Girls’ Volleyball: McKenna aided Sage’s great run
What Halland McKenna has meant to the Sage Hill School girls’ volleyball program over the last four years cannot simply be expressed in a number.
There is one large number, though, that does give a good indication of what McKenna has meant to the Lightning.
McKenna finished her sparkling four-year career with a program-record 1,552 kills. Cat Dailey, who went on to play at Cal and Yale after graduating Sage Hill in 2006, had the previous mark.
“It was really unexpected,” said McKenna, who was presented with a gold ball signed by her teammates at a ceremony earlier this season. “I don’t always think about that stuff, the stats. I just think about playing for Sage. To leave a legacy like that, which may or may not be broken, is pretty special. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s really small — it’s within our school — but I think that’s why it’s special. We are such a close-knit community.”
The other number which makes that 1,552 number even more impressive? It’s McKenna’s height.
At 5-foot-7, she has hops. But she constantly had to work at getting around the big blocks, too.
McKenna, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, finished her high school career on Tuesday. Sage fell in the CIF State Southern California Regional final for the second straight year, this time in four sets at home to Saddleback Valley Christian.
What a career it was for McKenna, who is bound for Stanford as a libero and also plans to play beach volleyball there. McKenna, fellow outside hitter Kekai Whitford and setter Maddy Abbott, Sage’s three co-captains, again orchestrated a special year for the Lightning (25-4).
In their four years on varsity, Sage shared or won outright four Academy League titles and made four CIF title matches, winning three of them. Sage never lost more than six matches in any one season, finishing with a combined four-year record of 101-22.
As for McKenna, she stepped into the spotlight immediately as a freshman.
“She was immediately a standout player, one of our best passers if not our best passer,” Sage Hill Coach Dan Thomassen said. “She was really dynamic as a freshman, and in the playoffs her freshman year she really hit her stride. She was one of the physical and emotional leaders on our team as a freshman, which was rare. And it seemed like she just kept finding ways to get better throughout the years.”
She only ever lost one match in the CIF Southern Section playoffs, and that was when she sprained her ankle during warmups for the 2012 Division 3A title match against rival St. Margaret’s. McKenna played through the pain, recording 10 kills even as the rival Tartans won in five sets.
“That was probably her best performance ever, playing on an ankle that she couldn’t walk on for the next three months,” Thomassen said.
McKenna, who plays club for Laguna Beach Volleyball Club, always enjoyed playing against St. Margaret’s. It gave her a chance to play against her good friends Peyton McRobie (bound for Colgate University) and Emily Miller (Brown).
“We grew up playing beach volleyball in the sand, and now we’re competing for rings,” McKenna said. “It’s something that both schools cherish, really. Nothing like a little healthy competition. It’s great.”
McKenna helped make sure that the Lightning usually finished on top, besting the Tartans for the CIF crown in 2011 and again this year. She had a big off-season last summer, with extra time weight training as well as taking private lessons with her coach at Laguna Beach, Kevin Hodge, on passing and defense.
The summer was when Sage Hill really bonded as a team, as well.
“I feel like the summer is the best part, besides postseason,” McKenna said. “We got really close as a team, and we got to know our new freshman [opposite] Jade [Blevins]. We’ll go to do workouts and stuff at [Newport Aquatic Center], then all go out for breakfast. That’s a very vital time in the season, just because that’s when we really all come together.”
That’s how you know that McKenna is a team player. She likes talking about the potential of someone like Blevins as much as talking about herself. In three years, McKenna believes Blevins could be threatening her new career kills mark at Sage.
“It may or may not be broken by Jade Blevins by the time she’s a senior, but hopefully not,” McKenna said. “Every single time Maddy sets her, it has to be either a tool, a kill. This girl just knows how to work the block, knows where to hit. She’s special. She’ll go far.”
Blevins is a player who can help lead Sage through the next phase, which is coming after McKenna, Abbott and Whitford all graduate next spring. Abbott and Whitford also are headed to play in college, at Michigan and Loyola Marymount respectively.
“It’s just something really special to be a part of,” McKenna said. “It’s not just me, it’s just not Maddy, it’s not just Kekai. It’s all of us, plus each team that we were with every single year. They’re both so awesome. Just to be grouped with two girls like that, it’s something extraordinary.
“It’s been a great run. I got to finish out with my best friend who I’ve been with since diapers, Maddy Abbott. Kekai, obviously we’ve gotten so close these past four years, spending all this time together. They’re great girls, and I wouldn’t want to go out with anybody else.”
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Halland McKenna
Born: July 19, 1996
Hometown: Laguna Beach
Height: 5-foot-7
Sport: Volleyball
Year: Senior
Coach: Dan Thomassen
Favorite food: Tacos
Favorite movie: “Begin Again”
Favorite athletic moment: Winning her third CIF title with Sage Hill this year over rival St. Margaret’s.
Week in review: McKenna had a team-high 15 kills and 15 digs as Sage Hill swept La Jolla in a CIF State Southern California Regional Division III semifinal match on Nov. 29.
