Pineville senior Katrina Collett has signed to play volleyball with Alice Lloyd. Starting in eighth grade, Collett has played five years of volleyball for the Lady Lions.

“I’ve always loved volleyball,” said Collett. “It was just something that I fell in love with from the moment I started.”

Being a multi-sport athlete, Collett decided to stick with volleyball over other sports.

“My freshman and sophomore years I played volleyball, softball, basketball and cheered. When junior year came around, I knew that I wanted to go to college to play a sport, so I narrowed it down to softball and volleyball,” said Collett. “By the time I was a senior, I knew it was going to be volleyball. I stopped playing other sports and really started to focus on volleyball. I started playing travel ball and everything to get myself some more exposure.

“Volleyball has always been my ‘go-to’ sport. I have always loved it and taken it a little bit more seriously than other sports. If you’ve ever seen me play any other sport, it’s not too hard to tell which one I prefer.”

Collett is a do-it-all athlete and is very versatile on the court.

“I play every position except for setter. I’m at my best when I’m an outside hitter, and I play really good in the back row too.”

Collett recalls having an exceptional game this season in their season-ending district game against Lynn Camp.

“I had five kills, a couple of blocks and a bunch of digs on my way to making the all-tournament team,” said Collett.

Collett’s coach, Samantha North, says that Collett’s leadership and intensity are what set her apart from others.

“Volleyball is a very high energy sport,” said North. “(Collett) always has high energy and brings a great amount of intensity. She is always giving maximum effort 100 percent of the time, and that is contagious amongst the team. She is consistent in her role as a leader and really helps elevate the team as a whole.”

North recalls watching Collett grow as a player.

“This is only the third year we have had a team,” said North. “We were extremely happy to have her on the team because she was basically the only one with any experience. Most of our team had never played volleyball. With her experience and natural leadership abilities, she just began to excel. The first year, she was good. The second year, we noticed she had gotten even better. By the third year, we knew she was going to go on and do something special.”

Collett chose Alice Lloyd over a few other schools in the area.

“UPike, the University of the Cumberlands and Berea were looking at me as well, but I knew pretty quickly after I visited Alice Lloyd that I was going to go there. It feels just like Pineville does, it’s a smaller school and it feels great there.”

Reflecting on her high school career, Collett remembers good times with her team.

“I’m definitely going to miss Mrs. North and the girls on my team,” said Collett, “I just love them all. Mrs. North is like a combination of teacher, coach and friend. Even when I’m in college, I’m going to be calling and texting all the time to get my pep-talks.”

Collett’s family is extremely excited about her signing.

“My dad always wanted me to go to school to play a sport,” said Collett. “Some of his friends went to Alice Lloyd, he loves the campus and is familiar with it. All of my family has been extremely supportive of me, and I can’t wait to get started in college, knowing they’re going to be with me every step of the way.”

Collett plans on pursuing a degree in Primary Education so that she can teach kindergarten.