Hitting more than 1,000: Volleyball's Lauren Krupsky becomes 13th CMU player to reach milestone
It took a text from Lauren Krupsky’s mom to alert her to the milestone she had just reached.
The message congratulated the senior outside hitter for reaching 1,000 kills in her volleyball career.
Krupsky, a first-team All-Mid-American Conference honoree in 2009, notched her place in CMU history last weekend during its 3-0 sweep against Radford at the Charleston Review Invitational.
Not only did she not know she had reached that total, she said that it was something she did not pay attention to throughout the first 12 matches of the season. She began the season with 872 kills, almost half of which came last season.
“I didn’t want to know how close I was,” Krupsky said Wednesday afternoon following practice at Finch Fieldhouse. “My mom and dad knew, but I didn’t want to know I just wanted to keep playing and not think about it.”
Krupsky, who coincidentally dons the No. 13 jersey, became the 13th player in CMU history to join the 1,000 kills club. She is the third player to join the group under CMU head coach Erik Olson. Olson said the benchmark is a testament to all of her hard work and desire.
“It’s one of those things where it is just a great accolade,” Olson said. “She has been a great player over that period of time and she did a great job of getting to it early in her career.”
When Krupsky began her collegiate career in 2007, she made an immediate splash, averaging 10 kills per match and being named to the All-MAC freshman team. She went on to finish the year with 196 kills for a 2.25 kills per match average.
One benefit, Krupsky said, along the way was the influence that athletes like Whitney Evers (1,204 kills) and Kate Fissel (1,225 kills), both of whom. Both athletes played with Krupksy during the 2007-2008 season until they graduated with the eighth and seventh highest kill totals, respectively, in CMU history.
The next two seasons saw Krupsky’s kills total climb from 263 in 2008, to 413 in 2009. Part of that increase, she said, was due to the model that the two women set for her and the encouragement they provided.
“They just helped develop me to be a competitive person and encouraged me to always take those swings,” Krupsky said.
Although an important statistic, Krupsky has approached the stat in a simple way for much of here career.
“For me, it’s an everyday thing,” Krupsky said. “I love getting kills, it’s what I do. It’s just a bi-product of hard work.”
She currently ranks 91 out of 250 nationally in kills per set with an average of 3.65 per game. She also sits fifth in the MAC conference with a total of 157 kills in 43 games.
Olson said that he has been more than pleased with the performance of Krupsky and he hopes she can continue that high level of play throughout the remainder of the season.
“(Lauren) is just doing a great job for us offensively,” Olson said. “Now we just have focusing on keeping her training low in practice, so she stays healthy.”
