) Beach Volleyball player Adrienne Vanbrunt has bumped, set and spiked her way to senior superiority.
For the past five seasons, Vanbrunt has been hard at work, from starting day one as a walk-on to being one of the best on the team.
However, Vanbrunt’s volleyball journey didn’t just start in college; in fact, volleyball runs in her DNA.
Vanbrunt’s mom played collegiate volleyball and started the first club volleyball team in Corpus Christi.
Vanbrunt started her volleyball career at just nine years old playing club volleyball all the way to high school.
Once Vanbrunt got to high school she was a four-year varsity volleyball player and along with her indoor play, she began playing tournaments at a local Corpus Christi beach.
That’s where Head Coach Gary Payne first noticed Vanbrunt.
“I saw her play at a tournament in Corpus with some older people and it was just something I was like, I think she could play here,” Payne said.
Coach Payne understood though that playing small tournaments in Corpus was a lot different than playing college athletes.
“It was a struggle at first going from playing against older men and women, that kind of knew how to play beach, to playing college athletes, but she embraced it pretty well from the beginning and just got better every single year,” Payne said.
Once Vanbrunt got to TAMUK that’s where she met her roommate and fellow Beach Volleyball player Rylie Anderson.
Anderson has seen Vanbrunt improve in so many ways from when they met to now, and she relies on her every day in life and in practice.
“She’s getting her foundation under her, but she was a baby giraffe. She has grown into her body a little bit but she’s come a long way, And, she’s my person I lean on all the time,” Anderson said.
Both Vanbrunt and Anderson were honored together on the teams Senior Night.
Vanbrunt has had her fair share of experiences in her five seasons from new head coaches to playing Olympic teams.
Her favorite memory was one of a kind.
“My fondest memory is when we played TCU, of all things, because I got to play the number one team in Spain, like they’re number in their country, and they are going to the Olympics.” Vanbrunt said.
Vanbrunt plans to go out into the working world and conquer it just like she’s done the beach volleyball scene.
Now that Vanbrunt’s final season has started it is already shaping up to be a successful one starting out 4-0.
