PEARCY -- Lake Hamilton senior Morgan Fincham will be continuing her volleyball career following an impressive senior campaign as the setter signed Tuesday morning to play with John Brown University next year.
Fincham tallied 407 assists with 3.9 assists per set this season and just 23 errors on 1,683 ball-handling attempts, but playing volleyball has been a lifelong attraction for her.
"Morgan was a playmaker," Lake Hamilton head volleyball coach Karen Smith. "She was a point-scorer.
"Whether it was scoring, offensively -- she's worked, the three years she's been with me, she's worked on being a smart setter because a setter is a pretty important position. I saw that the most this year."
Prior to the signing, Smith recalled that her relationship with Fincham went back to when her daughter and Fincham's older sister played volleyball together.
"Morgan came to all of the games, of course, to watch her big sister play, but our kids also played some travel volleyball," she said. "That's when I really got to meet Morgan because Morgan was at all of the tournaments with her purse with all her treasures. She showed everybody her treasures."
As Fincham grew, her desire to play volleyball continued to grow as well, and she started to play at the Boys and Girls Club, and later with the Lake Hamilton Optimist Club volleyball program, while being coached by Smith's daughter, Courtney.
"I get to talking to coach (Stacey) Scott when she's in junior high, and coach Scott tells me that Morgan can play anywhere she wants to," Smith said. "'She can make things happen; just put her anywhere you need her.' Coming up to me, we have three years of learning, growing, watching her develop into a very smart player.
"Morgan was the one that was there that worked hard every single day. Morgan was the one who would stay after practice, whether it was something she was working on or if maybe her teammate needed to work on something. Morgan was always willing to help and work."
Fincham said her love for the sport grew from watching her sister play.
"Volleyball has clearly been my number one thing," she said. "I grew up watching my sister play, and knew when Suzanne played college volleyball, that was a dream of mine that I wanted to play college volleyball. I worked through different teams, and I just wanted to develop into that college volleyball player."
JBU head volleyball coach Ken Carver said he was impressed by Fincham's performance " with a lot of humility and grace" at a four-day camp held on the university's campus in Siloam Springs.
"It was just a really good time at our camp to really see what we had seen on the club volleyball side of things, and even on film, really getting to know her as a person," he said. "That's what really sealed the deal for us."
Fincham said she fell in love with the university during her visit.
"I fell in love with the people there," she said. "The coach was so supportive. It was just everything I'd hoped for in a school -- great Christian values and just a beautiful campus that I felt comfortable in."
The Golden Eagles use a two-setter system, bringing back a sophomore and a redshirt senior from last season. Carver said Fincham will have a level playing field with another new setter on next year's team.
"What I always tell our returning is their job is to work hard, so I can't replace them, and my job is to go out and find players that are going to raise the bar," Carver said. "Definitely, I think Morgan can come in and challenge the players that we have.
"It's really going to be a matter of how quickly she can pick up our system and jell with our players. I definitely think that she's of that caliber to make some noise right off the bat as a freshman player."
Smith said she is excited to see Fincham play on the collegiate level after seeing her desire to excel in the sport early.
"I've always known what she was capable of," Smith said. "Morgan is not as aggressive, so we had to watch her develop. I always knew that she was going to be a good ballplayer because she had the heart for the game.
"That's a lot of it for kids. Some kids have a lot of athleticism, and they don't really apply it because they don't have the heart for the game. But Morgan had athleticism, the heart for the game, the work ethic, the whole package. I always knew she would do well and succeed."
Sports on 12/12/2018