Jenn Miller Earns C-USA Spirit of Service Award
Dec 16, 2009 | Women's Volleyball
Dec. 16, 2009
NEW ORLEANS - Tulane volleyball senior Jenn Miller was named a recipient of the Conference USA Spirit of Service Award Wednesday. The San Pedro, Calif., native was honored for her achievement on the court, in the classroom and in the community. The C-USA Spirit of Service Award is designed to recognize the community service efforts of the league's student-athletes, based upon significant community service, good academic standing and participation in their elected sport. The Spirit of Service award is presented three times throughout the season, with the fall honorees representing Conference USA football, soccer, volleyball and cross country.
Off the court, Miller was a 2008 Conference USA All-Academic Team selection, making the Tulane Dean's List and Conference USA Commissioner's honor roll each season with a 3.69 GPA in Business Management.
Among her works in the community, Miller was part of a team which rebuilt the Johnson Elementary School Library following Hurricane Katrina, and has served as a mentor for Girls First, a program began by former Tulane volleyball coach Liz Kritza to promote athletics and academics for girls in the New Orleans community, for the past four years. She also has mentored youth as part of Tulane's Shadow a Student Athlete Day, an annual event which brings area youth from the city to Tulane's campus with the goal of motivating community children towards making college part of their life's plans from an early age. Another similar program, Bring Your A-Game, was spearheaded by Tulane football head coach Bob Toledo, in which students who received an A on an paper/project are invited to a behind-the-scenes look at game day at the Louisiana Superdome. Miller hosted a group of students, providing a tour of the Superdome, meet and greet with Tulane student-athletes and on-field access.
She has also participated in the Catch 22 Holiday shopping Adventure, which provides toys for New Orleans children from the Duece McAllister charitable foundation, as well as the national Toys for Tots program.
Miller's role as a libero has led to a sizeable donation from Tulane athletics for the Dig For the Cure program, in which she joined her volleyball teammates in raising donations for Susan G. Komen for the Cure to fight breast cancer for each dig recorded in a selected match each season.
Miller finished her career as Tulane's all-time leader in digs (1978) and digs per set (4.57) and holds the top three Tulane marks in single-season digs and owns five of Tulane's top 10 single-match digs records.
As a senior captain, she helped Tulane return to the NCAA tournament in 2009 as an at-large participant, the Green Wave's second-straight NCAA tournament appearance. She helped Tulane to the 2008 C-USA regular season and tournament championships and the Green Wave's first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament, a number nine national seed and the program's first-ever NCAA tournament win last season. As a four-year starter, the Green Wave compiled an 89-33 overall record, a 52-12 C-USA mark in her four years at Tulane as the Green Wave have finished in the top four of C-USA all four years.
The 2007 Conference USA Libero of the Year was named AVCA All-America Honorable Mention and AVCA First Team All-Midwest Region as a sophomore in 2007. Miller began her career by being named to the C-USA All-Freshman team and earned three All-Conference USA selections over her career. A seven-time C-USA Defensive Player of the Week award winner, Miller has been named to five All-Tournament teams in her career for in-season tournaments.
Eleven other C-USA student-athletes were honored, one from each University. Also honored were Amanda Lapp (East Carolina, Women's Cross Country), Case Keenum (Houston, Football), Elizabeth Fleming (Marshall, Volleyball), Christine Bach (Memphis, Volleyball), Elizabeth Nesbit (Rice, Women's Soccer), Kelvin Beachum (SMU, Football), Kelsea Seymour (Southern Miss, Volleyball), Jennifer Eichler (Tulsa, Volleyball), Danielle Blair (UAB, Women's Soccer), Carley Dart (UCF, Women's Cross Country) and Catherine Chavez (UTEP, Volleyball).
