Within the days after he watched Rya McKinnon tally a program-record 30 kills in a five-set win over George Mason, Howard coach Shaun Kupferberg had a easy message for his sophomore exterior hitter.
Kupferberg didn’t need McKinnon to ever try this once more.
Make no mistake, Kupferberg wasn’t being important of his sophomore exterior hitter. He was impressed by the eye-opening quantity as a lot as anybody. However the circumstances underneath which McKinnon gathered that whole weren’t perfect.
The Bison (3-3) have been beset by accidents within the early going, so depth already was a difficulty, and Kupferberg was utilizing a makeshift beginning lineup. Finally, Kupferberg stated, he was out of subs. In reality, Howard performed a degree within the fifth set with solely 5 gamers on the court docket.
All of that conspired to have the Bison lean on the 2022 MEAC freshman and participant of the yr a bit of greater than they’d have preferred.
“Actually, we don’t need her getting 30 kills,” stated Kupferberg, in his eleventh season on the traditionally Black college and coming off a 20-10 effort in 2022. “I stated, ‘I hope you by no means break that document as a result of we must always by no means be setting you that a lot.’ ”
Be that as it’d, the efficiency illustrated simply how dominant McKinnon may be and the way she has the power to hold a group. The the product of Hoover, Alabama, needed to do a whole lot of the heavy lifting throughout Howard’s first three matches, taking 164 swings and piling up 71 kills — whereas hitting .300 — because the Bison went 2-1.
Within the match earlier than her 30-kill effort towards George Mason, she had 27 kills (.371) in a five-set victory over George Washington. Howard opened the season with a three-set loss to Georgetown, and, maybe not coincidentally, McKinnon struggled in that match, getting “solely” 14 kills on .143 hitting.
Nonetheless, 71 kills in three matches? That’s heady stuff at any stage.
“It was very enjoyable and a really rewarding feeling,” McKinnon stated, “simply realizing that I needed to sit out the earlier (season’s early matches due to harm). It felt good simply to be again on the court docket and be capable to get these kills.”
McKinnon could be within the dialogue of the very best least-known participant within the nation, and her background makes her a little bit of an underdog as properly.
McKinnon even began out in one other sport: gymnastics. However she determined she was “method too tall” for gymnastics, so she took the street much less traveled and gave volleyball a attempt.
“Which is type of odd,” McKinnon stated about her top being a downside in gymnastics, “as a result of I’m brief for volleyball now.”
She is listed at 5-foot-11 on the Howard roster, however McKinnon admitted she is nearer to 5-9.
In addition to her relative lack of top, she performed on smaller membership groups and didn’t have the benefit of going through harder nationwide competitors as gamers at greater, extra prestigious golf equipment would possibly.
So how did McKinnon develop right into a participant who has taken the MEAC by storm and appears on the verge of changing into a nationwide presence? She was the primary MEAC volleyball participant to be named Participant of the Yr and Rookie of the Yr in the identical season since MEAC Corridor of Famer Jana Milin of Maryland Jap Shore in 2002.
For starters, she is the daughter of a former NFL participant. Her father, Ronald McKinnon, spent 10 years within the NFL — 9 with the Arizona Cardinals — and put collectively a pleasant profession, amassing 1,000-plus, 10 interceptions and 12 sacks from his linebacker spot.
Rya stated her father, an assistant soccer coach at Division II Miles Faculty, usually exhibits her his outdated soccer movies.
“I really feel like there’s all the time a aggressive facet,” she stated. “I need to be higher than my father. He all the time pushes me, all the time motivates me to all the time simply get the additional reps and all the time work more durable than different folks.”
McKinnon additionally has freakish athleticism on her aspect. Regardless of her top, she will be able to contact a basketball rim. Kupferberg stated she reaches 10-2.
“I really feel like that’s actually helped me with hitting and enjoying towards folks taller than me,” McKinnon stated. “And I’m simply an aggressive participant. I need to win, I need to get kills, I need to slam the ball down.”
Which ends up in the opposite — and maybe most essential — think about her success. McKinnon is self-motivated. Kupferberg stated athletes like her make his job lots simpler.
“From the day she got here within the health club, she was a born competitor,” he stated. “She’s the kind of athlete that each coach needs. She’s only a straight athlete from the psychological standpoint and bodily standpoint.
“She’s doing it the best method … She’s all the time in search of one thing to get higher at. She’s not centered on stats. I don’t even know if she appears at that stuff.”
As proficient and cerebral as McKinnon was, Kupferberg knew she was removed from a completed product.
Her hitting skill was by no means a lot doubtful. Whereas many younger hitters have to broaden their shot repertoire as a result of they not can depend on uncooked energy, McKinnon had developed another swings even earlier than arriving at Howard.
The trick, Kupferberg stated, was getting her to hit these pictures with extra consistency, one thing she has been in a position to do in her first year-plus with the Bison.
She additionally wanted to change into more adept at passing. That, too, has come a great distance, with Kupferberg calling her a “rock-solid serve receiver.”
Maybe the a part of her sport that has taken off probably the most is her blocking skill. That was by no means extra evident than within the win over George Mason. Although that perpetually will likely be remembered because the match wherein McKinnon put down 30 kills, she additionally had six blocks, practically half of her whole from all of 2022 (15).
She even obtained a block help on the match-clinching level.
“It’s one thing we labored on all spring,” Kupferberg stated. “We all know she’s going to place up kills, however her blocking was one thing she actually labored laborious on all spring.
“She’s undoubtedly excessive sufficient. It’s only a matter of the place she’s blocking, and I feel she’s doing a significantly better job of that this yr.”
One remaining space of thriller that remained coming into the season was how McKinnon would fare towards greater colleges. She did hit .400 in an exhibition match towards professionals from Athletes Limitless, however she nonetheless is basically untested towards Energy 5 colleges.
As she battled accidents through the early a part of her freshman season, she was restricted to largely again row duties in matches towards Penn State and Tulane, getting solely two mixed assaults in these matches – each towards Penn State. And he or she missed the Bison’s match with Washington State.
This season, she lastly obtained that likelihood.
Thursday, she had 11 kills in a 3-1 loss (20-25, 27-25, 16-25, 19-25) to NC State. She had a match-high 18 kills in a reverse sweep of Winthrop on Friday. However she was held to 9 kills and hit simply .029 because the Bison have been swept by Rutgers on Saturday.
In 25 units this season, McKinnon has 109 kills (4.36/set), 55 greater than her subsequent closest teammate. She’s second on the group in digs at 2.96/set and has 11 blocks, two solo.
Howard performs three matches in three days this weekend, towards towards the ACC’s Virginia, final yr’s America East champion in UMBC, and the Massive Ten’s Maryland. The Bison end the pre-conference season towards the ACC’s Georgia Tech, SEC’s Georgia, and D.C. rival American of the Patriot League.
Accordingly, with the schedule ramping up, McKinnon ought to have loads of time to work on her level of emphasis, setting apart frustrations and deal with getting higher the following match. That was an space, Kupferberg stated, he was very intentional about serving to her kind out.
“She’s so used to being bodily dominant, that when she is caught a bit of bit, she will get a bit of pissed off,” he stated, noting that, in practices, he would purposely attempt to make her assaults troublesome. “She obtained stifled within the first set towards Georgetown (this yr). She was making an attempt too laborious, I feel, and did some issues she doesn’t usually do in apply.
“However she bounced proper again within the second sport. She hit destructive within the first sport however then she bounced again and hit constructive and hit over .600 the remainder of the best way.”
There may be one frustration McKinnon and the Bison didn’t recover from so simply: lacking out on the 2022 MEAC title and a visit to the NCAA Match. Within the earlier seven seasons, Howard had been the convention champion and an NCAA participant six instances.
These are two wrongs McKinnon is raring to see corrected.
“We now have a really proficient group, a really stacked group,” she stated. “Final yr, we weren’t actually proud of how we performed, and I feel that’s going to provide us a whole lot of fireplace underneath us.
“That (lacking the NCAA) type of affected us all actually laborious. I feel coming on this summer time, we actually type of set new requirements for our group and new objectives. Our expectations are lots completely different. We’re coaching lots in another way now as a result of we need to return and win the MEAC and be capable to be within the event.”
That “stacked group” McKinnon spoke about consists of various gamers she stated she is happy to observe all through the season:
— Senior proper aspect hitter Jennifer Bolden, who has battled accidents all through her time at Howard however is beginning to return to well being, as evidenced by 12 kills vs. Winthrop
— Sophomore libero Claire Simpson, who had virtually as many digs — 69 — as McKinnon had kills over the primary three matches
— Setter Kayla Diaz, the returning MEAC co-Setter of the Yr, who, thanks in no small half to McKinnon, had 154 assists within the Bison’s first three matches
— And junior exterior Dami Awojobi, who led Howard with 22 kills towards Georgetown
“I feel this yr our energy is we simply work rather well collectively,” McKinnon stated. “We get alongside, so that basically does translate on the court docket with how we work collectively and the way we rating factors.”
By successful one other MEAC title and getting again to the NCAA Match, McKinnon hopes the Bison can also shed some mild on the volleyball expertise that exists at HBCU colleges. It’s a section of the volleyball world, she believes, will get neglected regardless of having “a whole lot of very bodily individuals who can soar out of the health club.”
McKinnon, definitely is one. And he or she thinks she, too, could be a bit neglected.
Kupferberg thinks that may change some day within the not-so-distant future.
“I feel she may be dominant proper now,” he stated. “I don’t assume she must be 2 or 3 inches taller. She will play nearly as good as any top-10 exterior hitter within the nation proper now. I do know it sounds a bit of loopy coming from a bit of HBCU, however we’ll see within the subsequent couple of weeks as we play some Energy 5s and that sort of stuff.
“I feel she will be able to play on the nationwide group. I don’t see a motive why she will be able to’t. She simply wants to search out herself and ensure she understands what her strengths and weaknesses are and simply continue to grow in these, and I feel she’s doing that.”
He simply doesn’t need her to exhibit by having to kill 30 balls in a match.
