Texas Tech University Athletics
Meet Your Red Raiders
October 07, 2003 | Women's Volleyball
This Tempe, Arizona native up until her visit here to Tech was sure that she was going to play basketball at Cal-Berkley on a scholarship. Basketball was a sport that she had been named a McDonald's All American nominee, won state her junior year, and state runners-up her senior year. Basketball was definitely not a back-up sport, but rather Pursley's number one sport until her senior year when she began to play club volleyball as well as volleyball at her high school.
Not only was basketball something Pursley loved, it was something that she had dreamed of being a part of since she was a kid along with her best friend Alexis Timpone.
"My best friend and I had this dream of winning a state championship, or winning something and jumping on each others shoulders with that picture of us making the front page of the newspaper," said Pursley. "That all came true my junior year when we won state. I jumped on Alexis's shoulders, and that picture made the front page of our local paper. We got the state rings and everything. It had to be the greatest memory of my life."
Pursley says that her decision to leave basketball was because of a great influence from her high school coach who was a great influence in her life on and off the court.
"My coach, Jamie Rhome, played volleyball at Arkansas. She used to always tell me, and push me to think about playing volleyball," said Pursley. "It didn't seem long after that, that Teri Cox (former Tech assistant coach) called me after she had made a visit to see me play and wanted to know if I would like to visit Tech on a volleyball visit."
Now, two years later, Pursley calls her home here in Lubbock, Texas on the courts of the Red Raider volleyball team. Pursley's move here to Tech was not the easiest thing to do, especially with leaving so many things behind back home in Arizona.
"I am really close to my parents and brother," said Pursley. "I was very homesick my first year here, and it was hard to leave my family especially my dog Jada, a black lab, who I love."
Though Pursley says that she feels a little more at home here in Lubbock, she stays in close contact with her parents whom she talks to on her way to class, after practice, and just about any other time she gets a chance.
"My parents are my best friends," said Pursley. "I tell them anything and everything about me, even those things that most kids don't tell their parents. We are just a really close family, my parents, brother and I. That's what made it so hard to leave fo school."
As for most girls, Pursley finds shopping and crafts as a way to enjoy herself.
"I like to give more meaningful gifts to my close friends on birthdays and at Christmas time, something more than just a gift," said Pursley. "One time a wrote a poem, and framed it on a piece of paper that I had painted a water border, and put dried flowers around it."
While at home back in Arizona, Pursley can be found in the backyard laying out in the pool on her yellow raft, with her father bringing her drinks.
While these are just a couple of things that Pursley likes to do when she can get away from the courts of volleyball, she pretty much is all about having fun at whatever she does, and says that she usually tries to make the best of things.
"I'm not a mean person, and I always try to find the best things in people and every situation," said Pursley. "I joke around a lot in practice, but when it comes down to the team and being serious, I will get the job done."
While Pursley is a joker, she says that she is usually the reason for jokes around the locker room, especially when it comes to her dancing.
"I am not a good dancer," said Pursley. "The team makes fun of me all the time because they say that I have no rhythm."
As far as life after volleyball, Pursley hopes to find herself on the opposite side of the camera.
"I want to be a reporter for a show like Inside Stuff, and go around and meet the players," said Pursley. " I would love to work around basketball. I wouldn't mind being someone like Hannah Storm, since she does all of the NBA on NBC. "
If Pursley's broadcasting dreams do not come true, she says that she also has an interest in fashion and would like to work on the red carpet during the Emmy's where she could be a fashion critic.
Yet whatever field Pursley decides upon, she will definitely take her outgoing, happy, hardworking and aggressive personality into anything that she does, and no doubt be successful.
"I am very hardworking, and aggressive," said Pursley. " They used to call me Rodman in high school because I would always going up and getting the rebounds.
That's how I look at life, I am always going to be aggressive and reach out for what I want, and if I put my mind to it I will get it done."
