LINK - ASHLAND UNIVERSITY HALL OF FAME PAGE
LINK - HALL OF FAME INDUCTION/BRUNCH TICKETS
Lynsey Warren is the latest – and quite possibly one the last – two-sport athlete to be inducted into the Ashland University Hall of Fame.
Warren maintains her position as the best setter in Eagle volleyball history, while also playing three seasons on the AU women's basketball team – and participating in five NCAA Division II postseasons overall.
"I would say that it was always about the love of both sports," said Warren, who will be inducted into the AU Hall of Fame on Oct. 12. "I enjoyed immensely competing on the volleyball court and the basketball court. Beyond that love for both sports was the opportunity from my coaches, and the connection with my teammates."
Warren continues to be Ashland volleyball's all-time leader in assists with 5,610, as well as the program's single-season (1,520) and single-match (71, twice) leader in helpers.
"That was all my teammates," said Warren. "I put the ball up, and that was a lot of prep work from my coaches…time with them, and game-planning with them. Really, it was all them, all my teammates. I could not have had any record without them. I put the ball in the air, and they did the rest."
She also is third all-time in service aces with 217.
During Warren's four seasons from 2004-07, Ashland played in the D-II postseason each year, and finished with an aggregate record of 98-32 (.754).
"It was amazing," Warren said. "It has molded me tremendously as a person and as a coach. We fought so much, we fought so hard for that and we earned it. It was about our coaches having a purpose for everything. There was an amazing amount of buy-in…that belief just continued to soar when we had forward progress."
As a basketball player, Warren played during the 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. In 80 games, she recorded 592 points, 467 rebounds and 90 steals.
Warren also spent one season as a graduate assistant coach for the Eagle women's basketball team.
So why did Warren end up playing both sports collegiately?
"I blame my mother for that," she said. "She put a bug in my ear about, 'Don't you miss basketball?' She enjoyed volleyball, but came winter-time, she was there to watch us play basketball. She thought it was a thing, and I had to try to quiet that for a while. It's an all-year thing and a full-time thing, then basketball came around. Our teams were very close – the volleyball teams and basketball teams spent a lot of time together.
"Watching them was a lot of fun. So my mom was asking me…my friends were basketball players, and they were good. I thought, 'Well, maybe I could try.' It took a lot of effort. For the amount of commitment that was necessary, a full season, it's a big time for development out of season, so that was a difficult time when I was away for basketball. I'm very fortunate to have it work out the way it did."
In volleyball, Warren garnered two All-American (third-team in 2007, honorable mention in 2006), three all-region and two first-team All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference awards. Warren was the region's Freshman of the Year in 2004, was Academic All-District in 2007 and All-GLIAC Academic in 2006. In basketball, Warren earned second-team All-GLIAC recognition as a senior, and was All-GLIAC Academic twice.
Warren also has the distinction of being Ashland's first female GLIAC Commissioner's Award recipient.
As for when Warren returns to campus and is in the Faculty Room at the John C. Myers Convocation Center for induction, she said it will be an emotional day.
"It gets me choked up," she said. "It's very exciting. It's an honor. I think for everybody in my class, it was never anybody's intention to be recognized. It's wonderful. It's awesome."
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