Brandi Donnelly has always been the youngest.

Growing up in the small village of Williamsville, Illinois, home to 1,500 people, just north of Springfield, Donnelly was the youngest of four siblings. As one of only two freshmen on the Illinois volleyball team, Donnelly is in a familiar role.

“I feel like I’m always the youngest and everyone makes fun of me because I’m young,” Donnelly said. “I don’t turn 19 until December and because I’ve been here so long, they think it’s funny because I’m young. And it’s because I’m so small too, so I get a lot from that.”

Head coach Kevin Hambly has a history of bringing freshmen slowly into the rotation. On this year’s roster, only senior Liz McMahon appeared in every match during her freshman year. Donnelly has been starting from day one, just the fifth time in program history a freshman has been an opening day starter as libero.

“Playing as a freshman is very challenging, but she’s filled out that role well,” sophomore Katie Roustio said. “It’s almost like she isn’t even a freshman, she’s just been a part of us the whole time. It’s really awesome to see her out there and just see her do her thing.”

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Hambly almost missed Donnelly as he crisscrossed the country looking for his next libero.

California, Hawaii, Kentucky. With the recruiting season winding down, Hambly racked up the frequent flyer miles after the 2012 season in search of a natural passer. Though he put in all of the work, Donnelly was in his backyard the entire time.

“I see this kid at this club and I say, ‘Why did I spend all this money, she’s right here the whole time.’ She’s the best passer I’ve seen out of this (recruiting class),” Hambly said.

Listed at 5-foot-8, something Hambly admitted is a bit generous, Donnelly was an outside hitter for Williamsville High School. She set the high school’s record for kills and digs in her senior season.

While ranked outside of the top 100 in her class, Hambly knew he had finally found his libero.

“I thought from the minute I saw her pass a ball and really looked at her closely,” Hambly said. “I thought, she’s a natural passer. This is a no-brainer. We need to offer this kid.”

Hambly describes her with the innate qualities of a natural, just as some are natural shooters in basketball or natural pitchers in baseball.

“Finding it is not easy,” Hambly said. “I was just sitting there hoping it was real, and it is.”

Hambly offered her a scholarship and Donnelly committed soon after in February of 2013.

Though she was committed, Donnelly still had to make sacrifices before joining the Illini.

She was also a standout pitcher on the Williamsville softball team and set the school record for batting average her junior season. She had aspirations of playing both sports in college and was looking at UI-Springfield to do both. Illinois was one of the only schools Donnelly wanted to exclusively play volleyball.

“I kind of had to talk her out of it, well, kind of talk her out of it,” Hambly said. “I’m really glad she didn’t (play multiple sports).”

With an open spot at libero heading into the 2014 season, Donnelly had the opportunity to graduate high school a semester early and work with the Illini during the spring exhibition season.

The only catch was that she couldn’t sign a national letter of intent for the spring. The NLI is specifically for student-athletes joining the program during the next academic year, so Donnelly wasn’t put on the financial aid package until the 2014 fall semester.

Along with the sacrifice of missing her senior year of softball and her club volleyball season, Donnelly had to complete two high school classes “by mail” in order to graduate on time.

For her two remaining classes, a sociology class and a government class, she was mailed the textbook and had to send in four separate tests throughout the semester. She then had to appear at the school to take the final to finish off her high school career.

“It wasn’t bad,” Donnelly said. “I was really hoping to start my freshman year, and that’s why I graduated early so I could come in and start.”

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The void left at libero was left by a program legend: Jennifer Beltran.

Beltran also started for four years and holds the Illinois record for career digs.

Comparisons between the two are natural. Both started as freshmen, both played outside hitter in high school, then moved to libero for college and they both wear No. 3.

But Donnelly isn’t Beltran and that isn’t a slight.

Beltran is big for a libero at 5-foot-9, while Donnelly is realistically closer to 5-foot-6. While Donnelly’s forte is passing, Beltran was exceptional at digging hard hit balls on defense.

“They’re different kinds of athletes,” Hambly said. “Jen’s like a strong, physical kid. Brandi is physical, but I think speed is more of her gift.

“If anything was hit at Jen, it was coming up. Brandi has had to learn that skill. They’re not the same. They’re very different athletes. They play the position very differently.”

During the spring, the torch was passed as Donnelly was mentored by Beltran, who was finishing up her undergraduate degree. Every practice, every drill, every scrimmage, Beltran worked with Donnelly in order to pass along knowledge and teach the art of playing libero.

“She was really hungry to learn,” said Beltran, who now coaches volleyball at Sacred Heart High School in California. “That alone was what let me know she was going to be successful because she was really hungry for it.”

Hambly said her development during the spring exhibitions under Beltran’s tutelage allowed Donnelly the chance to take over as the starting libero from the opening serve.

“I don’t think she’d be doing what she is right now if she didn’t come early in January and train through the spring,” he said.

“When you’re a freshman, you don’t want to have people say, ‘She plays like a freshman,’” Beltran added. “I don’t think she does, which is great.”

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After learning from an Illini legend, Donnelly beat out sophomore Danielle Davis and junior Julia Conard for the starting libero spot. So far, she’s lived up the expectations Hambly set while recruiting her.

Donnelly has been named Big Ten Freshman of the Week twice and earned the MVP of the Creighton Classic in September. She ranks third in the conference in digs per set. Even with all of the accolades, Donnelly expected to have early success in Orange and Blue.

“I came in really wanting to be the libero and be starting,” Donnelly said. “But I don’t know if I’ve exceeded my expectations.”

Donnelly had big shoes to fill and has been up to the task. The Illinois defense funnels everything to the libero, with the goal of getting her the ball as much as possible, and teams in the rugged Big Ten will continue to try to exploit the freshman.

Although Donnelly might have been a revelation early in her career, she doesn’t have it all figured out and continues to develop.

“She’s still learning a lot, she’s far from perfect,” Hambly said. “There’s still times where I want to kill her, but she’s way ahead of where she would have been if she came in as a freshman (in the fall). I think Jen had a lot to do with that, she helped her a lot.”

While Beltran is the one who set the bar so high for Donnelly, she is also the one who has helped her get there. And although she might not ever be exactly like Beltran, Donnelly’s name has the potential to be mentioned alongside Beltran’s in Illini history.

Stephen can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @steve_bourbon.