HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point Volleyball team is 20 games in to the 2023 season and thriving. Marking the mid-way point in Big South conference play, the Panthers are 6-0 going into the second half of action. Two key members of the team have played a major role in HPU's success while reaching career-milestones.
Christine Graf and
Dylan Maberry punched in their 1000th career kill this season, a moment they described as, a "crazy feeling".
For Graf, she began her volleyball journey around the third grade, playing for her Catholic Church's school league before transitioning to a club team around the age of 11. She continued to pursue the sport through middle school and high school and decided during her eighth-grade season that she wanted to play at the collegiate level. Her teammates and coaches played a major role in drawing her attention to the next level, but one person in particular that influenced this dream was her older sister Kathryn, who also played volleyball. Kathryn was three years older than Christine and Christine remembers her sister starting to have conversations with college coaches around the age of 15. Graf was able to understand the recruiting process at a young age and wanted to follow in her sister's footsteps.
Beginning her college career at California Baptist University, Graf immediately felt like she had a big role on the team as an outside hitter. This was a switch compared to her club team. During club, she played on a team that had a lot of talent, including herself, but Graf was not considered the star of the team. Her freshman year at CBU was a confidence booster, as she developed into one of the Lancers top hitters.
"When I first got to CBU, I wasn't looking at the long-term thinking, oh, I'm going to get 1000 kills," Graf stated. "It never even crossed my mind until last year when I saw my stats and I realized I was only 100 kills away."
After transferring to High Point as a grad transfer for her fifth season, Graf eclipsed her 1000
th career kill on her fifth kill of the night in the Panthers home opener against East Tennessee State University. When asked how it felt to reach this milestone, she described it as a "crazy feeling".
"When I think about 1000 kills, I think about how many that really is and how many I hit as a freshman and it just explains my journey and everything I've worked for," Graf commented. "I've been doing it for so long and it puts that into perspective. It is cool to have that milestone to prove what I have worked for my whole life."
For Maberry, she started playing volleyball at the development stage of youth sports around third grade, before moving to a competitive club team at the age of 13. In middle school, Maberry went with her family to many RICE and University of Houston volleyball games which opened her eyes to the idea of playing at the next level. Like many other athletes in Division I, Maberry committed to play at LSU at the end of her freshman year of high school. She finished out high school and started her freshman year with the Tigers during the 2021 spring Covid-19 season.
"Trying to figure out what my role was on the team at LSU was hard, and I wasn't getting to play a lot," Maberry stated. "I didn't really know if I was going to be the same caliber of player as I was on my club team and in high school. It was hard for me and at the end of the year I looked in the mirror and decided that I wanted to go play somewhere where I could have a bigger role. Somewhere that would be a better fit for me, so I decided to enter the transfer portal. Once I got to HPU, I could tell that I was going to be the same type of player that I was on my club team and in high school. I never expected to reach 1000 career kills, but I always had it in the back of my mind as a goal and I believed in myself, and I knew I could do it."
Like Graf, Maberry knocked in her 1000th career kill inside the Millis Center, helping the Panthers to a 3-0 victory over UNC Asheville on October 7. Since putting on the High Point jersey during her sophomore season, she has hit 959 kills out of the 1000 with the Panthers. She led the match against the Bulldogs with 13 kills, hitting in her 1000th on her eighth kill of the match.
"We as volleyball players in our career have taken a lot of swings," Maberry added. "Not only is it crazy to think about 1000 kills, that's 1000 kills in a game, and that's not even including the amount of swings we have taken during practices and workouts. It's crazy to think about the time commitment and energy, and how many times our arms have rotated in a circle. It's wild but it feels good and I'm proud of Christine and I."
Both Graf and Maberry emphasized the importance of their teammates saying "they could not have done it without them." They appreciate the support and encouragement they have received over the years, especially from their setters.
High Point enters the second half of conference play on Friday night at UNC Asheville. The first server is set for 6:00 P.M.
#GoHPU
