Notre Dame's Fowler signs to play volleyball at Murray State

Notre Dame senior Miranda Fowler got exactly what she hoped for when she signed her national letter of intent on Wednesday afternoon in her school's gym.

"I really liked Murray before so then I got the opportunity to play volleyball there, and I was super excited because that's what I wanted to do," Fowler said.

The 5-foot-11 middle hitter sent tapes of herself playing to Murray State and a couple other schools, but it was the Racers she hoped to play for.

"I didn't really want to go too far away, and so I went to the school just to look," Fowler said. "We have some friends that go there, so I'd been there a couple times. I liked it a lot. It felt like home, so it was really cool. I like the size and everything, really, about it."

The Racers finished last in the Ohio Valley Conference's West Division last season with a 6-20 overall record and 4-12 record in conference play under coach David Schwepker.

"We kind of talked with the coach a lot in October, November, and we really kind of got serious about it in November," said Fowler, who added that she went to a game and met some of players on a visit.

Fowler is a player who specializes in front-row play. She played four of six rotations for Notre Dame last season when she served and played in the front row.

"I'll be a hitter, obviously, but I do not know for sure where I'm going to be," Fowler said. "I'm just going to work hard and see wherever he tells me to go."

Fowler made rapid improvements during her high school career at Notre Dame. After not cracking the Bulldogs' loaded varsity lineup as a sophomore, she had 181 kills and a team-high 55 blocks her junior season.

"She's one of the easiest players I've ever had to coach, for one thing," Notre Dame coach Tara Stroup said. "She just learns so much. She really did a good job seeing the court, like placing the ball. She led in kills almost every game this season. She has power, but a lot of it is just smart ball placement and good leadership skills. That was a big part of it, too."

Her impact increased significantly in the fall, when she racked up 344 kills and 62 blocks as a senior during a 30-3-1 season.

"She worked really hard between her junior and senior year," Stroup said. "I think she felt more comfortable her senior year because I had six seniors last year, and they were all starters. They were comfortable because they'd played together for a long time. That was part of it, and just she got the experience playing her junior year.

"We did a weight-training program in the summer and her jump improved a little bit. She just really worked hard. It goes back to the being-coachable thing. She was at every practice ready to go, first one there. Got the nets up ready to work, so when you want to learn, you want to work, you improve pretty fast."