Volleyball: Dupuis signs with UMass-Boston

Christine Dupuis certainly can't be accused of being adverse to change.

The Douglas High senior will pull up her small-town roots next year and continue her volleyball career, not to mention her education, at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

She will sign her lettter of intent Thursday afternoon at Douglas High.

"I love to travel and see new places," said Dupuis, who spent the summer before her freshman year playing volleyball in the Netherlands. "It's never really scared me to be away from home. The opportunity came along to live somewhere like Boston, and I was just really excited to take it.

"I'm not sure how it's going to go yet. It'll be a little bit of a culture shock, but I think I'll be alright."

Aside from the move across country, Dupuis will also be taking on her third position in as many volleyball seasons this fall.

After playing the majority of her career as an outside hitter, she slid over to the right side this past season in order to fill a void in the Tigers' lineup.

Coaches at UMass-Boston saw something entirely different in her, though, and will be shifting her to libero (defensive specialist).

"Going from offense to defense, it's completely different from anything I've ever done in volleyball before," Dupuis said. "The coach saw my film and saw something in me that no other coach I've had saw before."

Dupuis has been working out at libero during the spring club season.

"It's been taking some getting used to," she said. "I was so used to being on the front row and attacking. This is an entirely different approach, but I love it. I like it much more now that I'm getting a feel for the position."

Dupuis will join the NCAA Division III Beacons right as they are hitting their stride as a program.

UMass-Boston is coming off its most successful season ever, putting together a 30-5 season with an unbeaten record in the Little East Conference and a birth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Along the way, they strung together win streaks of 17 and 13 matches. The Beacons currently have two liberos listed on their roster, but one of those is an upperclassman.

"I loved the coaching staff, they were awesome and the girls on the team were really great," Dupuis said.

Dupuis will also be reunited with Melissa Brown, who started for the Tigers as a junior before moving to Boston just prior to her senior year. Brown played for the Beacons last season.

"We were really good friends in high school and it was really just a coincidence that we ended up at the same college," Dupuis said. "We've been talking a lot this year, ever since I became intereted in the school. I'm really excited to be able to hang out with her again and have a familiar face already there."

New England, in fact, has drawn another former Tiger in recent years as 2006 graduate Dawson Joyce-Mendive has been a standout for Tufts University the past two seasons.

Dupuis played at the varsity level for the Tigers for three seasons. She is the senior class president this year and was the junior class vice president last year. She's also been involved in the Block D Lettermen's Club and in the school's leadership class.

"I'm just really excited all around," she said. "I really want to thank all the coaches I've had with the Capital City Volleyball Club and with Douglas High. They've pushed me along the whole way."