MORGANTOWN— Kristen Spearen was in seventh grade when she picked up a volleyball and hit it over the net.
She’s been digging the sport since.
A Morgantown native, Spearen is a 2017 graduate of University High School.
She said she admired Savannah Bryner in high school.
“During middle school, I didn’t really have an idol so much, other than my dad would take me to a lot of WVU volleyball matches,” she said. “My freshman year of high school however, there was a senior, Savannah Bryner, and I looked up to her. She helped me realize that I wanted to work on [my game] to go to college to play volleyball.”
And that dream of playing volleyball in college has been realized.
Spearen played one year at Concord University in Mercer County.
As a freshman, she appeared in seven matches and 11 sets. She handed out 35 assists while adding 23 digs. She dished out a career-high 11 assists while also adding a career-high nine digs against Glenville State.
“Playing volleyball at Concord was definitely a change in scenery,” Spearen said. “The practices were a lot more intense [than in high school] and I had to plan my day around the volleyball schedule.”
The size of the campus is what made Spearen decide to enroll at Concord.
“I liked the small campus and being able to explore the scenic mountains down by Concord,” she said.
Spearen is also successful in the classroom. She was named to the fall MEC (Mountain East Conference) Commissioner’s Honor Roll for having a grade point average of 3.25-3.69. She also made the spring dean’s list.
Spearen said it was difficult balancing both volleyball and academics.
“Balancing volleyball and academics was very challenging especially with the long-distance road trips,” she said. “I felt like if I wasn’t in the gym or the weight room, that I was trying to get ahead in my course work just so I was not as stressed when finals came around.
“It also taught me to not procrastinate on school work.”
Despite excelling at both volleyball and academics, Spearen decided to leave Concord following her freshman year and head home to Morgantown.
“I did decide to leave Concord because I really needed to focus on my academics more and that was a hard decision because I love the sport. However, there were more opportunities at WVU to allow me to obtain my goals of becoming a physical therapist,” she said. “I’m planning on helping out my former club team, Mountain Rage, in assistant coaching one of the younger teams this upcoming club season.”
Spearen is majoring in exercise physiology with an emphasis on aquatic therapy and a minor in psychology and strength and conditioning.
“Following graduation, I want to go to graduate physical therapy school to obtain my doctorate,” she said. “One day, I would like to open up my own physical therapy clinic or be able to work with a professional sports team.”
This summer, Spearen got some valuable experience in working toward reaching some of her goals.
“This summer I got a lot of observation hours in at ProPerformance RX and HealthSouth that most graduate physical therapy programs require to be accepted into that school,” she said.
Both are Morgantown facilities that specialize in physical therapy and rehab.
Kristen is not the only Spearen who is into athletics. Her younger brother, Jacob, plays both football and baseball for UHS. He is hoping to eventually play in college.
