After four years of representing Loyola on the volleyball court, the time has come for finance senior Keelyn Henderson, marketing senior Sarah Howard, mass communication senior Stacey Kersten and accounting senior Mary Seals to put away their kneepads and focus on what the future has in store for them.

Their college volleyball careers have ended, giving them time to redirect their focus — using the education they have received here to pursue a career in the job market.
According to Henderson, there is a significant amount of time open for searching for potential jobs, other hobbies, activities and studies, now that their volleyball careers at Loyola have ended.

“I finally have a chance to relax a little bit,” Henderson said. “I am enjoying the fact that I have time to do work for school, focus on searching for a job, and take a couple of hours during the day to do nothing.”

During the spring semester, Henderson plans to join Loyola’s micro-finance program, a student organization that provides local entrepreneurs with business development and lending services that will help them purchase assets that generate income. After she graduates in May, Henderson would like to use her minor in Spanish to explore international commerce in South America or Spain.

As for her teammate Howard, she wants to pursue sports marketing with either a team or a firm. She would prefer it to be somewhere in her hometown of Houston, but would be open to continuing her volleyball career as a coach. “My high school coach has already told me that he would hire me to be apart of his coaching staff,” Howard said. ” I have been playing volleyball for 10 years so I can’t just give it up now.”

Over the course of the students’ careers here, the team has had four seasons with winning records and has reached the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference championship match three times, and was crowned the conference champions in 2007.

This year, Seals and Howard’s play earned both of them selections on the All-GCAC team for the fourth consecutive year. Seals finished her career at Loyola having set the record for kills and attacks in an individual season as well as being the all-time career leader in both categories.

Howard, the team’s setter, was selected as GCAC setter of the year and leaves her mark as the Wolfpack’s all-time leader in assists. Henderson, the defensive specialist, led the Wolfpack with 460 digs on the year, 1,065 total since 2005, while Kersten contributed 138 this season, 880 since 2004.

Craig Malveaux can be reached at [email protected].