Q&A with Marlow Bruneau

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Fourth-year Marlow Bruneau is a setter on the Virginia volleyball team. As a captain playing in every match, Bruneau currently leads the squad in assists. Virginia will play its next four matches in Memorial Gymnasium, beginning with North Carolina and NC State this weekend. The Tar Heels will visit Charlottesville on Friday, while the Wolfpack come to town on Saturday. Both matches are set to begin at 7 p.m.

Question: There hasn’t been a team that has stood out in the ACC so far this season. With the first half of the conference schedule complete, what do you expect from the second half?
Bruneau: Right now, Clemson is in first place, but has three losses, so really anyone can still win this conference. All of the teams are really comparable to one another, so you always have to bring your “A” game.

Question: Five of your first seven ACC contests were played on the road. How much motivation and relief is it to know that you’ll be playing five of your last seven matches in Mem Gym?
Bruneau: It is so nice to play in Mem Gym. The crowd is amazing, the band is loud and Cavman is awesome. We definitely generate a lot more emotion playing at home, so the fans need to keep coming to the games.

Question: As a fourth-year, what has been the highlight to your career so far?
Bruneau: The highlight of my career was beating undefeated Clemson last year 3-0. Anyone who didn’t see our ridiculous comeback really missed out.

Question: What do you plan to do after graduation?
Bruneau: I am a nursing major so I am planning on working in a hospital hopefully on an ICU floor. I have no idea where I will end up, maybe here, Minnesota, Boston, Chicago, or North Carolina.

Question: What has been your favorite vacation spot?
Bruneau: I have had great vacations and with different people. I was born in Montana and my grandparents still live on a ranch south of Glacier Park. We visit them at least every Fourth of July for the rodeo, boxing smoker, steak fry, concert, street dance and keg hockey. It’s definitely small town fun.

Spring break of my junior year of high school, I traveled with my family to San Pedro, Belize. We were on Ambergris Caye off the coast of mainland Belize. The island is so small everyone drives around in golf carts. We went parasailing, scuba diving and fishing.

First year of college, I spent spring break went with Shannon Davis, a Virginia soccer player and Shannon’s parents at Grand Cayman. Everyone else got a nice tan, but I got fried.

And then over the summer, I studied abroad in Valencia, Spain with one of my roommates who is now in my sorority. It was my first visit to Europe and we had a blast.

Question: When was the first time you were on an airplane?
Bruneau: I don’t remember the first time I was on a plane, but I do remember the first time I was on an airplane by myself. I was six flying out to visit my grandparents in Montana. I was terrified that either the plane was going to crash or that no one would be there to pick me up. I survived.

Question: What was your best Halloween costume?
Bruneau: In first grade, I found an antler headband, dressed in brown and was thrilled to be a reindeer. But someone called me Rudolph, so I took off my headband and cried for the rest of the day. For the next four years I was obsessed with being a 50’s girl.

Question: What would the title of your autobiography be?
Bruneau: Making People Laugh when You Really Aren’t Funny Since 1987