 Our third inductee is Jessica Benzley. Jessica was one of the early standouts for the women's volleyball program, totaling 991 kills, 803 digs, and 209 service aces from 2002 to 2005. She also played basketball and softball for the Mustangs. When I think of Jessica Benzley, she is just awesome and fun. She is literally down for anything. She, it's funny because her life actually kind of reflects the way that I remember how she played volleyball. She is always 100% ready to go, regardless of what it is. It could be something simple as, you know, let's make dinner or and she's like, all right, let's get a plan and let's go. That's kind of how she's always been. When she was the team captain, she made it a point to just have everyone become a family, you know, like she had that infectious personality that because she was always smiling and ready for fun and that kind of spread into her play as well. Her skills came natural to her, but it's someone that has the personality that shines through not, you know, off the court as well as on the court. That's why you recognize those kind of people. Anybody can come to practice, put the time in and, you know, come to games and have amazing stats. But it's the people that actually show up and spend the extra time and, you know, want to get to know their players and who they play with and not just play with them, you know, like it's making those friendships off the court and her personality with being so outgoing as she was. She literally was friends with everybody. I mean, and not just volleyball. You name the sport, she was probably friends with the majority of everyone on every team. You know, there's just, there's something about her approach and she's easygoing, but you also know that she means business. That she's just, she's easy to be taught by. You know, I mean, even when we were juniors and seniors on the team, you know, we had freshmen that would come in. She would, if somebody would make a mistake, she would just pull them to the side and say, you know, all you have to do is change your approach or, you know, angle your hand differently. And like, she didn't make it a big deal. You know, she would just pull them over to the side and then she'd be like, all right, let's try again, you know, like it was just easy. From the class of 2006, it is my honor to welcome Jessica Benzley into the Dick Watts Athletics Hall of Fame. Everybody, that was awesome. Amy did a terrific job. So thank you so much. I'm going to step back from the microphone because I'm known for like talking really loudly. So don't mind me shouting at you. It's just kind of what I do. So first of all, thank you so much. I'm so excited and honored to be here. It's amazing to see how the athletic department has grown, how the university has grown. Sadly, I've been moving all around the country and having stepped foot in campus in 10 years. And boy, I was in for a shock today. So show up, see the tailgate happening. I'm like, holy cow, this looks like fun. And then walk on this beautiful little stroll through the woods. And then I'm at this first off, the four most beautiful beach volleyball courts you ever did see. And man, was I jealous. And then to the football game, I was like, this is so much fun. I mean, we found our own ways to have fun. But it just looks like the school has grown. And it's amazing what you guys have done. Also, even though I was jealous, I can't tell you how proud I was that my school, my alma mater was the first to add NCAA beach volleyball. Like that has been my love and my passion and everything that I've done since I left. So to see that pop up on my news feed one morning when I'm checking Facebook, I was like, holy cow, like that's really amazing. Also, I can't thank enough my parents and my family for being here and your endless support and coming to my games and even teaching me to play. Me and my dad used to go down to our neighborhood beach and play beach doubles back in the day before I even played on a sports team. Me and my mom would have a softball catch in the yard. So definitely thanks to my family. And also my teammates. I've made two of the best friends of my life here playing volleyball at Villa Jolie. So, Shayna Dixon, who's here. We met freshman year. We played on the team together. She went on to Towson, but I wasn't letting her go. So we stayed roommates all through college and are still best friends to this day. And then Amy, who did an amazing job in the video again still best friends to this day and was such a fun co-captain for the team and we had so many great memories together. So thank you Amy. And then thank you Stevenson Athletics for putting this all together. The videos, the banquet, the game today, everything has been a class act and so amazing. And also congrats to my fellow inductees. It's amazing to be inducted with Alicia who is my roommate in college. So pretty awesome when I saw her name show off. I was like oh my gosh that's amazing. So we get to do this together. And they say I played basketball and softball. She played them much better than me. And thank god for volleyball or I would not be standing up here today. I'm gonna take you through like a really quick version of my story and what I've been doing since I left. And Hal Villajuli, now Stevenson, the business communications program which up there in the back. And athletics and volleyball have gotten me to where I am today. So basically I left college. I knew that volleyball was my passion and what I wanted to do. So I decided to go after any coaching job I could. And I landed D1 assistant at Loyola College. So I thought that was my dream. I was like sweet but I kind of wanted a backup plan too. So I went and got my master's at University of Baltimore in design. And thanks to a great foundation in business communications I got to bypass all of my design courses and my writing courses and dive right into the heart of it. So that was super awesome. Discovered that coaching wasn't really for me. Like I loved it and I love teaching people stuff. What I didn't love is waking up for 6 a.m. weight training then going to 12 to 3 team practice then going to 6 to 8 individuals at night and going to school full-time. And having to bartend on the side because I thought 21 grand a year was a really good salary. So I did that for two years somehow managed to graduate at the same time and bartend and I don't really remember those two years of my life. It was like a lot of sleeping and parking lots and trying not to be late to things. But after all of that I got out of school I had done some design work and I was like well what should I do? I went and sold insurance. So I'm making good money really like enjoying life. When I was here at Villa Julie I got an awesome internship at Inside La Crosse magazine. And while I had that internship we spent our Saturdays in the office writing college game day write-ups. I didn't really know that much about La Crosse. Sorry Paul but I like faked it till I made it and read some good articles thanks to being a part of the newspaper here at school. But the great part about it is I made amazing contacts. So Warrior and Brian were two of the main sponsors at Inside La Crosse magazine. I became friends with a lot of the guys just through hanging out the office. We'd all go out for drinks and stuff afterwards. So I'm selling insurance for nine months and my phone rings. It's the marketing manager for Warrior and he's like hey what are you up to? Haven't talked to the guy in like two years. I was like I graduated grad school but I'm selling insurance and he's like oh well Brian's starting volleyball and I was like the only volleyball player they knew because they all played La Crosse. So he immediately thought of me and called me and was like you should go for this job. We're looking for some like a go-getter that's entry level because we don't have like a huge budget for it but I think you'd be great. I was like okay so what does like a product person do and he's like well you get to make your own line of volleyball equipment and I was like well that sounds cool. So next thing I know I'm getting flown up to Boston and my interview for this job they moved me up there and I start and get to develop my online volleyball equipment. So I was like well that was pretty cool. So they're owned by New Balance. I weaseled my way into New Balance. I worked at Team Sports there for a long time like five years. Then I kind of loved footwear and I was doing apparel so I went down to the Muckboot company, landed a job at Keen, moved to Portland Oregon and now I just got a job at Teva which most of you might say Tiva but it's in Santa Barbara California and just moved there three weeks ago. So that was a long convoluted way and how I bring it back to Villa Jolie is I can't foundation the business communications program specifically gave me and I can't tell you how much easier life has been having the foundation of being a volleyball player. I moved to Boston I didn't know a soul. I've made some of the best friends of my life just because I showed up to the court to play. I did the same thing in Portland again didn't know a soul just started playing volleyball and have met amazing people and now I'm in Santa Barbara and I have no friends and I showed up to the courts twice and people are super nice so I'm really hoping like that works out for me too but anyway we'll see but it's just amazing to be here thank you guys for choosing me thank you everyone for your support especially my family that came here today congrats other inductees and go Mustangs!