"It's great to be selected for this profile, but what I really want to know is — who do I have to talk to to get nominated for the 'Princeton Hotties' feature article?" senior middle blocker Alex Brown asked with a grin. Her sense of humor about the interview is characteristic of the sensible approach she takes toward more important things too, like schoolwork and volleyball.
Although balancing courses and the rigors of daily training may sound overwhelming to those of us who are not varsity athletes, Brown views her commitments from a broader perspective.
"I feel like everyone at school has something that they do and mine just happens to be volleyball," she said. "It's a time commitment, but those kinds of time commitments help us stay structured and balanced.
"Although you have to make choices, you have to find what you want to do. You can't do everything, so you have to choose. There is some stuff I wish there were just more hours in the day to do, but I feel like that's the same way with everybody."
As an ecology and evolutionary biology major who spent last semester in Panama, she seems to be taking full advantage of the academic opportunities provided.
"I loved it. It added to the Princeton experience."
Women's volleyball is mostly a fall sport, but the team does have practice in the spring. And although she is an integral part of the team, both players and coach were supportive of her plans to go abroad.
"Our spring season is a little less intense, so the team was encouraging," she explained. "And I had plenty of time over the summer to get back into the groove."
Despite her semester-long hiatus from volleyball, her enthusiasm about it is obvious. And although she is a California native, the cradle of beach volleyball, her interest in the sport was sparked in a surprisingly routine way.
"I started in P..E. class in junior high," she said, "and eventually started in the club volleyball scene in high school because my friends were getting into it and I liked it enough to want to play it all year long."
Ideally, Brown will be playing volleyball for years to come. There was a time when she talked of going on tour for the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) with mock sincerity, but now she is seriously considering the option. Her future volleyball plans include teammate Lauren Grumet.
"We were playing some beach volleyball this summer and we decided that we would possibly pursue it," Brown explained. "We're going to go on tour. It was a joke but now I'm saying it as yes."
In spite of her big dreams, Brown has no delusions about the tour.
"All the women on the AVP are Pac-10, All-American — just really good at volleyball and have been on the national team for a couple years, but whether we make it or not, we're still going to be beach bums together," she said with a smile.
Her AVP hopes will have to wait another year, however.
"I will definitely work for the year that my teammate is still in college. When she graduates we might hit the beach and take our training more seriously."
For now she is content to enjoy her final season playing indoor volleyball as a Tiger. Reminiscing on her Princeton career, Brown recalls one of her favorite moments. It was the final match of last season and the Tigers had to beat Penn at the Palestra in order to get a bid to the NCAA tournament. The Tigers, unfortunately, lost the match.
"We organized three fan buses to come to the game and it was so much fun to see this sea of orange come into the Palestra," she said. "It was great having fans there and, win or lose, they had a great time, and we had a great time."
Even though she is on the court and the fans are in the stands, in many ways she does not consider herself to be any different from anyone else on campus.
"I love being a student athlete because I love my sport and I love what I do, but it's no different than someone who loves acting or writing."
Always humble, and always working toward her goals — perhaps that 'Princeton Hotties' award isn't far off.
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