Brenau Volleyball Announces Latest Signee
Coach Jeff White's latest signee for his 2012 volleyball team will have to travel over 4,500 miles to report to the Golden Tigers pre-season training when camp opens in August. Ellen Lemos hails from Belo Horizonte, Brazil (often called BH), the state capital of Minas Gerais and the third largest metropolitan area in the country. However, Lemos is no stranger to long distance travel nor being away from home as she has spent her last two years as a member of the volleyball team at NCAA Division II, Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI.
Lemos developed her love for volleyball when she was 11 years old and would watch her mother play on weekends with friends. She soon began practicing with one of the most well known clubs in the area, Minas Tenis Clube, where she played until she was 17. Switching clubs at that point to Olympio Clube proved to be a good move as every tournament they played in 2009 resulted in a championship for her and the team. This followed on the heels of a third place national finish at the Brazilian high school volleyball championships in 2008!
Her choice to move to the States came largely as a result of her dream to pursue her education while still being able to play volleyball - something that would have been almost impossible in her country. At Brenau, Lemos plans to major in Interior Design - a significant reason why she chose to contact Coach White- after researching other colleges that offered the major. Further communication between her and the newly hired coach resulted in a scholarship offer and a spot on the 2012 Golden Tigers team!
Outside of volleyball, Ellen enjoys cooking, bowling and movies. Lemos readily admits that when she was younger she watched more than one foreign movie with English subtitles and attributes some of her learning of the English language from her TV and movie watching days.
Jeff White is excited about Lemos joining a team that went 12-18 in 2011 and narrowly missed the SSAC tournament, and had this to say about his most recent signee, "I am excited about Ellen transferring to Brenau University. She brings a high level of international and (NCAA) Division II experience to our roster. We are lucky to have Ellen join our team." Lemos, who is 6'0", will play as an opposite hitter on Coach White's team and is the fourth recruit he has signed in his brief, three month tenure as volleyball coach for Brenau.
Brenau opens up the 2012 volleyball season in Dayton, Tennessee with a match against fellow NAIA opponent Bryan College on August 28th. Bryan, a member of the Appalachian Athletic Conference, finished the 2011 season with an overall record of 20-19.