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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Mead’s Sanborn Has Talent That Just Keeps On Growing

As a player who has been at the core of Mead volleyball for three years, it’s not hard to see why Jessica Sanborn stands above the crowd.

Sanborn is 6-foot-3, two inches taller than when she joined varsity as a sophomore, and still growing.

“I have the wing span of someone 6-foot-5,” she says.

Which is good news for her future. And bad news for the rest of the Greater Spokane League.

Colleges from throughout the country are pursuing her. She’s narrowed it to Texas, UCLA, Michigan State and Stanford.

Sanborn’s growth - physically and technically - has paralleled Mead’s improvement.

Midway through the season, the Panthers have compiled a 6-2 league record, good for third in the standings.

That is considerably better than last year’s 6-10 record, or the 4-12 sophomore season of Sanborn and fellow third-year teammates Andrea Carnahan and Lindsey Miller.

“The team was young and not very successful,” Sanborn recalls. “Coming in as juniors we remembered. We didn’t like losing and knew we had to do something different.”

The difference, she said, has been off-season club volleyball.

Sanborn plays for Inland Empire, a team coached by Art Lambert that has played all over the country at major volleyball tournaments.

Her classmates have played on other such teams.

“Club totally makes the difference,” said Sanborn. “People came back probably three times better. It was amazing.”

As a junior Sanborn led the team in kills in all but two games. This year, except for the loss to Rogers, a game she missed while on a recruiting visit, and one other, it has been more of the same.

However, “I think I help the team most defensively,” said Sanborn. “Without it you can’t do anything. It’s not things people notice, but what this team thrives on.”

Mead’s experience and team chemistry, said the statuesque athlete, have helped them overcome the ups and downs associated with a volleyball match.

Sanborn never played volleyball competitively until ninth grade. She considers herself a farm girl from the boondocks of Colbert, who picked up a volleyball to give her something to do.

“I really didn’t think of it as something to pay my way to school,” she said.

Initially she concentrated on basketball, until a broken thumb as an eighth grader and broken jaw when she was hit by a softball in ninth grade put her behind.

Sanborn said she preferred to concentrate on one sport and liked the challenge volleyball provided.

“It’s more a mental sport and individual thing,” she said. “If you can’t do a skill, the whole team pays. You need to be tough to shake off a mistake.”

Three years of taking their GSL lumps and playing club volleyball have toughened up Sanborn and seven other letter-winning Panthers.

With their 6-foot-3 middle standing tall, they’ve become a team to reckon with.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo