Youth No Obstacle for Cavalier Freshman

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — On the ACC Network broadcast Wednesday night, the announcers noted repeatedly that University of Virginia volleyball standout Reagan Ennist has yet to turn 18. The big day is coming in about a week, though, and Ennist can’t wait.

“I am so looking forward to that 18^th birthday,” she said Thursday. “It’s just small things, like I can’t even get Advil from our trainer without her having to text my mom. It’s annoying, but we’re almost there.”

Her production this season has belied her youth. A 6-foot-3 outside hitter, Ennist leads the Cavaliers with 160 kills. (Junior right-side hitter Lauryn Bowie is second on the team with 130). Ennist led all players with 23 kills Wednesday night to help UVA, which dropped the first two sets, rally for a reverse sweep of Virginia Tech at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg.

“Physically, she doesn’t look like a 17-year-old,” Virginia head coach Shannon Wells said, “and she definitely doesn’t play like a first-year. She’s very confident in what she can do, because she’s put the time in. She wants to be the person that takes the big swing.”

There have been rough moments along the way for Ennist, who enrolled at the University in January. She said she “almost hit rock bottom” after Virginia’s 3-0 loss to Auburn on Sept. 9. She played in only one set that night and finished with four attacking errors and one kill.

“It was just really a tough couple weeks mentally,” Ennist recalled. “I had a meeting with Shannon and I think I cried almost the whole meeting. I was just like, ‘I have no idea what’s going on.’ But I tried to come into practice every day with a new mindset that it’s just a small moment of my journey and I’ll get past it.”

Her teammates and coaches never lost faith in Ennist, and her breakthrough came Oct. 5 in UVA’s 3-2 win over Syracuse at the Aquatic & Fitness Center. Ennist recorded 32 kills, a program record for a freshman and the most by any Cavalier in a quarter-century.

“That was a really big confidence boost for me,” Ennist said.

Born and raised in Clifton Park, N.Y., a suburb of Albany, Ennist starred at Shenendehowa High School, where she became the first player to total at least 1,000 career kills. She finished with 2,059.

Even so, Wells pointed out, it’s not unusual for freshmen, no matter how talented, to struggle early in their college careers.

In high school and club volleyball, “you’re the best at everything,” Wells said, “and then you come to college and everybody’s the best at everything, and sometimes I think that makes you doubt yourself.”

Early this season, Ennist found that what “was working for her in high school didn’t really work for her in college,” Wells said. “And so before you get better, you’ve got to feel a little worse. And I think that she just went through that natural progression that every first-year does.”

Being able to enroll midyear at UVA has accelerated her transition, Ennist said.

“It’s huge,” she said. “I’ve talked to my parents about it a lot. Even the small things, like the mental side of the game, have definitely changed a lot for me, just getting that extra semester. The speed from high school to college is just completely different, so I was super fortunate to have the opportunity to come here early, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It was probably the best decision I could have ever made, and I was so glad that Shannon offered it to me, because I don’t know where I would be now if I didn’t get that extra couple months in.”

Had the Wahoos stayed healthy this season, Ennist might not have been thrust into such a prominent role. But players have “been dropping like flies,” Wells said, shaking her head.

One of Ennist’s two classmates, middle blocker Marin Black, suffered a season-ending injury while warming up before a preseason match against James Madison at the AFC. The Cavaliers’ most experienced outside hitter, Vivian Miller, tore her ACL last month and won’t play again this season. Outside hitter Kadynce Boothe and right-side hitter Becca Wight each missed significant time because of injuries, and middle blocker Kate Dean was unavailable in Blacksburg for medical reasons.

“As the injuries came on, we didn’t have any choice,” Wells said. “Reagan had to play and she had to stay on. And that’s the cool part about this season. Although we wouldn’t have wanted it this way or scripted it this way, we’ve had to figure out some really tough moments. And so for Reagan, she’s just had to problem-solve and just be like, ‘OK, I’ve got to figure this out, otherwise I’m going to be in a tough situation all year.’ And she’s a really great learner. She comes into practice and she finds ways to get better each and every day. She’s learning how to be an elite college volleyball player instead of an elite high school volleyball player.”

Ennist said she’s loved her UVA experience.

“It’s just really fun meeting new people,” she said, “and I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a sports team that’s been as close as we are. It’s just super fun having great volleyball teammates, but also being able to do anything with them outside of volleyball. We hang out all the time. We grab dinner. We just do fun little things when we have the opportunity to have an off day.”

Ennist originally planned to play at West Virginia University, whose staff included assistant coach Travis Magorien when she committed in August 2023. After WVU made a coaching change that November, however, Ennist re-opened her recruitment, and UVA seized its opportunity.

Ennist already liked the Cavaliers, and she liked them even more after Wells hired Magorien as an assistant in December 2023. Ennist committed to UVA the next month.

Wells remembers speaking to Magorien about joining Virginia’s staff. “He was like, ‘I don’t know if you know about this Reagan kid, but we’re pretty close.’ And so it kind of all came together. It worked out really well.”

In Blacksburg, things eventually worked out well for the Hoos in the first of their two Commonwealth Clash meetings with Tech, but they weren’t happy with their performance.

“We’ve been talking about it a lot in practice, just making sure that we’re starting games strong, and we definitely didn’t start strong,” Ennist said. “I think after losing the second set, it was just like, ‘OK, we gotta go.’ We stayed connected and it worked. Thank goodness the game flipped around and it was much better than the beginning.”

The third freshman on the roster, middle blocker Caroline Lang, sparked UVA with eight kills, and Ennist dominated the later sets. The Cavaliers were passive for much of the match, however, and barely avoided defeat.

“We talked about that on the bus [afterward],” Ennist said.

Wells said: “I think good teams find ways to win when they’re not playing their best, and that’s definitely what we did. We definitely celebrated that we won, but we also kind of walked out of there disappointed in how we played. It’s OK to have both feelings. It’s OK to feel awesome that you won, and it’s OK to feel frustrated that you didn’t play your best volleyball. So I think our team is still really hungry to showcase who they are.”

The next opportunity for the Hoos (9-8 overall, 2-5 ACC) to do so comes Sunday when they host the Hokies (9-9, 1-6) at John Paul Jones Arena. The rematch starts at 3 p.m. UVA has won seven straight over Tech.

“We need to be aware that we’re not always going to be able to pull a reverse sweep every time we go five sets,” Ennist said. “We just need to make sure that we walk away from wins knowing that we gave it our all, and I think we definitely have a lot more than what we showed [in Blacksburg].”

Wells said: “I know our athletes feel like we really want to showcase what we can do and play at a better level against Virginia Tech. But I understand Virginia Tech will be coming in more motivated than ever as well.”

Ennist said her cheering section Sunday will include her parents and at least one of her two sisters.

“So I’m super excited,” Ennist said.

Her mother, Krissy, is a school nurse and can’t always get out of town for UVA’s matches, but her father, Dave, a New York state trooper who played football at the University of Delaware, is usually in the stands when Ennist plays.

“My dad drives the eight hours down here almost every weekend,” Ennist said. “He is the most dedicated person I’ve ever met. He’s here all the time.”

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