Oct. 4, 2005
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When you talk about Mizzou athletics and try to think of a legend for a specific sport, you come up with names like Norm Stewart for men's basketball or Kellen Winslow for football. When you think of Mizzou Volleyball, you do not quickly associate names that have legendary status, yet. If all goes as planned for senior Lindsey Hunter, she will be considered one of the first more remembered volleyball athletes to come through Columbia - not only by the Mid-Missouri community at large, but also volleyball and sport fans around the nation. Lindsey has showed off her skills for almost four years now and continues just to get better by dazzling other teams with her graceful ways of "quarterbacking" the team by setting the ball. Hunter has been racking assists for the Tigers like no one else has in the Big 12 during her tenure.
A highly touted recruit from Papillion, Neb., Lindsey was also recruited by other big name schools including the home state powerhouse of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. As a result of her coming to Mizzou, more from the state followed and came to Columbia. They came to not only just play volleyball, but because of the quality in both the players and coaches that came with. In her freshman season, Lindsey was an AVCA All-Central Region Honorable Mention selection, named as an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention, set a school record for assists in a season with 1,690, and led the Big 12 Conference and was second in the nation in assists per game with a 14.08 average. During the 2002 campaign, Hunter gave Mizzou fans a glimpse of what she was about and was later named Mizzou's "Female Athlete of the Year" by MU school newspaper, The Maneater.
The very next season Lindsey did everything the same as usual, but even better. It is an evident fact that Hunter has improved each season, but the great thing is that the stats in each specific season go up as the season progresses. She claims beating Nebraska in her sophomore season was one of her biggest thrills in her Mizzou career. On October 15, 2003, Mizzou upset the No. 8 Cornhuskers 3-2, winning after losing the first two games. Again, she led the Big 12 in assists per game with 12.29, but was now part of the All-Big 12 First Team. She got an excellent opportunity by being selected to the USA Select Team, which competed in the European Spring Cup in the Czech Republic. She was also named to the USA A2 Training Team and was named to the All-Tournament Team of USA Open Championship as part of the USA Team.
Last year, she was chosen to the AVCA's All-America Second Team, placed on the AVCA All-Central team and was a first team All-Big 12 pick for the second consecutive year. She once again led the conference for the third year in a row in assists by averaging a career-high 14.43 per game. She lead the team into the NCAA Tournament by defeating Arkansas in the first round, but just came up short to highly ranked Louisville.
This year, the Tigers are quickly off on a great foot, not losing a match, climbing their way all the way up to No. 7 in the country. Going back to her greatest career thrills, Lindsey also refers to beating Texas A&M this season down in College Station, Texas, something Mizzou has never accomplished before in their history. The team has already disposed of teams in then-No. 9 Tennessee, then-No.9 Wisconsin, Kansas State, and recently Texas Tech, which was one of the closer matches of the year. Lindsey is not interested in individual glory in her final season, but she says, "I think our team goal is to definitely make it farther than Mizzou ever has; Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four. Those are definitely way up there, but those are our goals."
From Papillion, Neb., a graduate of Papillion-LaVista High School. Hunter was named Nebraska Volleyball Gatorade Player of the Year in 2001. Student Sports Magazines and Volleyball Magazines dubbed her a high school All-American. She was then named a Fab 50 Recruit by Volleyball Magazine and was a preseason All-American by Studentsports.com. When it did come to recruiting, Lindsey simply puts it by stating, "I knew it when I came here; it fit. The coaches, the players, the campus, the academics, the facilities; everything was just what I was looking for."
While being a student at Mizzou, Lindsey has majored in business administration. She has twice been named to the Big 12 All-Academic team in 2003 and 2004. Though, she will receive her diploma in May in probably a marketing focused business degree, Hunter has decided to continue her volleyball career by taking the level much higher. She has expressed her desire to play internationally with the USA national team and hopes she can make it all the way to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. This will take place immediately as Lindsey says, "I'm leaving right after I graduate in May."
When she leaves the team, she will be sorely missed not just by the coaches, players, and whoever else is an integral part in the program, but by the fans that have seen her play for the last few seasons. Lindsey has conducted herself, as any other athletic role model should, on and off the court. Her teammates hold her in high regard because of her leadership and encouraging attitude toward not just volleyball, but in all aspects of life. Lindsey Hunter is a local legend in her own time in volleyball and will go on to continue playing the game with her cool way of setting up the kill.