Deja McClendon Class: Sophomore Hometown: Louisville, Ky. High School: Dupont Manual Magnet Height: 6-1 Position: OH

Deja McClendon

Lion Career
2010 (Freshman): AVCA Division I National Freshman of the Year ... AVCA Second Team All-American ... NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player ... NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team ... AVCA Mideast Region Freshman of the Year ... AVCA All-Mideast Region ... Big Ten Freshman of the Year ... First Team All-Big Ten ... Unanimous Big Ten All-Freshman Team ... Carolina Classic All-Tournament Team ...Hampton Inn Classic All-Tournament Team ... Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week (9/6, 11/22) ... Big Ten Freshman of the Week (9/20, 11/15) ... the only freshman to earn a spot on the 2010 AVCA All-America teams ... started all 37 matches and played in 122 sets at outside hitter ... joined Stanford's Kerri Walsh as the only freshmen to win NCAA Championship MVP honors ... ranked second on the team with 418 kills and 3.43 kills per set ... her .331 attack percentage ranked fourth on the team and seventh in the Big Ten ... hit a career-high .733 (11-0-15) against Texas in the NCAA National Semifinals vs. Texas (12/16) ... hit .382 in the NCAA Finals, the third-best mark in the 25-point rally scoring era ... led the team in kills 13 times, posting double-digits 24 times and 15 or more kills nine times ... recorded a career-best 20 kills on two occasions, including at Purdue (10/8) and in the University Park Regional Final vs. Duke (12/11) ... tallied 230 digs (1.89 digs per set) for the season... had five or more digs 23 times ... had five double-doubles, including 12 kills with no errors and a personal-best 16 digs at Wisconsin (9/26) ... registered 84 total blocks for the season with at least one block in 31 matches ... debuted with a career-best six blocks at North Carolina (8/27) ... recorded 23 aces for the season, with at least one ace in 18 matches.

High School
Four-year letterwinner at Dupont Manual Magnet ... named Miss Kentucky Volleyball, Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year and an Under Armour All-American ... earned a third place finish at the 2006 USA Junior Olympic Championships ... named MVP and won a gold medal at USAV High Performance Championships ...placed fifth and was selected to the All-Tournament Team at 2007 USA Junior Olympic Championships ... selected Prepvolleyball.com "Freshman 59," "Top 50 Junior Recruits" and ranked seventh on "Senior Aces" ... First Team Kentucky All-State ... named to the 2008 USAV Youth National Training Team and was a 2009 USAV Youth National Team Invitee ... was a four-time AAU All-American ... Volleyball Magazine "30 Underclassmen to Watch" ... 2009 JVDA National Champions and selected to JVDA All-Tournament team.

Personal
Born Deja Monique McClendon on June 27, 1992 in Cincinnati, Ohio ... parents are Roger and Suzanne McClendon ... has two brothers, Marquis (14) and Jordan (11), and one sister, Maya (16) ... father, Roger, played basketball for Cincinnati ... majoring in communications with plans to become a magazine editor ... names painting as her hobby, "The Catcher in the Rye" as her favorite book, Beyonce as her favorite entertainer, "Greys Anatomy" as her favorite TV show, the Celtics as her favorite professional sports team, "The Departed" as her favorite movie, Dwayne Wade as her favorite athlete, Jude Law as her favorite actor, Megan Good as her favorite actress and chicken fingers as her favorite food.

Quoting Coach Rose
"Deja had an unbelievable freshman season. I feel she is, without a question though, still a work in progress. She had a fantastic Final Four and had a magical season. She made great strides in her ability to pass and attack. She has to work hard to take her game to the next level. Deja is a player that people will expect to be good, and she will have a different role with the graduation of veteran players. Deja will have to step up and I think she'll see the biggest steps are from one's freshman to sophomore seasons."

McClendon's Expectations
"My expectations for the 2011 season are to work harder than we did last year, to prepare the incoming freshmen to play big roles on the team and to personally improve my defense."