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July 19, 2009

Jasmine Brown

Natalie Guerra

Rebekah Smith

Emily Steinbeck

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee volleyball team and Head Coach Rob Patrick announced the addition of four players, including three freshmen and a transfer, to the 2009 roster on Sunday. Emily Steinbeck, a 5-8 setter from Tennessee-Martin, defensive specialist/setter Jasmine Brown from Chattanooga, Tenn., outside hitter/defensive specialist Rebekah Smith from Memphis and setter Natalie Guerra from Santa Barbara, Calif., finalize the 2009 recruiting class for the Lady Volunteers.

"The biggest attribute for this class is depth," Patrick said. "We have brought some highly skilled and athletic players into our program that will really provide tremendous competition in both our practices and matches. To be able to bring in two more native Tennesseans is also a huge positive for this class and shows how the sport has grown throughout the state in recent years."

Joining the Lady Vols after spending two seasons at Tennessee-Martin, Steinbeck accumulated a total of 1,291 assists during her time as a Skyhawk. As a sophomore in 2008, she recorded a team-high 879 assists as the team's primary setter, in addition to notching 14 double-doubles, 247 digs and 35 blocks. She also had three matches in which she tallied 50 or more assists and finished with totals of 55 kills and 34 aces in her two years at UTM.

A native of Arlington Heights, Ill., Steinbeck prepped at Hersey High School where she was a three-sport athlete, playing volleyball, softball and basketball. On the volleyball court, she helped lead the Huskies to the 2004 Illinois State Tournament Elite Eight, earning honorable mention all-area honors in the process. She was named to the all-area team once again as a junior in 2005, as she helped her squad claim Mid-Suburban League (MSL), and regional titles. During her senior season, Steinbeck picked up all-area and all-conference accolades, while pacing the Huskies to an MSL East and regional championships once again.

Steinbeck also spent time with a number of club teams, playing libero for the Rolling Thunder Club Team in 2003 and as the setter for the Sky High Club in 2005 and 2006. As a captain for Sky High, she helped the squad win the Far Western Reno Qualifier and finish 10th at nationals in 2005.

"Emily is n athletic, physical setter, who has been very productive at UT-Martin over the last two seasons," Patrick said. "She will come in and immediately provide us with a physical presence at the setter position. She is quick, accustomed to hard work and is somebody that has the personality and work ethic of the type of player that we like to have setting for us. Both she and Kelsey Mahoney will provide us with a lot of experience and talent at the setter position and we are excited about the flexibility that having both of them in our program gives us offensively."

One of two in-state products set to join the Big Orange this fall, Brown is a 5-8 defensive specialist and setter from Chattanooga. The recent graduate from Girls Preparatory School was a multi-sport star in high school, lettering in volleyball and track. As a setter and outside hitter for the Bruisers volleyball team, Brown led the squad to back-to-back Division II-AA state titles during her junior and senior seasons, earning all-tournament team honors in 2007 and most valuable player accolades in 2008. During her senior season alone, Brown recorded 1,186 assists, 617 digs, 418 kills, 111 blocks and 108 service aces en route to highest honorable mention designation on PrepVolleyball.com's high school All-America team.

In addition to her exploits on the hardwood, Brown was also a standout performer for the GPS track team. As a senior, she claimed the Division II triple-jump title, finished second in the state in the pentathlon and earned third and fifth-place finishes in the 100m and 300m hurdle events.

"Jasmine may be one of the most athletic players on our team the moment she walks in the door," Patrick said. "She has a wide range of athletic abilities, as shown by her prowess in both volleyball and track and field during her high school career. Although she will be behind a little bit experience-wise, I think that her athleticism will allow her to catch up quickly. I'm very excited to get her in the gym, so that we can help her improve skill-wise, and feel that she will develop into a player that will be able to help us at both the defensive specialist and setting positions."

Joining Brown and redshirt freshman DeeDee Harrison as native Tennesseans on the 2009 Lady Vol roster will be Smith, a 5-11 outside hitter and defensive specialist from Memphis, who holds the Tennessee state record for most kills in a high school career with 2,560. A 2008 PrepVolleyball.com High School All-American, Smith heads to Rocky Top following a highly decorated prep career. The three-time first team all-state selection played for University School in Jackson, Tenn., for two seasons before moving to Memphis where she competed on the Hutchison H.S. squad.

Named the MVP for Hutchison in both her junior and senior years, Smith led her team to back-to-back third-place finishes in the state tournament. She was also selected to play for the 2007 USA Youth National A-2 Training Team in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and participated in the USA Volleyball Holiday Camp at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., that same year. Following her senior campaign, Smith was named the 2008 "Best of the Preps" volleyball player by the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

"Rebekah played a lot of outside hitter and was one of the main passers on her club team," Patrick said. "She was one of the better players in the city of Memphis, as well as the state of Tennessee, as evidenced by her long list of accolades. She will be able to come in, provide depth at the outside hitter position and vie for playing time as a defensive specialist. Even though she is only listed at 5-11, she has the athletic ability to contact the ball at a high point, so she will be able to help us in the front row.

"As she gains strength and knowledge of our offense, we may provide her with a bigger role offensively, but, at the beginning of her career, we will really focus on having her help us in the back row. She has some good skills and is already pretty advanced defensively. To have somebody in the back row as tall as Rebekah is will give us the ability to cover more court and improve our overall team defense. She also has a very good jump serve which we are looking forward to using as a weapon for our team."

A 5-6 setter, Guerra will travel to Rocky Top from Santa Barbara, Calif., where she recently led her high school to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division I-A championship and was named the CIF Southern Section (SS) Division I Co-Player of the Year. In addition, Guerra took home CIF SS Division I and Channel League First Team honors during both her junior and senior seasons and was selected to the all-tournament team at the 2008 Dave Moh Memorial Classic.

As a member of the Santa Barbara Volleyball Club, Guerra paced the 18-Blue squad to the MLKSpeakEasy title last January and a runner-up placement in the National Gold Division at the Junior Olympics in Miami, Fla., earlier this month. In 2008, she helped the 18-Elite team tie for fifth at the Junior Olympics in Dallas, Texas.

"Natalie has played a lot of club volleyball at a very high level," Patrick said. "A lot of her club teammates have been recruited by some of the top schools as well, so she has played with some very talented players which should help her transition into our program in terms of getting up to speed with some of the athletic hitters that we have. She is somebody that can make all of the sets, will add depth this year and, as she gains strength and experience in our system, will be a player that can really help us to continue to be a successful program."

Tennessee will host the Comcast Lady Vol Classic, Aug. 29-30, to open the 2009 campaign. UT will kick off the season with a pair of matches against NCAA Tournament teams on the first day of the tournament, as it will take on Tennessee Tech at Noon and Western Kentucky at 7 p.m. The Big Orange will close out the competition at 2:30 p.m. the following day against Lipscomb.