Kaz Brown

Personal: Brown was one of five finalists for 2023 Athletes Unlimited Civic Leadership Award presented by EY. Born in Mesa, Arizona, Brown has a younger sister, Kacia, who plays volleyball at New Mexico State. She attributes her growth to the influence of former Kentucky assistant volleyball coach Anders Nelson. Brown's childhood interests included theatre, dance, basketball, and track and field. Her hobbies now encompass reading, content creation, and spending quality time with friends and family.

2023 Season: Brown accumulated 2,135 leaderboard points to earn 20th place in the first Athletes Unlimited Volleyball season. She was a three-time Match MVP honoree and tied the single-season record after leading the league with 33 solo blocks. Additionally, she ranked second among the league’s middle blockers with 22 block assists. Throughout the season, Brown appeared in 43 sets over 15 matches, hitting .300 with 91 kills and adding 14 digs. Brown received MVP 1 status after notching five solo blocks with two block assists and seven kills against Team De La Cruz in the Week One finale. She also collected a season-high nine kills against Team Hentz in the Week Four finale and against Team Hentz on November 5. She hit .643 against Team Hentz on October 30, en route to a season-high 334 points. Notably, Brown registered eight matches with 100 or more leaderboard points, including five outings with 200 or more points. She also participated in the Athletes Unlimited Volleyball Exhibition Tour.

Other Professional Experience: Brown has carved out a four-year professional volleyball career, gracing courts in Germany, Ukraine, France, and Greece. She showcased her talent with USC Munster during the 2018-19 campaign before joining Khimik Yuzhny in 2019-20. In the 2020-21 season, she donned the jersey of Beziers Volley before making the move to AEK Athens in 2021-22. She competed for the Pro Volleyball Federation’s Orlando Valkyries in 2024. She tallied 68 total blocks and 213 kills during the league’s inaugural season.

At Kentucky: Brown made a significant impact during her four-year tenure at Kentucky, where she played in 124 matches from 2014-17. Her impressive achievements include being honored with Honorable Mention All-America status by the American Volleyball Coaches Association during her senior year. She earned AVCA All-Southeast Region commendations three times and was a three-time First-Team All-Southeastern Conference honoree. Her excellence extended to academics, as she secured Academic All-SEC distinction three times. Brown was also a member of the 2014 SEC All-Freshman Team. Her collegiate career culminated with remarkable statistics, including 1,015 kills and a .357 hitting percentage over 427 sets. She stands as one of only 18 players in program history with 1,000 career kills and ranks second on Kentucky's career hitting percentage list. Brown's prowess is further evident in her second-place position on the Wildcats' career block assists list with 509. She was one of just five players in school history to achieve 1,000 or more career kills during the 25-point rally scoring era and tallied an impressive 575 career blocks, the most by a Kentucky player in the 25-point rally scoring era. Brown recorded 40 matches with 10 or more kills during her career, and she holds Kentucky single-match records for blocks in both four-set (13) and five-set (11) matches. Her contributions helped lead the Wildcats to a share of the 2017 SEC title. During her sophomore season, she ranked third in NCAA Division I by averaging 1.61 blocks per set. Her achievements include registering 13 blocks in a four-set match against Louisville as a sophomore, a feat that ranked second in the nation. Brown also authored 180 total blocks during the 2015 campaign, ranking seventh in the country.