Loper Legacy: UNK sophomore Brynn Stowell draws inspiration from her mother’s Hall of Fame career
KEARNEY – It’s the first thing players see when they step inside the University of Nebraska at Kearney locker room.
Framed in blue and lined in neat rows, the All-American display stretches across the walls like a timeline of greatness. Featuring black-and-white action shots of Loper legends from the past three decades, it’s a tribute to the people who helped build one of the strongest programs in NCAA Division II volleyball.
For most student-athletes, the photos are a reminder of the standard set by previous UNK players. For sophomore right-side hitter Brynn Stowell, they mean much more.
She sees her mother’s legacy every time she walks past that display.
“It’s really motivating and inspiring for me,” Brynn said. “She represents all that I want to be in life. Knowing that I’m trying to follow in her footsteps career-wise and I’m following in her footsteps right now collegiately, that’s pretty awesome.”
One of the Best
A Bellevue East graduate, Danielle (Shum) Stowell played for the Lopers from 1993 to 1996, earning All-American and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Year honors as a junior and senior. The 5-foot-10 setter led UNK to its first-ever NCAA Division II national tournament appearance in 1994, followed by back-to-back runs to the Elite Eight.
“She was one of the best players to ever play here,” said longtime UNK head coach Rick Squiers. “Danielle was a Division I athlete playing at the Division II level. She had the size, the hands, the competitiveness – and she could score. She was really, really good.”
Before joining UNK in 1999, Squiers had the misfortune of facing Danielle and the Lopers twice while he was coaching at Hastings College. Both matches ended in losses for the Broncos.
“We almost got’em in Hastings,” Squiers recalled, “but over here they just smacked us around.”
The Lopers went a combined 133-27 during Danielle’s four seasons as a player, and she remained on campus for two more years as a graduate assistant under head coach Patty Sitorius.
“It was a ball,” Danielle said of her time at UNK, where she remains the program’s all-time leader in career assists and ranks inside the top 10 in aces, solo blocks and games/sets played.
“I had no idea how much fun it was going to be when I agreed to do it,” she added. “I didn’t really know what I was getting into. I would go places around town, and people would know me. Even back then, people knew the volleyball girls. Not every school has that kind of community support.”
The UNK and RMAC Hall of Famer is still a familiar face when she’s back in Kearney – and her photo is the first one featured on the All-American wall.
“I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and ask how she is, and I’ve never met them in my life, so she was pretty well known when she went here,” Brynn said. “My decision to come here definitely had a lot to do with the fact that she was here, just because it’s fun to be a legacy. It’s fun to follow in her footsteps and hopefully go achieve everything that she did.”
It’s a Lifestyle
To say volleyball has been a big part of Brynn’s life might be an understatement.
Her father, Mike, also played collegiately at Graceland University in Iowa and the University of Arizona. Both parents were coaches for KC Power, one of the top junior volleyball programs in the country, and Danielle remains involved as club director.
“I’ve been around the sport literally my entire life,” Brynn said. “I was on a plane heading to my first volleyball tournament with my parents when I was 2 weeks old. I just grew up around a bunch of really strong, talented volleyball players. It’s so beyond just a sport for me. It’s really a lifestyle at this point.”
Brynn and her mother both insist she was never forced into the sport. She also tried soccer, softball, basketball and even tumbling as a kid, but volleyball is the only activity that stuck.
“She had a huge personality,” Danielle said. “She would try anything and do anything – always with a lot of fire. Whatever she does, she’s going to be really into it. So we encouraged her to do other things, knowing she’d get plenty of volleyball at some point.”
Turns out, that competitive spirit also runs in the family.
Ask Brynn to describe her family dynamic and she doesn’t hesitate.
“Oh my gosh, yes. We are so competitive,” she said with a smile. “It doesn’t really help that both my mom and my dad are equally competitive. There’s no soft parent. They’re both really tough, so my sister and I inherited those traits.”
Dad “loves to show us game film from however many years ago and brag about it,” Brynn notes. “It’s a little frustrating. Sometimes when I’m just ranting to them about volleyball – I can’t hit this ball or I don’t know how to get this angle right – he’s just like, ‘You want me to show you a video of how to do it right?’ And then he’ll pull up a video of him playing from forever ago, which gets really annoying.”
Younger sister Ella, now a high school senior committed to play volleyball at Colorado State, provided another level of motivation.
“When we practiced together during the summer, I hated losing to her,” Brynn said. “She’s my younger sister. You don’t want to get beat by a sibling who’s two years younger than you.”
Looking back now, she’s grateful to have a family who’s always pushing her to be better – even if it’s not always easy.
Danielle and Brynn learned that lesson during their short time together as head coach and player with KC Power.
“That lasted one year,” Danielle said, laughing. “It was a nightmare for everyone involved. But it was also good for both of us. I think we both got a lot out of it, even though it almost killed us.”
The Right Fit
Danielle calls her oldest daughter a “late bloomer” – just like she was. A 5-foot-9 freshman in high school, “always in the front row of her team pictures,” who suddenly shot up to 6-3 as a junior.
That kind of height will catch the attention of college coaches.
“She’s the kind of player who’s a little bit unique to Division II,” Squiers said. “In Division I, there are 6-3, 6-4 players all over the place. In Division II, on any given night she can dominate. You can give her balls on the right pin, and everybody can know she’s getting the ball, and she might still go get 15 kills.”
A two-time all-conference selection and four-year letterwinner, Brynn set the school records for blocks in a season and career hitting percentage while playing at Olathe West near Kansas City. She was looking at a mix of DI and DII schools when Squiers reached out during her junior year.
“I still have the email coach Squiers sent me,” Brynn said. “He included a couple pictures of my mom playing and said, ‘We’d love to get to know you. Your mom is a legend here.’”
Danielle wasn’t as direct. She never tried to steer Brynn to her alma mater.
“I knew it could be a good fit, because I had such a good experience there, but I had to kind of keep that under wraps until she got there on her own,” Danielle explained.
“I honestly think the gravitational pull toward Kearney was that it was farther away from us,” she added with a chuckle. “She definitely wanted to go somewhere away from home.”
The Stowells made the five-hour drive to Kearney for a campus visit, and Brynn immediately fell in love.
“That was it. That was game over. She was there about 15 minutes and she said, ‘I’m coming to school here,’” Danielle recalled.
“During the recruiting process, I was looking for a place that takes volleyball as seriously as we do – a community that shares the same love and supports the sport just as much as I’ve been supported growing up,” Brynn said. “You come play in the Health and Sports Center and you see crowds that you don’t see anywhere else in Division II. It’s just such a different setting and game-day scene. It’s so special to be part of because everyone in Kearney and the state of Nebraska really respects volleyball as a sport and kind of embraces it as their own.”
Chasing Something Bigger
After a reserve role last year, Brynn is now an important piece of the rotation for the Lopers, who are 23-2 and ranked No. 4 in Division II. She has 38 total blocks and 184 kills this season, highlighted by a 26-kill, five-block performance Oct. 3 at Missouri Western.
“If you have a player in your rotation who can get hot and dominate offensively, that’s pretty valuable,” Squiers said. “That’s the kind of player she can be. Physically, she’s good enough to be an All-American at this level.”
Her approach touch – the benchmark measurement of a hitter – reaches an elite level with ease.
“She’ll just be walking by a basketball hoop and go up and snap the rim down a little bit,” Squiers noted. “We have maybe three or four players on our team who can do that, but she does it as effortlessly as anybody.”
The UNK coach also sees elements of Danielle in her game. She’s “super competitive” – a gym rat who works hard and understands the game of volleyball.
“Competitively, they’re very similar,” he said. “They’re all about volleyball. And they’re competitive all the time – to a fault sometimes. You never have to worry about Brynn caring. In fact, you probably have to pull the reins back every now and then.”
Brynn describes her mindset in simpler terms: “I want to win – badly.”
She’s in the right place to do that. UNK has reached the Division II national tournament a whopping 28 times, including 25 straight appearances.
That’s one goal, but Brynn has her sights set even higher.
“I want to win a national championship,” she said. “We have what it takes. We have the experience and the leadership. All of the pieces are there. It’s just a matter of how well we can put them together.”
Her mother is pulling for that, too.
“She could blow past anything I’ve ever done,” Danielle said. “I never got a national championship, so I’m rooting for her to bring home something higher than I did.”
Brynn is studying sport and recreation management with a marketing minor and hopes to eventually coach – maybe back in Kansas City like her mother.
Until then, Danielle believes her daughter is “right where she needs to be.”
“I’m really proud of the history that UNK volleyball has and the community support that Lopers receive,” she said. “I’m thrilled that I get to go watch her in the same gym and that she gets to have those same experiences.”
That black-and-white photo in the locker room is more than a nod to the past. Brynn also sees her future in the frame.
“It’d be awesome to be up on that wall with her someday,” she said.