‘A lot on my shoulders’: Flagstaff’s Gracelyn Nez reaches 1,000th career kill

CROWNPOINT

Flagstaff’s Gracelyn Nez is multi-talented in both basketball and volleyball.

On the hardcourts, she has knack at getting to the basket and scoring a ton of points. In volleyball, she has a natural ability to pound the ball.

The FHS senior hit a milestone in the latter sport as she reached 1,000 career kills while playing for longtime coach Beth Haglin.

She reached that milestone in a recent home game against Mohave on Sept. 9 when she put down seven kills in 3-0 sweep.

“I was thinking about it the other day and 1,000 kills is a lot,” Nez said. “It’s a lot on my shoulders but I’m happy that I got that.

“I like to credit all my setters and passers,” she said. “They don’t get the credit of getting a big kill but they’re the ones that set up everything for me to get my kills.”

Her volleyball exploits have helped her acquire several accolades as she was named All-Conference, first team for the past three seasons by the Arizona Interscholastic Association.

She also earned All-Region, first team the past three seasons in the Grand Canyon Region.

She was also named the Region Player of the Year her freshman year and she was tabbed the Region Offensive Player of the Year her sophomore year.

Despite all these accolades, Nez didn’t expect to make an impact early in her prep career since she played with some talented players her freshman and sophomore seasons.

But right away she became one of the team’s top hitters as she finished her freshman campaign with 409 kills. The following year she added 435 kills.

“Honestly, I really didn’t care about my stats,” Nez said. “I didn’t know where I was at with how many kills I had or some of my other stats.”

At the rate that she was going, Nez was projected to surpass the milestone she reached last Thursday during her junior season. But that season was cut short in terms of the number of games played due to the ongoing pandemic.

The Flagstaff team played in only 15 games last season, which is half of what they played her freshman and sophomore years.

Of those games played last season, Nez sat out in four games due to injuries. Nonetheless, she finished the season with 129 kills while playing in only 39 sets.

Heading into this season, the Flagstaff senior knew she was going to eventually hit that milestone, but she didn’t let that weight distract her.

“I just went out there to play my game so there wasn’t any pressure,” she said. “I did whatever I could to help my team succeed and if that meant getting a kill then, yeah, I wanted to help my team.”

For her final prep season, Nez wants to help her team reach the 4A championship game as Flagstaff has reached the Final Four round the past three seasons.

“I feel like we have the team to do it this year,” she said. “Last year we had two seniors that started so we have a majority of our starters are back.”

Heading into this week’s slate of games, Flagstaff owns a 3-0 record as they are set to face the likes of Scottsdale Norte Dame and Chandler Seton Catholic.

The Eagles would have faced Norte Dame on Wednesday and they are scheduled to host Seton Catholic today.

“Norte Dame has a really good team,” she said. “They have some hitters that can get up there and they’re really aggressive.

As for Seton Catholic, Nez said the Sentinels have some all-around players.

“This is going to be a test for us,” she said of this week’s matches. “They’re not going to be an easy and if we want to win we have to work hard at it.”

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