Senior Morgan Anderson, regarded as one of the finest girls’ volleyball players in La Canada High School’s history, has accepted a scholarship to play at Birmingham Southern College next season.

Birmingham Southern, which plays at the NCAA Division I level in the Big South Conference, is located in Birmingham, Ala.

“At first I thought, ‘No way.’ It is all the way in Alabama,” said Anderson, who was the Rio Hondo League’s MVP as a senior and has helped the Spartans capture two consecutive league championships. “But they said I was a perfect match for them. When I went (on a recruiting trip), I fell in love with the school and the coaches. The campus is amazing.”

Anderson, a 6-foot outside hitter, was recruited by several schools, including Seton Hall, Fordham and Northern Arizona.

“I love the way the coaches run the program,” Anderson said of Birmingham Southern’s staff. “They’re really good people.”

“Morgan was a great player in leading our team to two Rio Hondo League championships,” LCHS coach Brock Turner said. “She will do really well at Birmingham Southern. I think she’ll start leading from the beginning and through her four years; she’ll work within their system.”

Anderson, an All-CIF second team selection who helped the Spartans reach the CIF playoff quarterfinals as a senior, credits her family as keys to her success. Her parents, Matt and Deanne, have provided much support through her career. “My family has always been there,” she said. “They never missed a tournament; they never missed a game.”

Anderson also has two younger sisters, including LCHS freshman Madison, who could be future Spartan standouts. Turner said he figures he could coach the Anderson sisters for 12 years.

“Morgan is a legitimate Division I athlete,” said Kenji Mukai, who serves as Anderson’s coach on the San Gabriel Volleyball Club. “She is very committed and very dedicated. Her strengths are her hitting and her attacking, and she’s very versatile.

“She is going to do great in college.”

“She had a constant craving to learn to be a better volleyball player, so she dedicated herself,” Turner said. “Now she reached her goal and her dream, which was to get a scholarship.

“She’s a great leader and a great athlete, but more than that, she is a wonderful individual. I put that above anything. What’s important is how you lead as a person. She led her teammates; she communicated well with her coaches.

“She was also great off the court, relating to her younger teammates,” Turner added. “She was a team captain where she could lead and the younger ones would follow. That’s the neat thing.

“She and (LC’s) Alex Carter are the first two players I had the opportunity to coach all four years of their high school careers. They’re wonderful people; they’ll do well in life.”