Reagan Robinson was a natural when it came to hard-hitting kills. What she came to realize is that there's more than one way to end a point.
"When I first started coaching her, I realized there was no one who could hit the ball harder than she could," Shiloh Christian Coach Nathan Bodenstein said. "What I challenged her to do was to get smarter about the way she played. She can really crank it, but you don't have to hit it as hard as you can every time. When you look at the stat sheet, a kill is a kill no matter how you get it done."
Reagan Robinson glance
SCHOOL Shiloh Christian
HEIGHT 5-11
POSITION Outside hitter
STATS Led team in kills (452), hitting percentage (.369), aces (77) and digs (393).
BIRTHDAY May 27, 2998
NOTEWORTHY Daughter of Simon and Tiffany Robinson. … MVP of the Class 4A state tournament. … Had 16 kills and 24 digs in a 3-0 victory over Mena in the championship game. … Signed with the University of Arkansas, becoming Shiloh Christian’s first Division 1 scholarship signee. … Older sister Rylee is a member of the Arkansas women’s track team. Younger brother Kyle has orally committed to the Arkansas men’s golf team.
Robinson, a 5-11 senior outside hitter, was a quick study to Bodenstein's suggestion.
"The really good teams and players could adjust to my style," Robinson said. "That caused some frustration on my part. As you get more experience, your role on the team changes. I needed to get better and become a leader."
Robinson, who led the Lady Saints to their first state title in October, is the All-Arkansas Preps Volleyball Player of the Year. She was selected as the state tournament's MVP and she led her team to a 29-9-1 record, including a 14-0 record in conference play and 12 consecutive victories to end the season.
Robinson led her team in kills with 452 -- an average of 12.0 a match. She also made 32 blocks, served 77 aces and had a team-high .369 hitting percentage. Defensively, she led the Lady Saints in digs with 393.
The University of Arkansas took notice of Robinson and she signed a National Letter of Intent with the Razorbacks last week.
Robinson has been interested in attending the University of Arkansas for a long time, but not necessarily as a volleyball player. Robinson's father Simon was a member of the Razorbacks' tennis team in the 1980s.
"I used to play tennis, but there came a point where I decided I just didn't like it anymore," Robinson said. "I started playing volleyball because it was fun. It was more of a social thing because a lot of my friends where playing. It wasn't until my freshman year that I began taking volleyball more seriously."
Robinson and her family lived in McKinney, Texas, until 2010.
"Being a new student in an unfamiliar place was really hard," Robinson said. "But you learn to adjust and I realized it was going to have an impact on my life, so I decided it should be a positive impact."
Bodenstein said the thing that impresses him so much about Robinson is her demeanor on and off the court.
"The way she approaches the game is so effortlessly," Bodenstein said. "She has a great work ethic and does not get rattled. She's never too up or too down about her game. ... She's young as far as experience goes, but she can also be a dynamic player when you need her to be."
"I think it's just a privilege for me to play the game," Robinson said. "I want to continue to get better and I want to help the team be as good as it can be."
Sports on 11/15/2015