Oct. 14, 2005

Throughout her career, Tiger middle-blocker Lisa Boyd has been stellar both on and off the court for Mizzou, adding tough and consistent play up the middle and scoring multiple Academic All-Big 12 honors.

When she was a young girl, Boyd first played basketball and ran track, but eventually found volleyball to be her favorite sport.

"I had played basketball since I was little," Boyd said. "In third grade, we had to write down what our favorite things were, and after I saw volleyball for the first time I put it down."

Boyd played volleyball in high school at Farmington High School in Farmington, Mo., where she excelled as a three-sport athlete, earning all-conference and all-district honors in volleyball, basketball and track. Her favorite part of high school volleyball was winning districts.

"When we won districts we always played a team from St. Louis," Boyd said. "We would get a pile of girls in my car and drive up to St. Louis to watch their districts and scout them. It's different volleyball between the south and St. Louis; it was fun trying to adjust to their game."

Being a three sport athlete helped Boyd greatly in her volleyball game . "Track and basketball both helped me a lot," Boyd said. "Basketball helped me because of the jumping of the game and keeping me in shape. Running track really helped me with quickness. When I started track season and was playing club volleyball, I could tell I was quicker."

Boyd was recruited by several schools including SMS (now Missouri State) and Murray State, but only visited Saint Louis University and Mizzou. As soon as Boyd visited Mizzou, she knew it was the place for her.

"Mizzou was the first visit I went on and I loved it," Boyd said. "As soon as I got into the car I told my parents that I wanted to go to Mizzou. Everything here was great, the academic support, the coaches, the team and the promise the team had. I knew we were going to be awesome in a few years."

The Tigers lived up to that promise during Boyd's first year on campus, experiencing through a red-shirt season. Boyd said that red-shirting her first year greatly improved her game.

"My freshman year, I just wasn't ready," Boyd said. "I had never played at such a high level; my high school wasn't that high of a level and neither was my club team. Playing here was completely different; it took me a year to adjust to it."

Red-shirting was also a great decision for Boyd because she is able to play this year, her fifth at Mizzou.

"I would have been so mad if I was done and couldn't play this season," Boyd said. "This year has been so great. We've had so many great games; beating Tennessee in three, sweeping Wisconsin was great and beating Kansas State in three - we hadn't beaten them since I've been here. I'm very happy to be a part of it."

While this year has been amazing for Boyd and the Tigers, Boyd's favorite moment of her career did not come this year but came October 15, 2003, when the Tigers upset Nebraska, 3-2, in Lincoln.

"Every single emotion in me was so charged up," Boyd said. "It was probably the best night I've ever had playing."

For this season, Boyd says the team wants to win the conference and go far in the postseason.

"We're on track to win the conference," Boyd said. "We need to go to Nebraska and beat them at their place and then take care of business in the conference. We ultimately want to make the Final Four, but we'll take it one step at a time."

Boyd is majoring in personal business financing and will be graduating in May of 2006.