On a Saturday night in early October, Brown women’s volleyball was in a deep hole. Down two sets to Penn, the Bears had ceded point after point to the Quakers. Brown would need to perform flawlessly to secure three straight sets and capture a win.
What happened next was not only a turning point for the team, but also for Jessie Golden ’26, who was unanimously named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year for the third year in a row last month.
Golden is the only player in Ivy League history to have won the honor three times.
The libero is known by her teammates — and dreaded by her opponents — as a quiet leader, one who could quite literally dig the team out of trouble. Over her career at Brown, she boasted an average of 4.2 digs per set, adding up to 1,457 digs in total.
But on Oct. 4 in Philadelphia, with the Bears on the brink of being swept, Golden “wasn’t playing (her) best,” she told The Herald.
She realized that Brown’s ability to eke out a win would depend on if she could instill a sense of urgency in her teammates. So Golden brought them into a huddle.
“This is not a game we can lose,” she recalls telling them. “We all trust each other. We all love each other. We have to play for each other here.”
Then, the unlikely happened: The Bears clawed their way back, reverse-sweeping the Quakers and leaving Penn fans with their jaws on the floor as they exited the stadium.
“I finally figured out how I could lead and how I could actually change the outcome of our game,” Golden said. “I needed to instill confidence in other people.”
That goal, she said, has since driven her both on and off the court.
“Watching her grow into not just a great athlete, but also a great leader and someone that the team trusts and relies on has been really incredible,” said Head Coach Taylor Virtue.
“She’s the best libero ever in the Ivy League,” Virtue added.
Hailing from Tampa, Florida, Golden started playing volleyball in fourth grade. Currently listed as 5 feet, 6 inches tall — short by competitive volleyball standards — Golden knew from the beginning that she would be a libero.
Playing for both Carrollwood Day School and an OTVA club team, she excelled in the defensive specialist position, winning a state championship and breaking school records in digs, service points, service receptions and aces.
With the pandemic raging during Golden’s junior year of high school, her primarily virtual college recruiting process was “very weird,” she recalled. Although coaches encouraged her to seek out colleges in Florida, which is known for volleyball, Golden ventured north instead.
Brown had “just the combination of high-level academics and high-level volleyball,” she said.
In 2022, her first year at Brown, Golden recorded 266 digs while playing in 97 sets. The team made it all the way to the Ivy League final, but lost 1-3 to Yale.
On the somber bus ride back to Providence, silence shifted to screams when Golden received news on her phone about an upsetting situation in her hometown, she recalled. Golden declined to elaborate on the circumstances.
After texting the team group chat about the situation, “the girls had (her) back,” she recalled.
“We were like a sisterhood,” she said. Her teammates cared about her “as a person and not just a player.”
Feeling a new sense of cohesion with the team, Golden glided through her sophomore season, racking up 446 digs — the most in the Ivy League. She picked up her first Defensive Player of the Year award and was selected to the First Team All-Ivy.
But when the team fell to Yale in the Ivy League Championship for the second year in a row, Golden started believing she had to play flawlessly if she wanted to win a championship.
“My biggest struggle in my whole life is being a perfectionist,” she said.
While the sophomore-season defensive player award was a mark of success, it also led Golden to put “more of a pressure” on herself to win the award again. She “was so focused on defending that accolade,” she recalled, that if she performed poorly at practice, her “whole mood would change.”
Ultimately, Golden succeeded individually, securing the Defensive Player of the Year award and a First Team All-Ivy designation for the second year in a row. But Brown lost to Princeton 0-3 in the Ivy League semifinal.
“Reflecting on that (season), I was disappointed in how I carried myself,” Golden said. “So going into senior year, I tried really hard to just make it about other people. I really was not focused on winning an accolade.”
That effort was felt by the entire team, said Bella Bonatakis ’26, Golden’s teammate.
“She really became confident in herself as a player,” Bonatakis said. “Once she figured that out, she was able to bring others along with her in that mentality.”
Nowhere was her inspiring confidence more evident than at the Oct. 4 Penn game when Golden called the huddle, Bonatakis said. After hearing Golden’s speech, Bonatakis “had no doubt that the rest of our team would see that and perform.”
The team would go on to win 14 of 24 games this past season, holding a 9-5 record in the Ivy League and qualifying for the league tournament. But during warmups on Senior Night, Golden injured her ankle while trying to block a teammate.
The team won the game against Columbia but faced tougher competition seven days later in the Ivy League semifinal against Princeton. After resting her foot for the week, Golden decided to suit up for what would potentially be her last game.
“There’s no way she’s gonna play right now,” Bonatakis recalled thinking at the time.
But nevertheless, Golden did, unaware that she had three torn ligaments.
“She was able to step in and put the team above herself,” Bonatakis said. “That speaks to the kind of player that she became.”
Despite a 10-dig effort from an injured Golden, the team ended up losing the game 0-3.
But Virtue and Golden said the season’s end did not define Golden’s success or impact on Brown volleyball. Late last month, she picked up her third straight First Team All-Ivy and Defensive Player of the Year designations, securing her place in Ivy League history.
“She’s sitting alone at the top,” Virtue said. “It’s incredibly special and speaks to how consistent she was for four seasons.”
“I’m proud of what I did,” Golden said. “Volleyball has given me this confidence that I can use throughout the rest of my life.”
