2010 Induction Ceremony
For someone that didn’t think she wanted to play a sport in college, Catherine Schott certainly made the most of her time on the volleyball court, setting down an unequaled legacy at Gettysburg.
Schott picked up volleyball in middle school and grew to be a standout player at Montrose High School, but she had no intention of playing collegiately. She eventually changed her mind, and Gettysburg became the lucky recipient of the greatest volleyball player in Centennial Conference history.
Schott quickly established herself on the court, gaining All-CC First Team and All-Region First Team status as a freshman and leading Gettysburg to the conference title. She finished sixth in the entire nation by knocking down over 41 percent of her attack attempts. She racked up 528 kills on the year, 31 of which came in a sweep of conference runner-up Franklin & Marshall.
There was no sophomore slump in store for the native of Montrose, Colorado. Schott and the Bullets turned in a near-identical performance to the previous season, only this time the Bullet sophomore gained even more notoriety. She was named CC Player of the Year and she became the first player every selected from Gettysburg College to grab All-America status, landing on the second team.
Schott was tabbed the conference’s top player again in 1998. She led all of Division III in hitting percentage at a clip of over 43 percent, and she smashed the school record with 650 kills. Schott terrorized the Diplomats again with 54 kills in a pair of victories and she took the Bullets to the NCAA Tournament regional finals, racking up 53 kills in three matches.
In her final season in orange and blue, Schott went through the turns for another banner season. She was a unanimous choice for first-team all-conference received her fourth all-region first-team honor, and she was lauded as CC Player of the Year for the third time. Schott averaged nearly five kills per set to lead Gettysburg to another conference title and another appearance in the national tournament. In a five-set match against Southwestern, she set a school and conference mark with 35 kills.
At the end of four years on the court, Schott held all of Gettysburg’s attacking records and most of the marks in the Centennial Conference. She finished her career with 2,239 kills, an attack percentage of over 43 percent, and 534 total blocks. With Schott leading the way, Gettysburg won 122 matches over those four seasons, including winning 39 of 40 matches against Centennial foes.
Schott was at the top of her game off the court as well, graduating magna cum laude and belonging to a number of honor societies for leadership, political science, and economics.
After graduating from Gettysburg with degrees in political science and Spanish, Schott went on to earn her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
