Kendra Rowland
Student-athlete Spotlight
Kendra Rowland digs attacks and kills.
The outside hitter started all 34 volleyball matches
for the Roadrunners in fall 2010 and led the team
in attacks (1,343) and kills (422). A 5-foot-11-inch
senior out of Deer Valley High School in Antioch,
Calif., Rowland slammed home 10 or more winners
in 27 contests while seeing action in 130 sets.
She was named the Southland Tournament's
Most Valuable Player as the Roadrunners captured
the conference championship.
Off the court, Rowland is a 3.5 GPA communications
major who has been named to the
Southland Conference's all academic squad
the past three years. After graduation? The
energetic, outgoing Rowland is decidedly undecided
about a career. Perhaps straight to a
media job. Maybe grad school in journalism. Or
even law school. "I've also considered the CIA,"
she added. "I really kind of want to be a spy."
Her guy
Rowland keeps a poster of
her favorite athlete, English
footballer David Beckham, on
her bedroom wall. "I think he's
a great solid athlete, one of the
best of his era. And of course
he's good looking, so…."
All the right moves
Dance shoes and
foot undies are
reminders of
Rowland's other
passion. If she
weren't playing
volleyball, she'd
be in a dance
studio somewhere
practicing jazz,
lyrical, modern,
hip-hop and ballet
moves. "I miss it,"
said Rowland,
who danced
throughout high
school. "I'm hopefully
going to get
back to it when
volleyball is over."
Always on
She wears three bracelets
on her right wrist—
always. One says, "I
love boobies," meant to
increase breast cancer
awareness. The others
say "Live to Love" and
"Music Saves Lives." The
only time she doesn't
wear the bracelets is during
practice and games.
She'd wear them even
then if they were allowed.
What's left?
Rowland always,
always, puts on her
left sock, left shoe
and left kneepad first.
She said it just feels
weird if she doesn't.
Eclectic collection
Rowland's iPod is packed with 8,000
songs from every genre imaginable.
Put it on shuffle and you'll hear heavy
metal, hard rock, screamo, soft rock,
opera and country. Before a big game,
she'll usually listen to a tune by metal
rockers Bullet for My Valentine.
Page-turners
Her two favorite books are
the romantic war novel Dear
John, by Nicholas Sparks, and
the classic story of childhood
loss, Where the Red Fern
Grows, by Wilson Rawls.
—Joe Michael Feist
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Sports Briefs
Volleyball
Under the direction
of head coach Laura
Neugebauer-Groff, who
will be inducted into the
San Antonio Sports Hall
of Fame in February, the
UTSA volleyball team
appeared in the NCAA
Tournament for the second
time in the program's
history and first since
2000. The Roadrunners
advanced to the NCAA
Tournament, where they
lost to Texas in the first
round, after holding off
Central Arkansas in five
sets to win the Southland
Conference Tournament
Championship.
Soccer
The Roadrunners earned
their first NCAA Tournament
berth but fell to
top seed and national
overall No. 2 seed Portland.
The team won
the Southland Conference
Tournament after
finishing third in the
conference, the highest
in school history. UTSA
finished the regular season
with a school-record
12 wins and tied their
most conference wins
mark with six. Freshman
defender Anka Grotle
was named First Team
All-Southland while senior
Chelsea Zimmerman,
senior Allison Dillon and
freshman Maria Jose
Rojas were named to
the second team. Senior
Laurel Dierking and
sophomore Dacia Webb
were named Honorable
Mention all-conference.
Cross Country
The men and women
finished third and fifth,
respectively, at this year's
Southland Conference
championships. Juniors
Cole Reveal (eighth place)
and Albert Cardenas
(ninth) and freshman
Samantha Fish (10th)
earned all-conference
honors with their
top-10 performances.
Women's Golf
Sophomore Paola Valerio
led a record-breaking outing
at the Mercedes-Benz
Collegiate Championships,
Oct. 8–10, in Knoxville,
Tenn. Valerio finished fifth
in the tournament and
broke UTSA's 18- and
54-hole scoring records,
firing a 66 and 212, respectively.
The team also
broke the school's 18- and
54-hole scores with a 287
in the final round for an
886 total.
Men's Golf
UTSA closed out the
fall season on a high
note, finishing fifth at
the Kauai Collegiate
Invitational on Oct.
24–26, in Lihue, Hawaii.
Senior Lewis Chong,
junior Payne Wilkie and
freshman Ryan Werre all
finished in a six-way tie
for 19th place.
Women's Basketball
UTSA was picked to finish
first in the Southland's
West Division by
both the league coaches
and sports information
directors. In addition,
junior guard Whitney York
was named Preseason
First Team All-Southland
while senior forward
Ashleigh Franklin and
sophomore guard/forward
Judy Jones were named
to the second team.
Men's Basketball
Senior Devin Gibson was
named to the Preseason
All-Southland Conference
First Team and the
Roadrunners were picked
to finish fourth in the
West Division by the
league's sports information
directors and fifth by
the coaches. Gibson, a
three-time all-conference
pick, enters his final campaign
with 1,104 career
points, which ranks ninth
in school history, and also
appears on five additional
UTSA career top-10 lists.
Softball
Despite being in the offseason,
the softball team
had a busy fall. Head
coach Lori Cook's squad
played four weekends
of exhibition games to
get ready for the spring
campaign. The team
also went to work off the
field, raising more than
$3,000 for the South
Central Texas Chapter
of the Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society while
participating in
the annual Light the
Night Walk in downtown
San Antonio.
UTSA to host NCAA Southwest Regional
UTSA will host the
NCAA Men's Basketball
Southwest Regional on
March 25 and 27 at
the Alamodome. This
marks the 13th NCAA
championship event,
including the fifth
men's regional, the
school has hosted
in the past 15 years.
—UTSA Athletics
Communications
