Aniya Kennedy said she grew up in a calm, relaxed family.
“I don’t think it’s a lot of high emotions, we’re all pretty mellow,” she said.
Ball State women’s volleyball’s reigning Mid-American Conference (MAC) Freshman of the Year uses her dad as an example of that behavior.
“You could never tell what is going through his head because he has no emotions,” she said. “I think a lot of people think the same with me, but I feel like that helps me a lot.”
Around campus, the redshirt sophomore middle hitter may be cool, calm and collected, but it’s a whole other conversation when she takes the court.
Kennedy took Ball State’s offense by storm in 2023, racking up 470 kills over 31 matches as an outside hitter, including 26 with double-digit kills and eight with 20 or more.
What stands out even more is the fact that Kennedy wasn’t even supposed to be in that position.
Kennedy, who was originally listed on Ball State’s roster as a middle blocker, took a redshirt season in 2022, learning behind squad then-main-stay middle blockers Marie Plitt and Lauren Gilliland.
“We were super deep in all the positions; we were a very veteran team that year,” head coach Kelli Miller Phillips said. “We knew she had some opportunities to come in, learn and grow without needing to be an impact player that year.”
During her redshirt season, Kennedy trained in the middle, learning the nuances of the position, the Cardinals’ style of play and the team culture.
“It was definitely hard at times because it was just like, ‘Okay, I’m going into practice, or I’m going into a game day knowing I’m not going to be able to touch the floor,’” she said. “I would definitely say it helped me a lot to develop the techniques that Kelli teaches and the rhythms and the speed of the game.”
With Plitt’s departure from the squad and Gilliland entering her final season, Kennedy entered the 2023 season with the opportunity to see some more time on the court. Then, Gilliland, who totaled nearly 500 kills and over 200 blocks in 2021 and 2022, suffered a knee injury in a 3-1 loss to Wright State early into the season.
The injury forced Gilliland into medical retirement, and Kennedy, who had spent the previous season training for a different position, was asked to step up as an outside hitter.
“She was used to doing whatever she needed to do,” Phillips said. “She just wanted to play.”
Kennedy had no hesitation.
“It was just like, ‘I got this. I’ve been training for this for a year and a half, it shouldn’t be anything different,’” she said. “I wasn’t really nervous or anything. I was very prepared for the moment.”
Moving around wasn’t entirely new to Kennedy, who played all around the court while at La Porte High School, but this change at the collegiate level was a whole new challenge.
“I’m very flexible,” Kennedy said. “I can take challenges and just go with it, and it doesn’t have to be a challenge necessarily. It can be, ‘Okay, it’s a new experience, I’m going to embrace it and just try my best at it.’ If it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work. But if it’s successful, I’m just going to keep pushing and trying to get better at it.”
She would finish the season with a 4.12 kills-per-set average, which ranked first in the MAC and 32nd among all NCAA Division I players. Kennedy also picked up a First Team All-MAC selection and American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Midwest Region Honorable Mention to go along with her freshman of the year nod.
“[It was] no surprise on my end — no surprise in our gym. Maybe [to] some others just because they hadn’t seen her before,” Phillips said. “The second you watch her, you can see why she’s pretty special.”
Senior setter Megan Wielonski, a fellow MAC Freshman of the Year winner in 2021, said the connection between setter and hitter took a little bit of time to get off the ground, but Kennedy’s versatility made for early success.
“It was definitely something she had to embrace,” Wielonski said. “She’s never looking for compliments or everyone telling her good job or anything. She’s just always striving to be the best version of herself and you can see that in practice every day.”
Heading into the 2024 season, Kennedy hasn’t missed a beat, recording an impressive stat line of 90 kills and a 3.33 kill-per-set average as Ball State rounded out its non-conference play with a 7-4 record.
Despite missing matches against Butler and Wright State with a minor knee injury, Kennedy’s total kills sit second on the Cardinals’ squad with only freshman outside hitter Carson Tyler accruing more while kills-per-set lead the roster.
This year, Kennedy's goals are, naturally, focused on continual improvement. She wants to set the bar higher for herself by logging more kills, making smarter shots, heightening her volleyball IQ and playing six rotations.
The list doesn’t stop there, but it’s only cut down to be concise. Kennedy doesn’t really talk much about anything other than her team and how she can get better.
“I often don’t say anything because I don’t like to talk about me playing volleyball,” she said. “Our team is really good, and I think that I just push everyone to be better.”
Contact Daniel Kehn via email at daniel.kehn@bsu.edu or on Twitter @daniel_kehn.
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