Indiana University Athletics
The Tallman Story: A Cream and Crimson Legacy
11/10/2016 11:04:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
By Jeremy Rosenthal
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Senior setter Megan Tallman is used to being a leader on the court.
She started as a freshman on the Wauconda High School volleyball team that won their first Regional Championship in program history that year.
She started midway through her freshman year at Indiana and had played in 81 straight matches coming into her senior year. In her sophomore and junior years she played in every set.
Then on Oct. 5, 2016 that all changed.
Needing just two assists to set a school record for career assists in the rally scoring era, Tallman suffered an injury that put her on the sideline, but as she has done her entire life she pushed forward and continued to be a leader.
The Early Years
Tallman grew up the daughter of Russell and Julie Tallman in the small town of Island Lake, Ill. Her parents met on the volleyball court and played beach volleyball into their 40's.
Her mother can recall her curiosity and how she never wanted to think she couldn't do something. She would hit balls in the driveway with her parents and would play until it was dark and you couldn't see the ball anymore.
"I developed a love for that game at a young age," Tallman said. "My mom and dad played and I grew up watching them play with my sister in the driveway. At a young age I really grew a love for the game."
That love carried with it sibling rivalry with her older sister Danielle, but the two grew close in Megan's freshman year of high school when Danielle was a senior. The duo played on the varsity volleyball team and did everything together. That evolved into a friendship that kept the family close together.
"That brought us closer together and made us stronger as sisters," Danielle Tallman said. "We went through the ups and down together."
"That is where our relationship really sprouted and I attribute a lot of that to how our relationship is now and how that has helped our family grow together," Megan Tallman said. "Volleyball has always been something that my family has done together and it's something I continue to do to make my family proud."
The family lived an hour from Northwestern University and her parents would take Megan to Big Ten volleyball matches. At the age of 13 Megan told her mother she wanted to play Big Ten volleyball.
"I remember being really little and seeing those huge girls," Tallman recalled. "I told my mom, that is the volleyball I want to play and that is the stage I want to be on."
Coming to Indiana
When she made her visit to Indiana during the recruiting process there was another school she was set on, but then things changed.
Tallman appreciated the family atmosphere and beauty of the campus and pressed for time with her mother during the visit the two spoke from two bathroom stalls.
Megan expressed to her mother that Indiana was the school she wanted to be at and her mom replied "they have to make you an offer first."
That offer did come and the two walked out that day crying.
Tallman came to Indiana to make an impact. Although she might not have realized the work that would need to be done she came in with a desire to build the program.
"My whole class coming in, we knew we had the chance to be an influential class," she said. "We were highly recruited and the way our attitudes were and the way we got along really made us a force to be reckoned with. As freshmen we came in and said we definitely want to make an impact."
Tallman can recall her first open gym and she struggled, setting the hitters at their chest level.
"I wasn't used to 6'3 girls jumping out of the gym and it was definitely a new experience for me," she said. At the same time, I'm a competitor and I wanted to play and be out on the court helping the team in any way I could."
Tallman said she was blessed with the opportunity to play a big role in her freshman season at Indiana and over the years has earned the respect of her teammates as a leader.
"She has a ton of influence as a person and I think that is so great to have in life as a personality," IU head coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan said. "She commands a presence about her in her personal life with her friendships and on the court playing the sport."
Making An Impact
The change in the program did not come overnight. In Tallman's freshman season the Hoosiers won one Big Ten match and she experienced being homesick to the point of wanting to come home early in her first season.
Tallman credits some of the change in the way the team has grown together. All the non-freshmen live in the same apartment complex and they routinely get together for team dinners and team movie nights.
That off the court chemistry developed into on the court chemistry and each of the last two years the team has won six Big Ten matches. But still there is unfinished business.
The goal coming into this season: to make the NCAA Tournament, something that has not been done since the 2010 season. The 2016 Hoosiers began strong with a 9-0 start for just the fourth time in program history and finished the non-conference slate at 11-2.
The Hoosiers split their first two Big Ten matches, but then dropped matches against No. 2 Minnesota and No. 3 Wisconsin. The next week the Hoosiers prepared to travel to Lincoln to take on No. 1 Nebraska. It was then Tallman would face adversity and have her mentality tested.
The Injury
It was Wednesday Oct. 5 and Tallman remembered coming from a meeting the day before where she had talked with her head coach about having an attitude about "going for it and going big in practice."
Going through a blocking drill Tallman made a block move and the second she came down she said some choice words and ran past athletic trainer Corey Hojnicki and said "Corey it's not good."
Tallman had broken that same finger in high school and knew the feeling. In high school when she had broke her finger she joked that they should cut it off, because the healing time would be less. Tallman stood in the hallway at University Gym after the injury, holding her finger with tears rolling down her face. An X-Ray later that day revealed a fracture and it was not advised for Tallman to play for at least three weeks.
Although she knew she would miss matches, Tallman quickly changed her perspective to what she could do to help the team.
"When I found out I couldn't play it definitely hit me hard, but then I realized I bring so many other things to the team besides just my play," she said. "I think everyone would agree I've been a pretty vocal leader this year and I think if you watch games you see that as well."
Her father Russell knew Megan would be back and would continue to have an impact.
"She is the most driven person I know," he said. "Don't tell her she can't do something, because she is going to prove you wrong."
Leading from the Sideline
Tallman turned her attention to how she could help the team and freshman setter Victoria Brisack. The first match Brisack started was at No. 1 Nebraska.
"I thought she handled it amazingly and so selflessly," Brisack said. "She could have shut down. No one would have blamed her for disengaging with the team a little bit and disengaging with me, because how else do you look at it other then I'm taking her spot."
"She told me 'you are so ready for this', 'this team needs you', 'it's your time', 'what can I do to help you', and everything was so positive," Brisack added."
Tallman used her voice to continue to encourage her teammates, at times during matches standing up from the bench and yelling out as another coach.
"Anything that I could do to help the team was going through my mind," Tallman said. "Being loud and being the person that inspires someone, being the person that helps someone, anything at that moment was my focus."
The Hoosiers traveled to Northwestern for a match on Oct. 23. Tallman had started practicing again and had hopes of playing in front of 40 friends and family in attendance that day.
She didn't come in until the final point and didn't touch the ball as Samantha Fogg served up an ace to give the Hoosiers the victory.
"As soon as I got onto the floor, the texts, the tweets, the posts, everything flooded in to congratulate me. I know that everyone was watching and it was definitely hard to not play at Northwestern, but the team won and that it really all I could ask for in that moment."
Coming Back
Tallman made her return to the court on Oct. 28, 23 days after she fractured her finger.
With her parents Russell and Julie sitting a few feet away Tallman served up an ace on her first play in the match. A few plays later she set a ball to freshman Kendall Beerman, who connected on a kill to give Tallman her 3,501st career assist to set the rally scoring era school record.
"I try not to cry, that is what I do," Julie Tallman said. "We were counting the assists and we knew when it happened. It's an unbelievable, surreal thing she has accomplished. When she started as a freshman we didn't think something like that would happen. She has forever made her mark on this school."
Tallman said if you were to ask her as a freshman would she set that record, she said she probably would have said no.
"Being able to get that record at home, because Indiana is my home now too and the Hoosier fans are there all the time and my parents are here all the time, that was a very special moment to hear that between sets one and two and hear the crowd cheering for me was awesome," Tallman said."
The next night the Hoosiers made a breakthrough as a team with a win against No. 13 Michigan and the following week knocked off No. 22 Ohio State.
"It is something we have seen as a team for months," Tallman said of the fight against Michigan. "We have been working on this as seniors for years and it finally came out and allowed everyone to see how we know we are as a team."
Leaving a Legacy
The legacy Tallman will leave is obvious on the court with milestone achievements, but others inside and outside of the program see more.
Dunbar-Kruzan described Tallman as a fan favorite with her passion for the game and an impact she has made as a role model for younger kids.
"We have little kids that come all the time to our matches and they love Megan," Dunbar-Kruzan said." "Parents will come up to me and say Megan found her because they didn't get her for an autograph the last time and it meant so much.
"I'm proud of them and it has been a mission of theirs to turn that around," Dunbar-Kruzan added about the senior class. "They love the program. That is one thing I know for sure. They truly love the program and the experience they have had. Megan as an individual person has really taken a handle on that and moved our program in the right direction."
Her mother Julie said she is most proud of the impact Megan has had on her teammates.
"With her leadership I'm most proud of what she has done off the court," Julie Tallman said. "The girls contact her for things in their everyday life. They look at her as someone they can count on and someone they trust. I think she is going to continue in her life to be a great leader and I think this program has helped her do that."
One of those teammates, Victoria Brisack goes back to how Tallman handled a very difficult situation when she got hurt and missed six matches.
"I was so impressed by the fact that she could be so selfless in that kind of situation," Brisack said. "That is a true testament to the kind of person she is and the character she has and the reason she has been able to help the program in the way she has. She is going to leave a legacy for sure."
If you ask Tallman how she wants to be remembered she talks about her impact on others and passion for the game.
"I want to be know as a person who took time out to care about other people," she said. "I want to be known as someone who was fun to watch on the court because her passion, you could just see it. I want to thank Hoosier Nation, because they remind me all the time why we do this and they are constantly there thanking us for all the hard work we do and the way we represent the school and the program."
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Senior setter Megan Tallman is used to being a leader on the court.
She started as a freshman on the Wauconda High School volleyball team that won their first Regional Championship in program history that year.
She started midway through her freshman year at Indiana and had played in 81 straight matches coming into her senior year. In her sophomore and junior years she played in every set.
Then on Oct. 5, 2016 that all changed.
Needing just two assists to set a school record for career assists in the rally scoring era, Tallman suffered an injury that put her on the sideline, but as she has done her entire life she pushed forward and continued to be a leader.
The Early Years
Tallman grew up the daughter of Russell and Julie Tallman in the small town of Island Lake, Ill. Her parents met on the volleyball court and played beach volleyball into their 40's.
Her mother can recall her curiosity and how she never wanted to think she couldn't do something. She would hit balls in the driveway with her parents and would play until it was dark and you couldn't see the ball anymore.
"I developed a love for that game at a young age," Tallman said. "My mom and dad played and I grew up watching them play with my sister in the driveway. At a young age I really grew a love for the game."
That love carried with it sibling rivalry with her older sister Danielle, but the two grew close in Megan's freshman year of high school when Danielle was a senior. The duo played on the varsity volleyball team and did everything together. That evolved into a friendship that kept the family close together.
"That brought us closer together and made us stronger as sisters," Danielle Tallman said. "We went through the ups and down together."
"That is where our relationship really sprouted and I attribute a lot of that to how our relationship is now and how that has helped our family grow together," Megan Tallman said. "Volleyball has always been something that my family has done together and it's something I continue to do to make my family proud."
The family lived an hour from Northwestern University and her parents would take Megan to Big Ten volleyball matches. At the age of 13 Megan told her mother she wanted to play Big Ten volleyball.
"I remember being really little and seeing those huge girls," Tallman recalled. "I told my mom, that is the volleyball I want to play and that is the stage I want to be on."
Coming to Indiana
When she made her visit to Indiana during the recruiting process there was another school she was set on, but then things changed.
Tallman appreciated the family atmosphere and beauty of the campus and pressed for time with her mother during the visit the two spoke from two bathroom stalls.
Megan expressed to her mother that Indiana was the school she wanted to be at and her mom replied "they have to make you an offer first."
That offer did come and the two walked out that day crying.
Tallman came to Indiana to make an impact. Although she might not have realized the work that would need to be done she came in with a desire to build the program.
"My whole class coming in, we knew we had the chance to be an influential class," she said. "We were highly recruited and the way our attitudes were and the way we got along really made us a force to be reckoned with. As freshmen we came in and said we definitely want to make an impact."
Tallman can recall her first open gym and she struggled, setting the hitters at their chest level.
"I wasn't used to 6'3 girls jumping out of the gym and it was definitely a new experience for me," she said. At the same time, I'm a competitor and I wanted to play and be out on the court helping the team in any way I could."
Tallman said she was blessed with the opportunity to play a big role in her freshman season at Indiana and over the years has earned the respect of her teammates as a leader.
"She has a ton of influence as a person and I think that is so great to have in life as a personality," IU head coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan said. "She commands a presence about her in her personal life with her friendships and on the court playing the sport."
Making An Impact
The change in the program did not come overnight. In Tallman's freshman season the Hoosiers won one Big Ten match and she experienced being homesick to the point of wanting to come home early in her first season.
Tallman credits some of the change in the way the team has grown together. All the non-freshmen live in the same apartment complex and they routinely get together for team dinners and team movie nights.
That off the court chemistry developed into on the court chemistry and each of the last two years the team has won six Big Ten matches. But still there is unfinished business.
The goal coming into this season: to make the NCAA Tournament, something that has not been done since the 2010 season. The 2016 Hoosiers began strong with a 9-0 start for just the fourth time in program history and finished the non-conference slate at 11-2.
The Hoosiers split their first two Big Ten matches, but then dropped matches against No. 2 Minnesota and No. 3 Wisconsin. The next week the Hoosiers prepared to travel to Lincoln to take on No. 1 Nebraska. It was then Tallman would face adversity and have her mentality tested.
The Injury
It was Wednesday Oct. 5 and Tallman remembered coming from a meeting the day before where she had talked with her head coach about having an attitude about "going for it and going big in practice."
Going through a blocking drill Tallman made a block move and the second she came down she said some choice words and ran past athletic trainer Corey Hojnicki and said "Corey it's not good."
Tallman had broken that same finger in high school and knew the feeling. In high school when she had broke her finger she joked that they should cut it off, because the healing time would be less. Tallman stood in the hallway at University Gym after the injury, holding her finger with tears rolling down her face. An X-Ray later that day revealed a fracture and it was not advised for Tallman to play for at least three weeks.
Although she knew she would miss matches, Tallman quickly changed her perspective to what she could do to help the team.
"When I found out I couldn't play it definitely hit me hard, but then I realized I bring so many other things to the team besides just my play," she said. "I think everyone would agree I've been a pretty vocal leader this year and I think if you watch games you see that as well."
Her father Russell knew Megan would be back and would continue to have an impact.
"She is the most driven person I know," he said. "Don't tell her she can't do something, because she is going to prove you wrong."
Leading from the Sideline
Tallman turned her attention to how she could help the team and freshman setter Victoria Brisack. The first match Brisack started was at No. 1 Nebraska.
"I thought she handled it amazingly and so selflessly," Brisack said. "She could have shut down. No one would have blamed her for disengaging with the team a little bit and disengaging with me, because how else do you look at it other then I'm taking her spot."
"She told me 'you are so ready for this', 'this team needs you', 'it's your time', 'what can I do to help you', and everything was so positive," Brisack added."
Tallman used her voice to continue to encourage her teammates, at times during matches standing up from the bench and yelling out as another coach.
"Anything that I could do to help the team was going through my mind," Tallman said. "Being loud and being the person that inspires someone, being the person that helps someone, anything at that moment was my focus."
The Hoosiers traveled to Northwestern for a match on Oct. 23. Tallman had started practicing again and had hopes of playing in front of 40 friends and family in attendance that day.
She didn't come in until the final point and didn't touch the ball as Samantha Fogg served up an ace to give the Hoosiers the victory.
"As soon as I got onto the floor, the texts, the tweets, the posts, everything flooded in to congratulate me. I know that everyone was watching and it was definitely hard to not play at Northwestern, but the team won and that it really all I could ask for in that moment."
Coming Back
Tallman made her return to the court on Oct. 28, 23 days after she fractured her finger.
With her parents Russell and Julie sitting a few feet away Tallman served up an ace on her first play in the match. A few plays later she set a ball to freshman Kendall Beerman, who connected on a kill to give Tallman her 3,501st career assist to set the rally scoring era school record.
"I try not to cry, that is what I do," Julie Tallman said. "We were counting the assists and we knew when it happened. It's an unbelievable, surreal thing she has accomplished. When she started as a freshman we didn't think something like that would happen. She has forever made her mark on this school."
Tallman said if you were to ask her as a freshman would she set that record, she said she probably would have said no.
"Being able to get that record at home, because Indiana is my home now too and the Hoosier fans are there all the time and my parents are here all the time, that was a very special moment to hear that between sets one and two and hear the crowd cheering for me was awesome," Tallman said."
The next night the Hoosiers made a breakthrough as a team with a win against No. 13 Michigan and the following week knocked off No. 22 Ohio State.
"It is something we have seen as a team for months," Tallman said of the fight against Michigan. "We have been working on this as seniors for years and it finally came out and allowed everyone to see how we know we are as a team."
Leaving a Legacy
The legacy Tallman will leave is obvious on the court with milestone achievements, but others inside and outside of the program see more.
Dunbar-Kruzan described Tallman as a fan favorite with her passion for the game and an impact she has made as a role model for younger kids.
"We have little kids that come all the time to our matches and they love Megan," Dunbar-Kruzan said." "Parents will come up to me and say Megan found her because they didn't get her for an autograph the last time and it meant so much.
"I'm proud of them and it has been a mission of theirs to turn that around," Dunbar-Kruzan added about the senior class. "They love the program. That is one thing I know for sure. They truly love the program and the experience they have had. Megan as an individual person has really taken a handle on that and moved our program in the right direction."
Her mother Julie said she is most proud of the impact Megan has had on her teammates.
"With her leadership I'm most proud of what she has done off the court," Julie Tallman said. "The girls contact her for things in their everyday life. They look at her as someone they can count on and someone they trust. I think she is going to continue in her life to be a great leader and I think this program has helped her do that."
One of those teammates, Victoria Brisack goes back to how Tallman handled a very difficult situation when she got hurt and missed six matches.
"I was so impressed by the fact that she could be so selfless in that kind of situation," Brisack said. "That is a true testament to the kind of person she is and the character she has and the reason she has been able to help the program in the way she has. She is going to leave a legacy for sure."
If you ask Tallman how she wants to be remembered she talks about her impact on others and passion for the game.
"I want to be know as a person who took time out to care about other people," she said. "I want to be known as someone who was fun to watch on the court because her passion, you could just see it. I want to thank Hoosier Nation, because they remind me all the time why we do this and they are constantly there thanking us for all the hard work we do and the way we represent the school and the program."
Players Mentioned
Outside Hitter
/ Women's Volleyball
Setter
/ Women's Volleyball
Defensive Specialist
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