Brown finding success on the court

As one of two seniors on the 2018 edition of the Southern Illinois Salukis, Patience Brown has been a solid contributor to the program since she transferred in from Akron last summer.

What is more amazing about Brown's journey?

A 5-foot-10 middle blocker, Brown didn't begin playing volleyball until seventh grade, when a friend encouraged her to take up the sport because of her height.

"I knew one of the girls who was trying out and she told me, "you're tall so you should try out"," Brown said. "So I did and I made the seventh grade team and have kept with it ever since."

As a senior at University High School in Bloomington, Ill., Brown helped U High go 22-13 and, in the process, earned interest from the likes of Akron, Southeast Missouri and Ohio University. She chose Akron, where she put down 341 kills and tallied 117 total blocks in 50 matches during her two seasons as a Zip. Akron, however, was nearly a seven hour drive home for the Bloomington, Ill. native, and following her sophomore season, decided it was time to move back to the Land of Lincoln.

"My sophomore year at Akron we didn't have great team chemistry," Brown said. "I wanted a new team dynamic and to be closer to home."

Kari Thompson was all too eager to oblige Brown's request to get closer to home and made the six-rotation middle hitter her first signee as Saluki head coach. What Brown didn't realize was that her former AAU teammate from their days playing for the Illini Elite Volleyball Club, setter Rachel Maguire, had also signed with the Salukis.

"I kinda got lucky with Rachel," Brown said with a smile. "I had known her for a while and we played club volleyball together so that was kind of a perfect match for me to come here. I didn't even know Rachel was coming here until the week before I transferred."

The two almost instantly picked up where they had left off during their prep careers. Consider- of Brown's 170 kills last season in which an assist was recorded on, nearly 63% (107) came off a set by Maguire. In back-to-back wins over Valparaiso (9/25) and Evansville (9/29), Maguire and Brown connected for 23 kills, including 13 in Southern's 3-1 win over the Crusaders.

Brown went on to finish sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference in hitting percentage (.292), led the Salukis in blocks (.85/set) and was second on the team in kills (2.09/set) en route to being named to the All-MVC second team.

Her goals for 2018 are simple- get on the All-MVC first team, and in the process, help SIU finish in the top-6 of the MVC and play at least one more match in front of her hometown faithful at the 2018 MVC Tournament in November, hosted by Illinois State.

"Last year I was on the All-MVC second team so I want to be a first teamer this year and I want to help our team make it to the conference tournament," Brown said.

With a front row anchored by Brown, who recorded at least one block in 24 of the 25 matches she played in last season, Southern needed to shore up it's back row defense in the offseason. Enter nine newcomers, including junior college transfer Laura Rojas, who recorded 393 digs in her two seasons as a defensive specialist at Hillsborough Community College.

The addition of Rojas, as well as the maturation of Southern's young core, has Brown believing this year's team is poised for a big breakthrough.

"This year we have a really good defense," Brown said. "Laura has helped us a lot and Alison (Thomas) has gotten a lot better and should be on the court quite a bit too. We have a better defense and our setters have gotten more mature too so that will also make a big difference."

After graduation, Brown hopes to attain an internship in the human resources department of the bank that her mother works at in Chicago, Ill.

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Patience Brown

Rachel Maguire

Laura Rojas

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