Kiley Hall

Patrick Laverty

To say Kiley Hall was born to play volleyball would be an

understatement.

The junior at Newport Harbor High was on the court while she was

still in her mother’s womb.

Hall’s father played at UCLA. Her mother played professionally in

Italy and on the beach, was on the 1980 Olympic team, but missed out

on the experience because of the boycott of the games by the United

States, and played at the beginning of her pregnancy with Kiley.

Hall’s background is evident in her own play on the court.

A two-year member of the Sailors varsity team, she has been a key

player in Newport Harbor’s jaunts into the state playoffs each of the

past two seasons. In this year’s CIF final against Mira Costa, she

recorded a team-high 13 kills. She added five versus Scripps Ranch in

the first round of the state playoffs and 10 against Mater Dei in a

season-ending loss in the second round, enough to earn Daily Pilot

Athlete of the Week honors.

While also a member of the soccer and track teams at Harbor,

volleyball is Hall’s favorite sport and the one she is most likely to

play down the road in college. Harbor has been known to put more than

a few volleyball players into the collegiate ranks, including Alyson

Jennings and Lauren Miller from the current squad, and Hall could

soon follow.

It’s one of the reasons she chose to attend Newport Harbor,

despite living in the Estancia area.

“It was about athletics and academics,” Hall said. “This school’s

got a lot going for it.”

Brought up around volleyball -- her mother returned to the beach

shortly after giving birth and Hall toured the country with her.

“I hated it,” Hall said. “I was the kid on the sidelines that

would get hit by the ball and scream.”

Hall really got into the sport when she was 11. For her, it became

a year-round activity that now includes playing on the Orange County

Volleyball Club.

An outside hitter on the club ranks, who often finds herself in

the middle with the Sailors, Hall said her strengths on the court

include serving and passing, but the kill statistics might indicate

otherwise.

“I love to hit,” Hall said. “Playing front row, the most

fulfilling feeling is spiking the ball down.”

But she’s also acutely aware that spiking the ball wouldn’t be

possible without her teammates and she says her teammates are one of

the primary reasons for her passion for volleyball.

Soccer is a way to blow off steam and track is not one of her

favorite sports, Hall said, but volleyball provides that feeling of

mutual accomplishment that brings a group of players together.

Unfortunately for Hall, the majority of the group that she has

played with the last two years is graduating from Harbor this year.

Hall was the only underclassman in the starting lineup this season

and one of just five nonseniors on the roster.

Her first volleyball team included Jennings and Alexis Kearns and

now those players are leaving, putting the team in Hall’s hands. Hall

said she will miss their leadership, as well as their friendships.

“Even as of right now, I don’t know that I’m ready to take the

roles that they did,” Hall said. “They’re all role models to me even

though they’re just a year older.”

Hall will be a year older next year, when she is asked to assume

those leadership roles. As long as she’s on the volleyball court, it

should come rather naturally for her.