Barratt Has Her Say, And Then Some

Brandy Barratt was scheduled to return home to Spokane Saturday night with a piece of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament national championship title.

But she’s likely to be remembered as the Long Beach State athlete who gave the people of Madison, Wis., a piece of her mind at this year’s final four.

In a Friday press conference, the 49ers’ junior middle blocker formerly of Gonzaga Prep, sounded off over the “treatment” of Long Beach State.

The 49ers, No. 1 in the AVCA Top 25 poll since early this season, came through a regional bracket that included two-time defending champion Stanford, Texas and Arizona. They were seeded No. 1 to Stanford’s No. 2. The Cardinal lost in the third round to Texas.

Barratt, the only player to represent her team at Friday’s press conference along with coach Brian Gimmillaro, went on to say, “The reason we work so hard is so we can get the No. 1 seed and get all the accommodations that go along with being No. 1. And to receive one of the toughest regional brackets out of the four and Penn State has an easy cakewalk to the final four, it’s not fair because we worked for No. 1 and we should get all the things that go along with it.”

Her comments, along with AVCA coach of the year Gimmillaro’s, prompted the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, to run a headline that read “Some California Whine?”

However on Saturday afternoon, Barratt and the 49ers finished off a vintage season by beating Penn State in the finals in five games. Both teams entered the title match undefeated.

‘In the end the best team prevailed,” said Barratt, in a telephone interview shortly after the title match. “It’s a wicked (good) feeling. My team was behind me with everything that happened.”

Barratt, a middle blocker who subs out of the back row, said Saturday’s match wasn’t her strongest. However, she had seven kills (.107 hitting) and a team-high seven block assists.

“It was pretty much a combination of everyone,” she added. “There was no single star out there.”

The team graduates 1997 and 1998 AVCA player of the year Misty May, along with second-team All-American Benishe Dillard and Jessica Alvarado. But Barratt is confident the 49ers will stay strong.

“I knew this was the best place for me to come,” she said. “I thought by my junior season, we could win it.”

As far as her Friday comments - particularly comparing Penn State’s path to a “cakewalk,” Barratt said, “I was attacking the NCAA, not Penn State.”