Lang caps off volleyball career as Tech's 2009 NCAA Woman of the Year
Senior setter Kappy Lang has capped off her Golden Eagle volleyball career by being named as Tennessee Tech's 2009 NCAA Woman of the Year.
By Thomas Corhern Cookeville Herald-Citizen
Sports
COOKEVILLE — It’s not easy being a collegiate
student-athlete. With long schedules of classes, workouts,
studying, work, more studying, then playing their sport, it gets to
be a grind.
But there are those student-athletes who go above and beyond just
their required duties. There are those who give back to their
adoptive communities and try to make a difference. Those senior
athletes are recognized every year by Tennessee Tech with the
University’s Man and Woman of the Year awards.
This year’s recipient of the Woman of the Year award,
volleyball standout Katherine “Kappy” Lang, was
tireless in her efforts.
Not only was she an all-Ohio Valley Conference honoree for the
league champion Golden Eagle volleyball team, she was also an
excellent student in the classroom. Then, as president of the
Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Lang helped spearhead several
community service initiatives.
Needless to say, Lang proved the perfect example for what it truly
means to be a student-athlete.
Lang is the sixth recipient of the award from the Tech volleyball
program, joining Bonnie Zoss (1993), Rachel Melchiorre (1998),
Diane Seng (2000), Laura Sidorowicz (2005) and Anne Morrow
(2006).
“I’m just very honored,” Lang said. “I
always looked up to Laura (Sidorowicz), so I think it’s a
very big deal to follow in her footsteps and be as successful as
some of the older girls were. They were role models to us and we
always wanted to leave the program in better shape then when we
started. We seniors did that and I’m very honored.”
Lang beat out another strong field of candidates which included
volleyball teammate Jessica Asplund; Blair Bowens, Meagan Lyons and
Allison Price from basketball; Keri Light and Stephanie Place from
cross country and track; Madison Denman and Ashley Spangler from
golf; Kristina Hortert from softball; and Katie Morrissey from
soccer.
“It’s well-deserved recognition for Kappy,” said
TTU volleyball coach John Blair. “Kappy was much more than a
volleyball player her four years here.”
Being able to balance all of those elements is a tough task for
any student-athlete.
“It really is,” Lang said. “But it is very
worthwhile to give back to the community that supported us. It made
the experience much better because we got to meet more people in
the community.”
A typical day for Lang when she was in season went like this:
“We’d get up and have morning classes,” Lang
said. “We’d have weights at 11, then more classes.
Every Tuesday, I’d have Beta Alpha Psi, which is an
accounting club. If I had a meeting, I’d go to weights in the
morning. I’d have to coordinate with (strength) coach (Chip)
Pugh and Katie (Sutherland), and they were always willing to work
with me. Then we’d have practice. Certain days it was earlier
when girls would have labs on other days, but practice usually
lasted two and a half hours. I’d get there early, get
stretched, get taped. I’d get home around 9 p.m. and do
homework, then go to bed around 11 or 12, then turn around and do
it all again.”
Lang completed her bachelor’s degree in accounting in May
with a 3.73 GPA, and is set to begin her master’s program in
the fall.
One of the things stressed in the Tech athletics department is
that it’s not just athletes, but student-athletes. Academics
are just as important as the results on the court.
“That’s exactly true,” Lang said. “Coming
in, you’ve got to know you can’t focus on just
athletics and your sport alone. Teachers don’t care if you
won your game last night, you still have to get your homework done,
do well in classes. I knew that once I graduated there’s no
pro volleyball team, and my grades mattered to me. That’s
what was going to get me to the next level. I got into DePaul and
that’s where I’m going in September to get my
master’s. But it was always important to me to stay with my
classes and make sure I got everything done and I succeeded with
that.”
On the court, Lang led the Ohio Valley Conference in assists with
1,274 for the year, 1.2 more per game than her nearest
competitor.
With her leadership, Lang helped lead the Golden Eagles to their
first OVC regular-season championship since 1983 — tying with
Morehead State — and tournament championship since 1997.
Tech made its first trip to the NCAA volleyball tournament since
that same year and became the first OVC team since 2000 to win a
set in the tournament.
“Big matches are her stage,” Blair said. “They
always have been. She wasn’t a gamer, because she worked hard
all the time. When it came to a big match, there seemed to be a
certain calmness that came about her, an intensity that was there.
She is like a Joe Montana-type that when the game was there, the
focus was almost palpable. There wasn’t a big match in her
career that she didn’t play up or beyond her
abilities.”
Then, on top of all the athletic and academic accomplishments,
Lang was a major player in the Tech athletics community service
scene, serving as president for SAAC.
“Some of the older girls were in it,” Lang said.
“Jess Seyfert was president one year and I just followed her.
I was always active in high school, and I always felt that it was a
better way to get to know people. You got to know the campus and
it’s people a lot better. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed being busy
and active. It was a great experience.”
Among the initiatives Lang worked on this past year was assistance
at Mustard Seed Ranch.
“Teams that were in season could donate time,” Lang
said. “Some teams donated crayons and markers for the kids
that were staying there.
“We also collected change and cans for our annual canned
food drive, but we always tried to change up the project during the
year. My junior year, we worked with Genesis House, so it was
usually different every year.”
“She was kind of that model what a student-athlete should
be,” Blair said. “She didn’t get involved with
community service projects because that was what she was supposed
to do. She did that because that was what she wanted to do. When
she came here, she came from a high school and a community that
really stressed that, so it was kind of a natural transition for
her to just be involved with everything.
"To be honest, that’s what she sought out. She really looked
at Tennessee Tech because it offered her the opportunity to do
those things, to be involved with the community, to have a personal
life, to compete on a balanced stage where she would have a chance
at success on the court. She also recognized the educational
opportunity she had at Tech. When you combine all of those things
together, it’s hard for her not to think that this was the
place to be.”
Historically at Tech, volleyball has always had exemplary academic
success and that tradition has not receded.
“It has,” Blair said, “and if you look at our
program, I don’t think you’re going to see anything
different from other programs around the country, let alone the
OVC. Every team in the conference, whether they’ve been able
to win the conference or not, has had grat student athletes."
