CADE — When it comes to being a libero, ESA's Gracee Cline is as good as it gets.
"So she's passing 2.7 right now as an average, a 3 is perfect, says Episcopal School of Acadiana head coach Sara Robichaux.
"Typically, you want to at least pass above a 2. So, a 2.7 is just about unheard of."
Cline is the heart and soul of ESA volleyball. She's helped lead the team currently to a top 5 seed in Division V through her passion.
"Balls coming to her, it's going to be a good pass. It's hard to ace Gracee Cline."
"It shows to my work ethic and beating the odds," says Cline. "Not always making the starting position in a club team or the libero position on a club team and working harder to show that I'm better than that."
Gracee has been playing volleyball since the 7th grade but before she could perfect her hands, she had to perfect her feet.
She says growing up as a competitive dancer helped a lot with her transition to the court.
"That was like my entire life and like my big dream was to be a Golden Girl at LSU. I used to go to volleyball camps when I was in 5th grade and then I realized, hey, I'm pretty good at this."
Being a dancer requires taking the spotlight, but as a libero… you have to set up others to shine. When Cline takes the stage, she wears a reminder of who the performance is for.
"I have words written on them. Encourage, smile, talk and uplift. So, I wrote those words on my shoes to remind myself everytime I start getting down that I'm doing this for the rest of my teammates and it's not just all about me because everyone around me is just as tired. It's important for me to support my players and that way it's written on my shoes."
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