Big West Quartet Captures Silver Medal In Indoor Women's Volleyball

8/11/2012

Big West representatives collected more Olympic medals in the 2012 London Games with USA capturing the silver medal in women’s indoor volleyball after falling to Brazil,11-25, 25-17, 25-20 and 25-17, in a rematch of the 2008 Beijing finals. Former Long Beach State athletes Danielle Scott-Arruda and Tayyiba Haneef-Park, along with coaches Paula Weishoff and Jamie Morrison, were part of the American team. 

Scott-Arruda, competing in her fifth Olympics, was named National Player of the Year in 1993 after leading the 49ers to the 1993 National Championship.  Making her third Olympic appearance was Haneef-Park, who led the 49ers to the 2001 National Championship match as well as being a member of the 1998 National Championship team.  Both Scott-Arruda and Haneef-Park played for Team USA in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, helping the team to a silver medal.

Weishoff, who made her first trip to the Olympics as an assistant coach, is head coach of the UC Irvine women’s volleyball team.  Morrison, who assists Weishoff on the Anteaters’ women’s volleyball team, appeared in his second Olympics, but first as the U.S. Women’s National Team assistant coach/technical coordinator, a similar role he held with the 2008 Olympic Games gold-medal winning U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team.

The Quartet joins Long Beach State's Misty May-Treanor, UC Santa Barbara's Jason Lezak and UC Irvine women's water polo coach Dan Klatt as Big West representatives who have achieved medals at these Olympics.  May-Treanor won her third straight gold medal in women's beach volleyball and Lezak captured a silver medal as a member of the USA men's 4x100 free relay team.  Klatt coached the USA women’s water polo team to a gold medal victory.