Notre Dame volleyball standout Courtney Tatum signs NLI with Mineral Area College

Notre Dame volleyball senior and future Mineral Area College Cardinal Courtney Tatum, bottom middle, with her family and coaches during signing day on Monday, Nov. 25. Pictured in the front row from left to right: Tatum's father, Tatum and Tatum's mother. Pictured in the back row from left to right: Notre Dame assistant coach Alexana Koishor, Notre Dame head coach Meridith Brinkmeyer and Mineral Area head coach Tim Copeland.

Kaiden Karper ~ kkarper@semoball.com

After a career where she won three district championships with Notre Dame volleyball, senior Courtney Tatum will continue her playing career at Mineral Area College.

One of the area’s premier players, Tatum announced her decision during a signing day ceremony held at the Notre Dame High School gymnasium on Monday, Nov. 25.

“I chose Mineral Area because I feel like it’s a good college and I think it will really help me to where I want to be in volleyball,” Tatum said. “It means a lot to me because a lot of people don’t get the chance to play the sport that they love in college, so I just feel very grateful.”

The middle hitter had a decorated senior campaign after ranking fourth in the state in blocks (132), shattering the school record in single-season blocks (119) previously set in 2004. Tatum also paced the Lady Bulldogs in kills (343) and led the team in hitting percentage (.301) for the second straight year.

“I’m going to miss the fun she brought to the team,” Notre Dame head coach Meridith Brinkmeyer said. “She knew when to be serious and to work hard, but she was also a great leader to the underclassmen and just alongside her fellow senior classmates too. You knew she was going to give it 110%. I mean, she played multiple games sick, and she was still giving it a roll. Just that drive, that passion that she has for volleyball was fun to be around.”

Notre Dame senior Courtney Tatum serves the ball against Scott City on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at Notre Dame High School. (Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com)

Along with that, Tatum was one of the anchors of a 2024 Notre Dame team that won 20-plus games for the fifth consecutive season and reached the Class 3 state tournament before falling to eventual state champion Potosi.

“She’s the type of player that really didn't care about who got the credit as long as we were winning,” Brinkmeyer said. “She was all about it, and that's very rare. A lot of times nowadays you kind of see like, ‘oh, I want to get all the kills,’ or, ‘I want to do all this.’ But she just had fun out there with her teammates and really just wanted to have the team do the best that they could. That's something very special about her.”

Volleyball has been an integral part of Tatum’s life ever since she was 12 years old and began playing in sixth grade. As the years flew by, Tatum said that it was not until she competed at the varsity level in high school when she discovered volleyball was her true love.

“I fell in love with it around my sophomore year,” Tatum said. “I just really liked the team and I had a lot of friends, so it was just really fun.”

Notre Dame volleyball senior and Mineral Area College commit Courtney Tatum, front middle, with her Lady Bulldog teammates during signing day on Monday, Nov. 25. (Kaiden Karper ~ kkarper@semoball.com)

Tatum will return to the court next fall where she will be wearing the red and black for a Mineral Area College (MAC) volleyball program that has captured five regional championships, made six NJCAA National Tournament appearances and finished ranked in the national junior college top 20 every year since 2012 under 20-year head coach Tim Copeland.

“I like her character,” Copeland said. “Part of what I do at MAC is make sure I have kids that not only can play, but also represent well off-the-court. She's a very nice young lady and also brings talent with her height, and her middle blocking is really good. So, I'm looking forward to that and looking forward to working on different aspects of her game.”