Suzanne Eagye Cox

Suzanne Eagye Cox (née Eagye) is a retired volleyball player who played collegiately for the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball team. She played for the team that won the 1987 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament.

Suzanne Eagye Cox
Personal information
Full nameSuzanne Eagye Cox
(formerly Suzanne Eagye)
NationalityAmerican
BornSuzanne Eagye
Height6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Volleyball information
PositionMiddle blocker

Early years

Eagye played basketball for Point Loma High School in San Diego.[1] In one game, she scored 32 points in the first three quarters, then was taken out by her coach when the team had a large lead.[2] She graduated in 1984.[3]

College

Eagye was not heavily recruited, but Hawai'i head coach Dave Shoji, who had three national championships (1979, 1982, 1983) when he recruited her, but he would later talk about "Emily Hartong and Suzanne Eagye as examples of players who were not heavily recruited, but while playing at UH they worked hard and elevated their game".[4]

As a freshman, she helped her team to earn an invitation to the 1984 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, but they fell in the first round to Oregon. As a sophomore, the team again earned an invitation to the 1985 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament. This year they made it to the regional semifinal, but lost to rival Pacific. As a junior, she played well enough to be named to the AVCA Division I All-American first team.[5] The team once again earned a trip to the 1986 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament. They made it all the way to the Regional finals, before meeting Pacific and bowing out of the tournament. As a senior, she was again named to the AVCA All-American first team.[6] The team returned to the 1987 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament. They won their first two matches without dropping a set, then faced Pacific for the third time in three year in the regional final. Eagye's would later talk about her "favorite Klum Gym memory ... defeating nemesis Pacific in the 1987 regional".[7] After advancing to the Final Four, Hawai'i faced Illinois in the national semifinal. Illinois had an almost insurmountable 14–8 lead in the first set, but Hawai't, facing 7 set points, came back to win 19–17. They went on to win the match in straight sets.[8] In the championship match they faced Stanford, who started out with lead in each of the first three games. Despite that, Hawai'i won two of those three sets, then after giving up a single point in the final set, scored 14 consecutive points to win the set, the match and the National Championship. Eagre scored "the winning points in all three games for Hawaii by blocking returns across the middle of the net".[9] Eagye and her teammates had taken a victory lap around the court after defeating Pacific—they would repeat the circuit after the NCAA title match.[7] She was named to the All Tournament Team.[10]

She won the Broderick Award, (now the Honda Sports Award) as the best female collegiate volleyball player in 1987–88. Coincidentally, she had some thoughts about this award shortly before she was chosen as the winner. She recalled, "I was walking down the hall at school a few days before I found out I won it, and I saw a poster with the 1987 winners. I thought, 'it would be so neat to win an award like that.'"[11]

Professional career

Eagye played professionally in Europe, with her last serious volleyball played for a team in Switzerland in 1989.[8][5]

Awards and honors
  • 1986 AVCA All-American[6]
  • 1987 AVCA All-American[6]
  • 1987 Final Four All Tournament Team[10]
  • 1988 Honda Sports Award[12]
  • 2004 Inducted into Hawai'i Hall of Fame as a member of the 1987 Rainbow Wahine Volleyball Team[13]

References
  1. "Hawaii Eliminates SDSU in Volleyball". Los Angeles Times. 1985-12-08. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  2. Rick. "1983-84: A Titan Was Emerging in Poway | SAN DIEGO PREP SPORTS HISTORY". Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  3. "San Diego Volleyball : Hawaii Avenges Earlier Loss to San Diego State". Los Angeles Times. 1985-11-03. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  4. "LONG STORY SHORT WITH LESLIE WILCOX Dave Shoji | PBS Hawai'i". www.pbshawaii.org. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  5. "These days Eagye has other reasons to smile | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper". the.honoluluadvertiser.com. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  6. Dan Cisco (1999). Hawai'i Sports: History, Facts, and Statistics. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 385–386. ISBN 978-0-8248-2121-0.
  7. "Honolulu Star-Bulletin Keeping Score". volleybows.tripod.com. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  8. "Honolulu Star-Bulletin Sports". archives.starbulletin.com. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  9. "Hawaii Defeats Stanford to Win Volleyball Title". Los Angeles Times. 1987-12-20. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  10. "Conquering her emotions, Hawaii's Suzanne Eagye doomed Stanford to..." UPI. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  11. "Suzanne Eagye at U. Hawaii — The Forerunner". www.forerunner.com. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  12. "Volleyball". CWSA. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  13. "1987 Rainbow Wahine Volleyball Team (2004) - Hall of Fame". University of Hawai'i at Manoa Athletics. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
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