Kynedi Nalls volleyball career has been all about progression.
The 6-foot right side hitter got her start in the game late. Not fully committing to playing volleyball until well into high school in Fort Worth, Texas, Nalls faced a learning curve when she arrived at Indiana State in 2013. Her club days began as a sophomore well past the age most players get their start.
And what many don't know about Nalls is that her first love wasn't volleyball. Basketball was king in her athletic career until those days before she figured out volleyball was going to take her the Division I route.
“My club coaches at TAV Volleyball would just tell me to do what I could since I was playing mostly basketball,” Nalls said. “But they told me I was raw and they could transform me into a Division I volleyball player.”
And they did. She earned that Division I volleyball scholarship to Indiana State in 2013. Despite the raw, athletic talent she possessed when she arrived in Terre Haute that summer, Nalls still was still in for a shock. The game, the speed and the competition was a faster pace and higher level than the then middle hitter was accustomed to.
She played in just 49 sets as a freshman and didn't hit above .100 collectively on the season. Nalls didn't go back to Texas that summer, opting to stay in Terre Haute to put in extra work in the weight room, on the court and focus on her nutrition.
Her desire to switch from a middle hitter to a right side grew during that summer. Playing time increased as a sophomore, as she played in all 30 matches and improved her hitting percentage to a .227 but she split much of her time on the court between the middle and right side. It's not exactly what she had envisioned.
“I split time on the right side with (former Sycamore) Victoria Swigart and 'V' worked hard and deserved the playing time, but I wanted that spot,” Nalls said.
Giving up on a goal isn't who Nalls is. She continued to chip away at being the Sycamores' go-to right side last offseason. Going into 2015, ISU head coach Traci Dahl-Skinner took notice and Nalls finally earned the start in all 31 matches. It helped her earn second team All-MVC honors as she led ISU with 340 kills on a .257 hitting percentage and finished third on the team with 89 total blocks.
She's continued to stand out to Dahl-Skinner during this spring season, calling Nalls the team's go-to player as the team officially wraps up spring ball this weekend at the Mizzou Spring Tournament in Columbia, Mo. They'll square off with Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri S&T and the host Tigers on Saturday.
“She's taken her blocking game to another level this spring and her hitting percentage has skyrocketed. She's just taken her game to a whole new level,” Dahl-Skinner said.
Dahl-Skinner noted the improvement of Nalls on the block this spring – a position she'll look to be the team leader in when the Sycamores hit the court in 2016. ISU doubled its blocks from 2014 when it put down 305 stuffs (2.31 per game) in 2015 and finished third in the Missouri Valley Conference in that category.
“I would love to block every single ball,” Nalls said with a laugh. “But I know that's not possible. So I just want to be an intimidation factor on every ball and have the hitter know it's going to be hard to hit through my block.”
It's just one of the many goals she has in mind for her senior season. Another includes something a Sycamore player has never done – earning the MVC Player of the Year award.
“Now I'm in a position where the spotlight is on me and I never back down from a challenge,” Nalls said. “This is the highest I've ever shot before and I'm going to have to do things I've never done before but that's exciting to me.”
