Q&A: Volleyball player named female Greatest Greyhound

In the words of Adam Pitterman, Eastern New Mexico University’s director of athletic communications, “it is an athlete of the year award and definitely one of the most time honored traditions the department has.”

This year, fifth-year senior Jeremy Buurma and junior Lauren Frye were selected as the male and female recipients of this award, and both will be officially honored at the ENMU Athletics Hall of honors banquet on Oct. 15 at the Campus Union Building.

Frye

As a junior last season, Frye racked up 496 kills — an unreturnable spike — to give her a 1,149 for her volleyball career and become just the fifth Greyhound to join the 1,000 kill club. The all-time record for kills in a career was set by Christabell Mariner, who played 1999-2002 with 1,695. In addition to climbing up the leaderboard for the school, Frye became the first non-senior from ENMU to earn First Team All-Lone Star Conference (LSC) honors since the 2004 season.

It is very rare for a junior to receive this award. What does getting this award as a junior mean to you?

It means I still have another year left, so I have to maintain the standard I’ve had so far. You get (the award) as a senior that’s great, because you’re finished (with school), but I still have a year left. It encourages me to make this year even better than last year.

Thoughts on the chance to break the kill record during this season.

Even last year, I had no idea where I was with the school record. One of the assistant coaches told me how close I was to the record. I didn’t believe it. I was like “are you kidding?” I feel pretty confident that I can get the record, but I don’t want to jinx it. It’s definitely one of my goals for myself.

Hopes for this season as a team.

My hopes are always high. So a conference title is what I want. But I always feel like you have to start small. We only graduated one senior last year, so our team is basically the same. I want us to have a much better win-loss record first. Focus on beating the team at the top of our conference and do well in the LSC afterwards.

Thoughts on Buurma getting the male Greatest Greyhound.

He’s been the quarterback since my freshman year. He’s been the face of the football team for me. I know all the guys look up to this man. He’s been a great leader and all the male athletes look up to him.

— Compiled by Staff Writer Matthew Asher