From basketball to volleyball, Miller has been competitive

Coming off last year’s Big East championship, the Pitt volleyball team will have high… Coming off last year’s Big East championship, the Pitt volleyball team will have high expectations to meet in 2004. But, for Megan Miller, reaching and exceeding expectations has become par for the course.

Miller, a 6-foot-1-inch senior from Milford, Conn., has developed in her four years at Pitt from an athletic freshman with only four years of competitive volleyball experience to a dominating middle hitter. Her resume includes being 2003 Big East Tournament Most Valuable Player and 2004 Big East Preseason Player of the Year.

“She’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever been around,” head coach Chris Beerman said. “And that’s what makes her keep getting so much better.”

A confident, skilled and powerful player, Miller is the total package for a collegiate hitter, and will be the cornerstone of this year’s Panthers. But while her athleticism is natural, she wasn’t always a volleyball star.

As a high school junior, Miller was not heavily recruited. At the first club tournament of her senior season, Miller turned in a dominant performance that left Beerman and the other coaches in attendance asking, “Who is this kid?”

“She was a great athlete, but not a great volleyball player at that point,” Beerman said.

Her physical ability shone throughout her senior year of high school, when she was named an all-state performer, not only in volleyball, but also in basketball, which was her main sport.

However, during her senior year, Miller focused more on volleyball and on Pitt as her school of choice. These decisions seemed to have played out well in light of all her collegiate accomplishments.

“I wanted to play volleyball because it was new to me,” Miller said. “I had played basketball since I was young, but I only started volleyball as a freshman in high school and I just wanted to try something else. Volleyball is more of a team sport because you really need six players to have a good team, not like basketball where one star player can dominate.”

Miller visited Pitt and really liked the competitiveness of the team, the players and Beerman. That is what persuaded her to come to Pitt.

As a freshman in 2000, Miller saw limited action as an outside hitter, playing in 10 matches her first season. Having a year of college experience under her belt, she looked to be more of a contributor as a sophomore.

But after playing in only four matches her second year, Miller suffered a torn right ACL in a match against Alabama, which ruled her out for the rest of the season. Fortunately, the NCAA granted Miller a medical redshirt for 2001, meaning she would return in 2002 with three years of eligibility.

“The extra year helped, because it’s when I changed position to middle hitter, but also because it made me realize how little time I really had for volleyball, and that just made me work harder,” Miller recalled. “I like the middle position more because it feels like I’m more involved.”

After rehabilitating her knee and training as a middle hitter in spring of 2002, her redshirt sophomore year that fall couldn’t have been better. Playing her new position, Miller hit for a school-record .400 — ninth in the nation — recording 360 kills along the way to a second-team All-Big East selection.

For some of the success she’s had, Miller credited former Panther setter Carrie Norris, a 2002 graduate and All-Big East performer.

“Carrie was my first setter at Pitt, so there’s that, but she was also so competitive too, and she focused on each game,” Miller said, adding, “I really learned that from her.”

Miller was able to take the lessons learned from a year of experience as a middle hitter and use them toward a highly successful junior season. She won first-team All-Big East honors along with teammate and 2003 Big East Player of the Year Wendy Hatlestad, but more importantly, she helped lead Pitt to the Big East’s best record and their first conference title since 1994. In doing so, she was named 2003 Big East Tournament MVP.

“It was exciting, but mostly because it came with our team’s first championship,” Miller said of the award. When asked about being named the Preseason Big East Player of the Year in 2004, Miller was less enthusiastic.

“I don’t really get too much from that. It’s nice, but when you have a great team, the individual honors come,” she said, clearly hoping that more success and awards would come to her whole team in 2004.

“She’s an amazing offensive player, and hopefully she will keep improving her backcourt skills and blocking and become a dominant all-around player,” Beerman said. On the topic of her future, he added, “She has the potential to play professionally if she wants to, and as competitive as she is, I wouldn’t trade her for anyone in the country.”

When asked about prospects after college, Miller sounded uncharacteristically unsure.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to give it up. I’ll just see how this season goes and see then,” she said.

Before it becomes time for that decision, Miller wants Pitt to reach the expectations that accompany this 2004 season.

“Every team wants to win a national championship; that’s the goal for anyone,” Miller said, “but first we want to win another Big East title, and try to go undefeated in the regular season. There’s no one on our schedule we can’t beat, so our goal is to go out and win every match we play.”

Having come so far in a sport that was second on her list in high school, there’s no reason to doubt Miller can help Pitt achieve any and all of those goals.