SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: Katie Luckman

"Everyone has a role, whether it is on the court or off."

No one approaches the game of volleyball with a team-first mentality more than senior outside hitter Katie Luckman.

"Sometimes a right side, sometimes a left, and sometimes a defensive specialist, Katie always puts 100 percent of herself into whatever could help the team," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said.

Although her time on the court has tapered off a bit in the last couple of years, Luckman still remains one of the most intense and vocal leaders on the team.

"I'm pretty vocal," said the Villa Hills, Ky., native. "I see the game pretty well and I understand what's going on. I want everyone else to feel the way I feel about it. Feel that passion and adrenaline that I do. Everyone has a role, whether it is on or off the court."

Luckman, much like fellow senior Sarah Gardner, had a family connection to former Samford head volleyball coach Michelle Durban. Luckman' sister played high school volleyball with Durban. A chance reunion at a tournament in Orlando gave Durban her first look at Luckman. The Samford coach was impressed and began the recruiting process. Eventually, Luckman visited Samford and was immediately offered a spot on the team.

"We took some time to think about it, but if just felt too right to say no," Luckman said. "They had everything I wanted."

Luckman was an immediate contributor to the Bulldog dynamic as a freshman. She saw action in 29 out of 30 matches that year and recorded her first double-double in Samford's first home match of the season against now conference rival Chattanooga. She even stepped in as setter for one set against Kennesaw State when Jackie Jaszcz was sidelined by a knee injury.

However, probably her most defining moment came in the last set of the last match of her sophomore season. It also stands out as her most memorable moment here at Samford.

It was Samford's final season in the Ohio Valley Conference and the Bulldogs were closing out play at home on opening weekend of the Pete Hanna Center. It had been Samford's best season yet; the first winning season in the history of the program. The Bulldogs had just beaten Eastern Kentucky for the first time ever the night before and now stood one point away from sweeping Morehead State, who was ranked second in the conference.

In a match that saw the Bulldogs win the first set, 30-25, and then the second set by a score of 37-35, Samford had trailed the Eagles the whole third set. When the Bulldogs tied the score at 30 on a kill by Sheriden Stangohr, the excitement of the crowd increased immensely. Samford took its first lead of the set on another kill by Stangohr before Luckman stepped behind the line to serve for match point.

"I remember serving the last ball into the sunbeam shining down from the windows in the fitness room of Pete Hanna," Luckman said. "I served it right in the middle of the court because the sun was right there and was like, `She's not going to be able to pass this.' And she missed it! I remember being like, `We just won!'"

Since then, shades have been installed in the windows of the fitness center.

Luckman will graduate in 2012 with a doctor of pharmacy degree. She had been told all her life that she could not let her mind be wasted because she was so good at sciences. Her mother wanted her to be a doctor, but there was just one problem.

"Well, I don't get along really well with blood," Luckman said. "I hate it. It makes me pretty squeamish."

Still, science has always come pretty easily to Luckman, especially chemistry. But her favorite part of pharmacy isn't the science. It is the connections that she is able to make with patients.
"I just really like shooting the breeze with people," Luckman said.

Luckman is a people person. Her bright personality is just one thing that makes her uniquely Katie Luckman. She is also very focused and intense.

"Whatever I do, I want to do right," Luckman said. "I would hope that people would see that as something that is uniquely me."

That approach is a solid step in the right direction on the road to a successful life.