|Photo by Michael J. Metts|

Anna Glass is a senior captain on the Spring Arbor University volleyball team and one of the big reasons for the drastic improvement the Cougars have made between this season and last. Last year, they finished up the season 17-22 with a 5-3 mark while battling through the MCC. This year, the Cougars wrapped up their seventeenth win on October 16, and currently sit at 23-14 and 4-4 in conference play.

“My whole family played volleyball. I started very young. In elementary school I went to a lot of volleyball camps, and started playing on club teams when I was in seventh grade,” Glass said. Family also had a large part in her decision to continue a volleyball career and life at Spring Arbor University.

Despite being recruited by NCAA Division I schools, such as the University of Toledo, University of Miami (Ohio), and Michigan State University, SAU was her only choice.

“In high school, I was recruited by a lot of different schools, but my whole family came to Spring Arbor,” Glass said. “Historically, Spring Arbor hasn’t had the best program, but one of my sisters (Rebekah) was a senior here when I was a freshman, and Spring Arbor was the only school I applied to.”

Glass has been a constant key in the success of the Cougars during recent years, as she has been a captain on the team for three seasons. Although she currently leads the team and is second in the conference in blocks/set at 1.0, defense was not always where she starred.

“In high school there was such a big range of players and so I only played in the front row,” said Glass. The move has paid off for the middle hitter out of Portage, as she has won numerous awards at the collegiate level.

Despite coming off a torn ACL in her sophomore year, Glass bounced back her junior year, earning NCCAA All-Region honors for the second straight year, while being named to the MCC second team All-Conference team (she was 1st team her sophomore year), and gathering NAIA Academic All-American honors. This year, she has already been named to the U of M Dearborn All-Tournament team, and is sure to have plenty more awards to come at the end of this season.