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The Bob Jones University Bruins women’s volleyball team secured their third consecutive NCCAA DII National Championship last week. The Bruins beat Dallas Christian College in a five-set thriller.
To celebrate this accomplishment, I invited two of the key players from that team — Victoria Glaze and Brittany Annand — to my office to talk about not only their volleyball experience, but also their educational experience at BJU.
After you listen to the episode, be sure to subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts. That way, you’ll never miss another episode.
Transcript for National Champions Bruins Volleyball Players
This transcript has been edited for ease of reading.
(Music)
Rumpf: Welcome to Highest Potential with Dr. Steve Pettit, a podcast that explores how Bob Jones University empowers individuals to reach their highest potential for God’s glory.
(Music)
Pettit: Well, what an incredible conclusion to a great volleyball season on Friday night, when our girls – ladies volleyball team played, and they defeated Dallas Christian College. And so today I thought it would just be awesome to have two of our players come and talk to us about the team and their experience in playing for Coach Vicki Denny.
So, today we have Victoria Glaze. She is a sophomore from Twin Falls, Idaho. She’s an engineering major. And Victoria came on the team last year – this year she’s one of our two girls that were first in all-American.
And then we have with us Miss Brittany Annand, and Brittany is a senior. She is sort of the center of the team as the setter, and I love watching her play with her ponytails and her stomping the floor when they get a good score. She’s from Fort Myers, Florida, and she is studying interior design, graduating this year.
So, girls, thank you for being here today.
Glaze/Annand: Thank you for having us./Yeah, thank you.
Pettit: Yeah, we’re delighted that you’re here.
So, just a little background. So, we’ll start with you, Brittany. Tell us a little bit about your background, where you’re from, and then tell us when you started playing volleyball.
Annand: OK. Well, I’m from Fort Myers, Florida, which most people are like, where is that? It’s about three hours south of Orlando, it’s down towards the bottom of Florida, so it’s very hot. But I started playing volleyball for a small Christian high school, and we kind of played like bump, bump, bump, back and forth. It wasn’t really a big deal, but we played outside on asphalt.
Pettit: It wasn’t serious.
Annand: It wasn’t too serious, no. And then we actually played a high school team, and someone saw me – one of the coaches saw me and was like, Hey, I want to make something out of you, basically. And basically, pulled me out and put me into his club team, and then someone recruited me from that club team and put me into full-blown club volleyball and normal volleyball.
Pettit: So, in the volleyball world, is club bigger than high school teams?
Annand: Oh yeah. For sure.
Pettit: So, club is the pathway to really getting good.
Annand: For sure.
Pettit: And so, what club did you play for?
Annand: I played for three different clubs – I kind of rotated around. I played for Florida Conqueror, Heatwave and then Adrenaline.
Pettit: OK.
Annand: Which, they just kind of switched names and then other ones were, another one was just one of my old friends, he coaches the paralympics varsity team.
Pettit: OK, super. So Victoria, you’re like from the other side of the world, You’re from where again?
Glaze: I’m from Twin Falls, Idaho.
Pettit: Twin Falls, Idaho, which is in the middle of nowhere.
Glaze: Yep. Pretty much.
Pettit: Way out there. So, tell us a little bit about your background.
Glaze: OK, so I started playing volleyball probably when I was about in fifth grade, because I have two older sisters that I was always trying to follow in their footsteps. So, when they started playing, I really got interested in it, and I wanted to do exactly what they were doing. So, I started playing for my little Christian middle school team when I was in about fifth grade, and then in high school I played for a club again. And then that’s how I got recruited by Coach.
Pettit: It was in club volleyball.
Glaze: Yeah.
Pettit: OK, great. OK, tell us how you got connected with Bob Jones University. Brittany?
Annand: So, I grew up with a really, really funny story. I never was looking at Bob Jones, but both my parents went here. Mom went through high school and my dad was actually born on campus – Barge baby.
Pettit: Oh wow.
Annand: Yeah, so my grandparents also went here. But I wasn’t looking here because you guys don’t do scholarships for sports.
Pettit: Right.
Annand: And I was really hoping after like for volleyball – it’s not very inexpensive, it’s pretty expensive, I wanted to get a scholarship basically to pay off my parents, to help them out and then to help me out with schooling. And when I say Bob Jones wasn’t on my list, I never had it in the back of my head, but I never tried anything for it.
And then one day I was waiting for two letters to come back for scholarship money, and I said, “OK, Lord, whichever one is more, that’s where you want me to go.” And both of them came out the exact same. It was like instantly I didn’t have any connection to either school, and I was like, “All right, that’s not where God wants me to go.” And I was sitting in my car one day waiting to pick up my sister, and I started crying. And I was like, “Lord, I graduate in a few weeks, and I have no idea where I’m going to college.” And I got a phone call from Bob Jones University telling me that my application process had already been started, even though I had never reached out. So, I was like, “Oh, you’re funny. That’s just really funny, God.” And I kinda laughed and said, “All right, I think you’re being funny.” And I kind of threw out my sheaf and was like, “Well, you’re going to send me another message or phone call tomorrow, and if I get that, then I’m going to go. That’s where I’m going to go.” And, actually Bobby Wood, he’s a good friend of my father’s, texted me at 9:00 at night while I was at dinner after club volleyball, and I looked down at my phone and I started crying tears of laughter, and my parents are like, “What is wrong with our daughter?” And I was like, “I’m going to Bob Jones University!” And my parents laughed at me and said, “No, you’re not.” And I said, “No, I am!” And I showed them the text message and they just were like, “Oh, my goodness!”
Pettit: So, you really felt like God just led you here.
Annand: Oh, exactly. Everything lined up, and then the next week when I had spring break was the last tryout for volleyball.
Pettit: Here at Bob Jones?
Annand: Yes.
Pettit: So actually, did Coach Denny not recruit you?
Annand: No, not really. I had a little bit of activity on my recruiting page with them, but never fully active …
Pettit: Wow.
Annand: … Hey, I’m from this place. This is my stuff; can I come try out, basically.
Pettit: Wow.
Victoria, it’s hard to ask it. Can you top that? I mean, that’s kind of cool. So, tell us how you got here.
Glaze: I’m kind of like Brittany – I was not going to come to Bob Jones. Like, it wasn’t even on my radar. I honestly kind of was refusing to look at Bob Jones. I was being recruited by a school in Texas, and I went down there to visit. And it was supposedly Christian, and when I got down there, the atmosphere – it just wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted this really Christian university where I could grow spiritually. And so, I was down there and like she was saying, she just cried because it wasn’t right, I just sat there and just cried to my parents, “This is isn’t right. I can’t come here and be OK with not being able to grow spiritually like I should.” And so, that was in about October of my senior year, and then I just had no interest really from colleges. And so, my oldest sister – she went to Clearwater Christian College and she actually knew Coach Denny when she was there. And so, my sister said, “Why don’t you reach out to Coach Denny and see?” And I said, “No, no, I’m not going to Bob Jones.” And she’s like, “Just email her one time. That’s all you have to do.” And I said, “OK.” So, I sent Coach an email, and I’m not joking, the next day I got an email back, and Coach is like, “I want you to come down here and visit.” And I just saw that as a sign (that) God wanted me to come visit here, so a month later, I came down here for a visit, practiced with the team and I instantly knew it was right.
Pettit: Wow. You know, it’s just really interesting to me, because this was an experience, not the same thing I had in college, but I’ll share that with you that you love volleyball, and you wanted to be able to play. You can’t play college sports if you don’t love it. But then at the same time you had this inner voice – it’s the voice of the Lord – that obviously He is more important than volleyball. And God was not asking you to give up volleyball, He was asking you to surrender to His will. That’s like humongous. So, for me in college, I didn’t get saved until my freshman year in college, but after I got saved, I broke my ankle playing soccer. It looked like God was saying to me, what’s more important, soccer or me? And I surrendered, I said, “Lord, you’re more important.” I never stopped playing soccer and even ended up coaching. But God wants to have first place, and I think that’s really what makes sports at Bob Jones unique, because so many people come here and say, well, I wasn’t really planning but … . And then God worked it out, we believe that God builds the team and makes it different.
So, tell me what it’s like to play for Coach Denny.
Annand: Playing for Coach is hard. I’m not gonna to shy away from that, and she knows that. She’s hard. She’s a hard coach, but …
Pettit: She’s tough.
Annand: She’s very tough, but she definitely …
Pettit: Would you say she’s strict, disciplined … ?
Annand: All of the above. But she knows how to win, and she’s a smart coach, and she’s such a loving coach. One thing that really stood out to me is at the end of every season, spring season, which isn’t a full season, we get our rosters, our potential rosters with all our recruits, and we literally pray over that roster every week, once a week for the most part when we come in. And slowly but surely people will fall off the list, and she goes, “All right. Whoever is on this list is who God wants here.” And we just pray over that roster, and I remember taking that roster home, and I’d pray over it through the summer.
Pettit: Wow.
Annand: And we added in game girls, and it’s so cool because as we prayed over that roster the people who ended up coming, we knew the people that were on the team while they were here is what who God wanted on the team.
Pettit: Wow. It’s so amazing, because you just hardly ever hear something like this. How about you, Victoria?
Glaze: Yeah, I’ll go with what Brittany said. She is really tough, but I really appreciate that because she is tough because she knows that we have so much potential, and she just wants us to be the best that we can be, and not only in volleyball but also in our spiritual walk. Like, she is so intentional about everything she does. This week for nationals our theme for our devotional week was “walk worthy,” which was kind of funny because that’s what we were doing in chapel also.
Pettit: Right, right.
Glaze: But we were in Colossians, and we were taking those verses, and she was just teaching us how important it is to be in the Word, and even using volleyball, how we can walk worthy in volleyball. And so that’s what I love about Coach is she’s so intentional with the spiritual side of our life.
Pettit: So Brittany, as you exit out this year and graduate, what do you think you’re going to take away from playing volleyball here, and maybe tell us what it’s like to play intercollegiate sports, number one, and number two, at Bob Jones University.
Annand: It’s funny because I work a job at home that’s back home, and they want to do these little competition kinds of things trying to win different gift cards, and I’m super competitive, and I didn’t realize how competitive I was, and I didn’t realize how non-competitive people are outside this realm.
Pettit: Right.
Annand: The managers and the assistant managers were like, “Man, you work so hard.” And I was like, “What are you talking about? This is just normal.” And they were like, “No, it’s different.” And they’re like, “There’s something different about it.” And my father goes, “You know, you are learning so many lessons through sport, and you will never be the person – if I never played sports, I would not be the person that I am today …
Pettit: Yes, it’s made a difference?
Annand: … without sports. For sure.
And the friendships too. All the girls on the team, I know that I will be able to be in touch with them.
Pettit: You all are super close.
Annand: Oh yeah. Even the ones who graduate, I still talk to Salina, I still talk to Erin, I still talk to all those girls.
Pettit: Right.
Annand: Consistently. And it’s so sweet to see them at weddings and stuff like that and being able to rekindle old friendships.
Pettit: Yeah, so you guys build really close friendships. Obviously, there is a character development that is taking place that probably wouldn’t happen without these sports, and those are really big. So, you graduate, Lord willing, in May.
Annand: Yes, sir.
Pettit: So, what’s your plan after that?
Annand: So, my plans after May are that I’m actually getting married.
Pettit: Wonderful. And the guy’s name is?
Annand: His name’s Coleman Roberts.
Pettit: OK.
Annand: He’s a very sweet, handsome man.
Pettit: Very good.
Annand: We’ll get married in May, and then we’ll most likely stay in Fort Myers unless something ends up happening.
Pettit: So, you’ll probably go back home …
Annand: Yeah, we’ll probably go back home unless something drastic happens, then we might go back to North Carolina for a boat company, but he’ll be doing construction back home.
Pettit: OK, you’ll be in interior design.
Annand: Yes, I will be going into interior design.
Pettit: Which kind of leads me into this, and Victoria, I want you to enter into this too. Tell me about your educational experience, because obviously you come to college – I actually said this to someone recently, playing college sports is like, in the educational world, we have what we call a terminal degree like a PhD. College sports is sort of like a terminal degree in sports, because very rarely are you going to play professional volleyball. You don’t think that way, so life is after graduation, so your education is very important.
So, tell me about your educational experience here, and then the challenges of being an athlete. So, we’ll start with you, Victoria, on this one, because you’ve got a tough major. What’s your major?
Glaze: Civil engineering.
Pettit: Wow.
Glaze: Yeah.
Pettit: I always felt sorry for engineering majors.
(General laughter)
Glaze: Yeah, it’s definitely really tough to do both volleyball and civil engineering or any major. It definitely takes a lot of sacrifice – you have to be willing to not go out as much with your friends and maybe you really don’t have a social life during the season, but …
Pettit: So, what you’re saying is intercollegiate sports is like a job.
Glaze: Yes. Very much so.
Pettit: It’s kind of all consuming. A lot of people don’t realize that.
Glaze: But it definitely teaches me discipline and how to keep my priorities straight. Because at some point, we have practice three hours a day, but it takes up about four because you have to be there to get ready and stuff like that, and so you don’t have that time to do homework that everyone else does. But you have to learn – you get done with practice and you go back to your dorm and you’re eating and you’re just doing homework.
Pettit: So, like time management on steroids.
Glaze: Exactly.
Annand: You learn very quickly how to fall in line on that.
Pettit: So, what was your educational experience like here?
Annand: So, my education — Bob Jones honestly has a fantastic degree for interior and architectural design. I love the aspects of fine arts and involved with it, like the drawing and the art classes that come along with it. Just a lot of stuff that you wouldn’t see until you get into the field and you go, wow, this really helped.
Coach always says we are student-athletes, students first, so that means we need to take priority in our schooling before our sports in a sense as well. I mean, keeping up with all of our teachers, making sure everything is in line whether we have games or not. So just being not only time manageable but being ahead of schedule to being able to talk to your teachers and being productive with that.
Pettit: So obviously, Coach Denny – she’s probably your greatest influence here as far because she’s your coach.
What about your teachers and how engaged were they with you?
Annand: The teachers here are phenomenal. I even talked to my fiancée about it, just like with him at Liberty. He goes, “Man, your teachers there.” He goes, “Liberty’s super good at getting involved with people.” It’s so different from his community college. But then he goes, “The stuff that they do for you with your sports teams and stuff at Bob Jones, that’s a whole other level, in a way. They are so – they want to help you excel.” I remember taking a math class here, and my professor would work hours outside with me because I missed so many classes my freshman year. And she would work outside, and we would sit in her office, and she would go through stuff with me just to catch me up in ways, and that was just something that means a lot as an athlete, because we know that we’re missing aspects of those classes that you’re not going to be able to get back unless you’re in class. And her taking her time out of her day that easily was her lunchtime.
Pettit: Right.
Annand: And she’d sit there with her lunch, and she’d sit there and work through the book with me. And it really helped.
Pettit: Very, very encouraging.
So, let’s jump back into volleyball. Tell us about your position because when you watch volleyball, there’s a lot of movement on the court and people are moving around. So Victoria, tell us what your position is.
Glaze: OK, so this year I’m a middle blocker, and so it’s the person who stands in the middle right at the net. And so, pretty much the middle blocker is exhausted by the end of everything because you are running the net and going everywhere to block. You have to block every single hit.
Pettit: OK.
Glaze: And then also, I also play back row this year too, and so I play middle back for defense.
Pettit: And so, you’re having to get really low to get the digs, so OK. (laughter) I just know I watch y’all go down and go, how did she get that ball off up in the air. So, Brittany, tell us about your role.
Annand: I’m a center on the team, and basically, I like to call the center position as making everyone else look better no matter what path you get. And that’s just like, in a way, that was also part of our worthy walk. It was like making people look better no matter what you get from them.
Pettit: So, you’re either setting up behind or in front …
Annand: Yeah, behind, in front, yeah. Fixing the passes.
Glaze: Yeah, fixing the passes.
Pettit: And of course, you only remember what you’re doing today. You don’t remember hardly three years ago or two years ago, but obviously, I would think that the biggest set of the year was the final, where I’m trying to remember who hit the ball to you first.
Annand: Victoria passed the ball to me.
Glaze: Yeah, I did.
Pettit: She passed the ball.
Glaze: Yeah.
Pettit: The last point.
Annand: The last point.
Pettit: The one that is forever on Instagram.
Annand: Yes. Oh goodness.
Pettit: So, you hit it to her …
Glaze: I passed it to her, yes.
Pettit: And then you set it up.
Annand: To Brooke Beaver.
Pettit: To Brooke. And Brooke, our senior hitter, and she killed the ball.
Annand: Every year, the best. Every year, she hits in the last kill of the last three years that she’s won nationals.
Pettit: Wow.
Glaze: Yes.
Pettit: So, three years in a row. So, tell me, how is this year different from last year?
Annand: We have a younger team this year.
Pettit: Right.
Annand: And we have been forced to grow up, or they have been forced to grow up very quickly. Very, very quickly with the COVID season.
Pettit: OK.
Annand: With as few games as we had. Like, how many games did we have last year, 36 or so?
Glaze: We had 39.
Pettit: Yeah, this year …
Annand: Yeah, we had 39 last year. And this year, we had … 16?
Pettit: 16 to 20 or something like that.
Annand: So, having games like that, it’s harder to figure out what the team needs to get …
Pettit: So, this year was totally different.
Annand: Totally different. I’m so glad we had a season, but it was such a crazy season. It feels like it’s not over yet because of just how short it was.
Pettit: Yeah so, in one way I mean, even up here in upstate South Carolina, almost nobody’s playing games. So, how does that feel, that you all get to do it?
Glaze: It’s incredible. Listening to the stories of other people who are waiting for next spring to play, and they don’t even know if they are going to be able to play in spring. So, we’re super grateful – we talk about this almost every practice – don’t take it for granted because it was a high possibility we didn’t even play this year. So, we’re very thankful.
Pettit: And basically, all the teams in the NCCAA were there at the tournament. It was unlike …
Annand: Yeah, it’s funny because each week we had, or each day there’s someone new, either taken out or put in with all those COVID tests.
Pettit: All the testing.
Annand: We were so blessed with how you helped us get in the COVID test – that was the biggest blessing of all. And I know Brooke and I are so extremely thankful for that. But just the fact that we also went all season long without getting a positive test.
Pettit: Yeah!
Glaze: God protected us.
Annand: God totally had His hand on our team because we were very nervous that right before nationals, we were like, “Oh, please, please, please, please.” And Coach texted the group and she goes, “None of the players have it.” So, we all thought, “Oh no, does one of our coaches have it?”
Pettit: Right.
Annand: But no one ended up having it and all season long, we were one of the only teams besides cross country not to have had any sort of issue.
Pettit: So, watching the games at Maranatha was pretty tough.
Annand/Glaze: Yeah.
Pettit: And Dallas Christian – they had some girls that could really spike the ball. I was thinking at the end, what’s going to happen and then Timbre comes in …
Glaze: Amazing.
Annand: MVP.
Glaze: Yeah.
Annand: For sure.
Pettit: It was like crazy.
Annand: She stole that game.
Pettit: How many was it — eight or nine …?
Annand: She had eight serves and five of them were aces.
Pettit: Wow. That was an amazing thing.
Glaze: There is no way we would have came close to that without her coming in.
Pettit: So, you would say this year was different just because of COVID.
Annand: For sure.
Pettit: And it changed everything.
Annand: For sure.
Glaze: I don’t think – because our team was so young. They had to mature up very quickly, and they did that so well. So, so well.
Pettit: So, next year we’re losing you and Brooke, which I would say is pretty significant losses because they’re leaders, and both of you are like super sparkplugs. And whether it’s Brooke killing the ball, and she’s got this same – you all have the same moves after you … Brooke has one and then, Brittany, you stomp the floor, and your ponytails are going everywhere.
So, what do you think about next year? I mean, I know y’all two are leaving but …
Glaze: I’m super excited just because of how young our team was this year, we got so much experience, like playing experience, so coming into next year, we already have all that experience behind us, we got through the nerves of the first year and everything. And so, I am excited to see what we can do, put our team together and see how we can go on from here, because I think this year was a good rebuilding year, and next year will be another rebuilding year, but I’m excited for our team.
Pettit: Well, you’ve got – how many will be juniors next year? You’ve got …
Glaze: Five of us.
Pettit: Five of you. And no seniors?
Glaze: No seniors.
Pettit: Wow. So, it’s all the juniors – it’s not going to be senior leadership, it’s going to be junior leadership.
But you know Coach Denny’s system, and you know what she expects.
Are you going to practice in the spring or are you kind of done?
Annand: I’m pretty sure we’re done. Brooke’s got clinicals, and then I’ve got my last semester to try to finish it out. I’m not sure fully what Coach wants or expects out of that.
Pettit: But you all might show up at a practice or two.
Annand: Maybe, we might show up. We’ll definitely be there for the alumni game next semester. We’ve got to get ready for that.
Pettit: So that’s next semester.
Annand: That’ll be next semester, yeah.
Pettit: So, all the girls come back …
Annand: Yes. Oh yeah. And it’s so fun. We’re going to have a good team this year – next year – for the alumni game.
Glaze: You girls better bring the heat.
Pettit: Well girls, thank you so much for your time. I know you’re in the middle of exams, and we really appreciate you and Coach Denny and just the super year and very proud of you and congratulations on a three-peat.
Glaze: Thank you very much.
(Music)
Rumpf: Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Highest Potential with Steve Pettit. Don’t forget to find us and subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening. We’ll talk to you again next week.
(Music)
