I had the pleasure to sit down with junior Lucy Kate Gray from the volleyball team for a second time this semester, as she was selected as athlete of the week once again.
When I asked her how the season’s been, Gray said, “Very successful for the most part. It’s so exciting, especially going into the tournament… None of this would be possible without the work of the team. The chemistry has continued to get better as the season has gone on. It’s been very rewarding to see the team do this after the past two years of being on the Asbury team. It’s grown so much, and I know that our coach is so proud too.”
“I have two,” Gray said when asked about the highlights of the season. “The first one is when it was our last non-conference game of the season, so pretty early on, we played Centre and we reverse-sweeped them, which means they were up by two sets and then we came back and won the next three… So that was so exciting for us, and I think ever since then we’ve just been firing away. The next one was, this was two weeks ago, we were playing Maryville for the regular season championship, and it was here. I don’t know if you heard about my sister tearing her ACL, Emma Grace [Gray]. In the second set, she tore her ACL, and she’s a huge part of our team. We were down 1-0, then we won the next three right after she got injured. Everyone stepped up and realized what we had to do to win without her. It was so exciting.”
As far as the standout difference-makers on the team are concerned, Gray said, “Well, for sure Riley McChord. She’s the libero, defensive-specialist. There’s not a thing that would happen without her, truly. I wouldn’t get the ball to the hitter. She has to get the ball to me to get a kill. She’s just been stellar. She got defensive player of the year for our conference. Same with Izzi VandeSchraaf. She’s a freshman. Just been playing so well. Really bringing the team together. Again, there’s not a thing we could do without her.”
Going into her senior season next year, I asked Gray about what’s been the most special part of her time with Asbury volleyball. She said, “I think this season has been the most special because my little sister’s a freshman and my big sister’s a senior, so this is the only year that we would’ve got to play together again. That’s been so special, and my parents of course love that too. With that being said, how Emma Grace got hurt, it’s been very special to see her new role. She’s really built the program up, and now she gets to watch us in these next tournaments and watch it unfold. It’s been really sweet to have her almost like a coach on the side talking to all of the players.”
Lastly, when asked about what she wanted to say to the Asbury student body, Gray said, “Again, I think I said this last time, but thank you guys, truly, for supporting us. It just makes the game so much more fun and tense when everyone’s loud and brings a whole lot of energy… We’re very grateful for what they’ve done for us.”
