Spike squad sensation
“I was absolutely gassed,” said Laura DeBruler Santos, recalling the intense volleyball game against perennial national champion Penn State back in September of 2010. She was still recovering from a bout with mono and wasn’t at full strength.
Coach Kevin Hambly gave DeBruler Santos (BS, ’11, psychology) a rest because she didn’t play well in the fourth set and needed to recharge. When she returned in the fifth and deciding set, she found out what it meant to be “in the zone.”
DeBruler Santos led the Illini to a stunning victory in one of her greatest memories during a stellar career from 2007 through 2010. In honor of this career, the LAS alum was inducted this past year to the Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame.
During her time studying psychology at Illinois, DeBruler Santos racked up many awards, including a First-Team All-American in 2009 and First-Team All-Big Ten in 2008 and 2009.
In 2010, she left the program as number one in career kills (1,883) and attacks (4,806), and eighth in digs (1,117). But those numbers would’ve been even higher if not for a season-ending injury her senior year just three games after setting the all-time kills record.
During warm-ups against Michigan, she hurt her wrist but opted to play; she later learned she had broken her wrist. When the game began, she went for a tough ball with her back against the referee stand. As she came down, she became unbalanced and landed on her left leg “in a weird way,” tearing her ACL and ending her year.
Because of the shortened season, DeBruler Santos petitioned the NCAA for another year of eligibility, but she was told she had played one and a half too many sets to qualify.
It was a tough way to end her career, but she said, “I absolutely loved my time at Illinois playing with Kevin, the best coach in the country. We were undersized, but we were gritty.”
DeBruler Santos grew up in Downers Grove, Illinois, where her first exposure to volleyball came when she tagged along for her older sister Jessica (BS, ’09, animal science; MD, ’13, veterinary medicine)’s games, coached by her father.
She began playing in fifth grade and then started with traveling club teams three years later. In high school, she continued to play club volleyball and starred for Downers Grove North in three sports—volleyball, track, and badminton. She followed in the footsteps of her older sister, Jessica, who was second in state in singles badminton.
DeBruler Santos also has a twin, Karen (BS, ’13 psychology), an LAS alum who majored in psychology as well.
Visiting the campus when Jessica attended was what first drew DeBruler Santos to Illinois. But it also helped that Hambly recruited her for the front row. Because she was relatively short for the front row—5 feet, 10 inches tall—most other schools sought her for the back row.
Hambly could see that she was able to make up for her sub-6-foot height with a powerful overhand strike as an outside hitter.
“I think my arm swing was the biggest factor,” she notes. “My arm swing was quick, and the speed of the ball that would come off it was really heavy.”
DeBruler Santos started as a freshman when one of the seniors was injured. In her first game against Bowling Green State University, she had 28 kills.“That put me on the map, and I just kept playing,” she said. “I loved it.”
Ironically, DeBruler Santos would later work as an assistant coach at Bowling Green, where she met her husband, Rodnei Santos, also an assistant coach there. Rodnei, a native of Brazil, played volleyball at Pepperdine, where he finished as the school’s ninth highest in career blocks.
Before DeBruler Santos turned to coaching, she went pro, playing for the NUC Volleyball club in Switzerland. During her first season, however, her knee began to swell—cartilage issues.
“The doctor told me if I wanted to run around with my kids when I’m 40, I should stop playing,” she said. So, in 2012, she worked as a volunteer assistant at Illinois before becoming an assistant coach at Western Illinois, then Bowling Green.
DeBruler Santos said her psychology degree from Illinois has informed her career every step of the way, whether it’s coaching or her current position as the assistant director of recruitment and student success at Ohio University in Athens.
“Psychology prepares you for dealing with people, and I’ve always been a people person,” she said. DeBruler Santos is also a new mother because in 2023 she and Rodnei had a baby boy, Alexander, “who keeps me very busy.”
DeBruler Santos’ teams excelled and raised Illinois’ profile, but they never got past the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. However, one year after she left, the Illini reached the national finals. So, in volleyball terms, you might say that her teams served as the “setter” for the 2011 success.
As she puts it, “Things just really worked out at Illinois. All the stars aligned."
Editor's note: This story first appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of The Quadrangle.
