The closest you’ll ever come to seeing former Marist standout Camryn Hannah struggle with words is if you put her on the spot to brag about herself.
I wasn’t exactly trying to do that the other day, but I sure gave her an opening. I asked her to put in perspective the incredible start of her college volleyball career at Clemson.
“I didn’t expect it,” Hannah said. “Well, it’s not that I didn’t expect it. What I mean is, everything has been a surprise. Last year, I wasn’t expecting to come in and start off great. I expected a learning curve, which did happen.
“But I think just every day, getting better has helped keep me humble about everything that has come my way.”
Humble. That, in a word, is what you’ll always take away from a conversation with Camryn Hannah. And she’ll tell you all you want to know about why.
“It just makes it a lot easier, team wise, to be humble,” Hannah said. “It’s tough to play with players who are full of themselves. It makes it hard to want to be around those kind of people.
“I kind of pride myself in how I’m humble and able to stay close to my teammates.”
Still, her story of accomplishment — and it’s far from complete — is something to shout about.
Hannah, a 6-foot-2 outside hitter/right-side hitter, is coming off a freshman season filled with highlights.
She led the team and was second in the ACC in kills with 306. She was the ACC Freshman of the Week three times and the ACC Player of the Week once.
On March 7, Hannah had an incredible day, putting down a program-record 37 kills in a marathon 20-25, 21-25, 25-20, 25-17, 14-16 loss to Syracuse. The previous record was 32 kills.
During the match, Hannah and setter Mckenna Slavik had no idea history was in the making.
“The game definitely had me caught in the moment,” Hannah said. “I didn’t know how many kills I had because they weren’t keeping track on the board. So it wasn’t like I was counting every kill.
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“Mckenna and I just were looking at each other like, ‘Oh, my goodness, what’s happening?’ On some of the swings, we felt like we got lucky. But I just kept swinging, and it paid off.'”
She finally learned about the record that evening.
“People were texting me,” Hannah said. “They were like, ‘Well, congrats. Great job.’ And I was like, ‘We lost. Why are you texting me congrats?’
“Then my mom and dad called me. They were like, ‘Oh, my God, 37.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ They said, ‘That’s how many kills you had.’ That’s when I knew.”
Jackie Simpson Kirr, Clemson’s first-year head coach, was the offensive coordinator last season for the Tigers. The day Hannah broke the kills record, Kirr actually changed her mindset.
“We typically try to run a balanced offense,” Kirr said. “It’s just harder to defend and block scheme against. But there are certain matches and certain moments where you just have to feed the beast.
“They couldn’t touch her. I mean, they were sending double blocks toward her. They made defensive shifts in the backcourt. But she was just so highly productive, we didn’t care if they sent three blockers against us. We were still going to set her.”
In August, Hannah was named to the preseason all-conference team in a vote taken by the coaches. She was given a new challenge by Kirr — to move from the outside to the right.
Right-side hitter, of course, was Hannah’s bread and butter at Marist when she went back-to-back as the Daily Southtown Player of the Year in 2018 and 2019.
It turned out to be a brilliant move by Kirr. From the right, Hannah has 146 kills. Fifth-year senior Kaylee Martin, as an outside, has 148.
Teamwork. Just the way Hannah likes it.
“When Jackie told me that I would be hitting on the right side I told her, ‘Fine, as long as I’m playing,'” Hannah said, laughing. “As long as I’m not at libero. That would stress me out. But hitting is just fun for me. Wherever I get to do it is fine.”