Kendra Dahlke had been there before.
As a UA freshman, she failed to crack the starting lineup. During the offseason, she focused and got better.
As a sophomore, Dahlke — an outside hitter — led the Wildcats’ volleyball program to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16. She finished fourth in the Pac-12 in kills per set (3.97), ninth in program history for kills (496), fourth in program history with 28 10-plus kill matches and took MVP honors in two tournaments.
Dahlke struggled again as a junior, setting her up for — if the trends hold — a breakthrough senior season. Or at least coach Dave Rubio hopes so.
It wasn’t that long ago that Rubio gave the Californian an ultimatum: You’re either all-in with me and you’re going to do what I ask, or you’re going to leave.
“And it needed to come to that for her,” Rubio said. “She needed to come back in and do exactly what she did and she said, ‘Dave I’m all-in with you.’ I said ‘OK, I’m all-in with you, Kendra. We’re partners in this, so let’s start working to get where you can be.’ That was right after the season, and ever since then it’s been a different outlook for her.”
Senior outside hitter Kendra Dahlke is on the cusp of a record-breaking year, says volleyball coach Dave Rubio.
So far, it shows. In the Hornet Invitational last weekend at Sacramento State, Dahlke put on a clinic with a .370 hitting percentage, 5.58 kills/set, 67 kills. She earned tournament MVP honors, her first since her sophomore season.
Her teammates, like Victoria Svorinic, were not surprised by her performance. Dahlke and the Wildcats will host the Cactus Classic this weekend in McKale Center. The UA hosts Lipscomb at 10 a.m. Friday morning and will take on San Diego State at 7 p.m. Friday night.
“Now, she has a senior mindset,” Svornic said. “You can tell it’s the last hurrah and going all out. So I think she isn’t holding back.”
How good was Dahlke’s performance? She amassed 28 kills against Utah State while hitting .400 from the floor. She added 14 digs for her first double-double of the season. Rubio called it as good a performance as he’s ever seen.
“When you go 60 swings, 28 kills, and 4 errors … it’s almost unheard of. It’s really hard to do that on 60 swings. It’s amazing. I’m really proud of her,” Rubio said. “If we went back in history and looked at all the outside hitters we’ve had, very few have finished with those numbers.
“Now, the key for her will be consistency, the same as with any player, can she continue to put those solid numbers up? She could hit right around .250 or .275 for the season, especially in the conference, and she’s an All-American. It’s rare to have those kind of kids.”
Dahlke’s final offseason consisted of training with the Wildcats and with USA Volleyball alongside teammates Candice Denny and Julia Patterson. Dahlke was initially an alternate, then made the team when someone else couldn’t participate. Dahlke made an impression.
“I was talking to the coaches, and they said, ‘Kendra is our best player. We can’t afford to take Kendra off the floor,’ ” Rubio said. “To do that outside of our own building and do that with a bunch of other players who are supposed to be some of the top players in the country, I think that was really icing on the cake for her. We always knew that she could do that. It was good for her from a self-confidence standpoint to know that she could be looked at like that in a completely objective way, with no influence by us.”
Confidence will be key for Dahlke. While Dahlke has grown into an even more dynamic striker since her freshman year, she’s been dogged by self-doubt.
“The biggest thing in practice is put your head down and go to work. That’s how I approach each practice,” said Dahlke. “I think I am finally in the mindset where I am able to do this in my senior year.”
Rubio thinks Dahlke has finally broken through what blocked her in the past: frustration.
“She is a really talented player,” Rubio said. “She knows herself better than anybody. She would not so much give up, but kind of give up in plays where she got frustrated with herself. And coaching for what I believe in sports, with the frustration level for athletes gets to a level where they can’t function and just shut down. And that’s kind of what happened with Kendra. And that’s why she was very inconsistent in how she played.”
And, then again, it could have been the significance of her position.
“There is a legacy of players like her, whether it was like (ex-Wildcats) Madi Kingdon or Tiffany Owens, it is so hard to develop the skill set and then all the skills because it is multi-faceted the things they have to do. And the mental acuity you have to have to be able to function out there in the position she is in,” Rubio said. “It’s really difficult.
“The best, shiniest programs get those kids right out of high school; we’re constantly in the process of trying to develop them. If you look at the history of the players like Kendra, it’s taken them two or three years to get to the point where Kendra’s at. It’s taken us four years to get where Kendra is at right now; she is going to be as good as any player in the conference in her position. For her, she’ll walk out of here as one of the people you can put on the wall, where you can say she’s as good as all those that she followed. She’s really exceptional.”
