SE: Kylee Zumach Excited to Face Sister in Final Exhibition at Creighton
Aug 15, 2018 | Volleyball, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
In what will be a season of lasts for Kylee Zumach, a fifth-year senior for K-State volleyball, the decorated outside hitter will get to experience a first this Friday: Playing against her sister, Kari, a freshman at Creighton.
K-State will take on the Bluejays in its last exhibition on Friday in Omaha, Nebraska.
For the Zumach sisters, it's more than a final tune-up for the regular season. It's an unlikely match-up between them, considering Kylee graduated high school before Kari started. It's also one more reason Kylee looks back at an ACL injury she suffered early in her sophomore season, which she received a medical redshirt for, as a positive.
"Getting my master's paid for, I get to play my sister, my whole family is coming down to watch, it was a blessing in disguise," Kylee, pursuing her master's degree in academic counseling, said. "Obviously I wish it didn't happen but, fifth year, I'm smarter than I've ever been on the volleyball court, I'm performing at my peak right now, so I wish it never happened but, at the same time, everything happens for a reason."
One of those reasons, in Kylee's mind, will take place on Friday when her entire family and many friends — about 35 total — will make the five-plus hour drive from Minnesota to Omaha to watch the two sisters play.
Kylee's father even had t-shirts made for the event. Its design includes a lightning bolt down the middle of the front. The left side has the number one up top, with "Kari" and "Bluejays" spelled out vertically in blue lettering. The other side has number seven on top, with "Wildcats" and "Kylee" below it. The back of the shirt reads: "Team Zumach."
"He was, like, 'Now you guys can't say I'm picking a side,'" Kylee said. "They're excited too. My dad's pumped."
The closest the two sisters ever even got to playing together was Kylee's senior year at Buffalo High School in Minnesota, when Kari played JV as an eighth grader and was called up to varsity for postseason play.
"I've never played with her. She used to hate volleyball," Kylee said, with a laugh, at K-State's media day on Monday. "She's my best friend, so we're excited."
As close as the two sisters may be, Kylee said their personalities are polar opposite. She said her younger sister is "very Type A, very organized," while she is more go-with-the-flow. Being the older sister, Kylee said she's already given Kari advice to "ease up" on some of her controlling tendencies, mostly to "loosen up a little and let other people in so you'll succeed a little bit more."
Like their personalities, the Zumach sisters' paths to Division I volleyball were also very different.
Kylee started playing at an early age, competing as early as fourth grade. She lettered for varsity five years in high school, including her eighth grade season. She earned all-conference honors four times, conference MVP recognition twice and all-state accolades two times as well. She set school records in kills, solo blocks and points.
For a long time, Kari refused the sport her older sister excelled at and her mother and father, Darin and Lauri, met playing. Instead, Kari became heavily involved in competitive dance, traveling all over for solo performances.
"She just resisted (volleyball) for so long, like, 'I don't want to be like my whole family. I want to be my own person,'" Kylee said. "She's very independent, but they got her to try it one year and she fell in love with it."
Kylee grew up tall most of her life and now stands at 6-foot-4. Kari's height was average for most of hers. When a doctor told her she would grow to only 5-foot-8, Kylee said her sister "started bawling." Then Kari grew about five inches in one year and volleyball clicked for her in about ninth grade.
"We were, like, 'Wow, she's going to go to college, too, to play. This is exciting,'" Kylee recalled thinking that year, her first at K-State when she was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year.
Now, Kari's a 6-foot-2 opposite battling for playing time for 13th-ranked Creighton. Kylee, who became the fifth Wildcat in the rally-scoring era to eclipse 1,000 career kills last season, is a veteran outside hitter who said her main priority this season it to lead K-State back to the NCAA Tournament.
Before the games start to count, however, there will a family battle Kylee's been eagerly awaiting since she found out it was on the schedule.
"We are competitive about everything. Last year in the men's basketball (NCAA) Tournament when K-State played Creighton, we were talking smack. Our house was butting heads. We're competitive about everything — volleyball, school, life," Kylee said. "I freaked out (when I found out we were playing Creighton) because she's an opposite and I'm an outside so we'll most likely be matched up with each other for one or two rotations, so I get to block against my sister."
In what will be a season of lasts for Kylee Zumach, a fifth-year senior for K-State volleyball, the decorated outside hitter will get to experience a first this Friday: Playing against her sister, Kari, a freshman at Creighton.
K-State will take on the Bluejays in its last exhibition on Friday in Omaha, Nebraska.
For the Zumach sisters, it's more than a final tune-up for the regular season. It's an unlikely match-up between them, considering Kylee graduated high school before Kari started. It's also one more reason Kylee looks back at an ACL injury she suffered early in her sophomore season, which she received a medical redshirt for, as a positive.
"Getting my master's paid for, I get to play my sister, my whole family is coming down to watch, it was a blessing in disguise," Kylee, pursuing her master's degree in academic counseling, said. "Obviously I wish it didn't happen but, fifth year, I'm smarter than I've ever been on the volleyball court, I'm performing at my peak right now, so I wish it never happened but, at the same time, everything happens for a reason."
One of those reasons, in Kylee's mind, will take place on Friday when her entire family and many friends — about 35 total — will make the five-plus hour drive from Minnesota to Omaha to watch the two sisters play.
Kylee's father even had t-shirts made for the event. Its design includes a lightning bolt down the middle of the front. The left side has the number one up top, with "Kari" and "Bluejays" spelled out vertically in blue lettering. The other side has number seven on top, with "Wildcats" and "Kylee" below it. The back of the shirt reads: "Team Zumach."
Can't wait for Friday night and the big match. pic.twitter.com/a1wpt5awlv
— Zoom (@Zoomy67) August 14, 2018
"He was, like, 'Now you guys can't say I'm picking a side,'" Kylee said. "They're excited too. My dad's pumped."
The closest the two sisters ever even got to playing together was Kylee's senior year at Buffalo High School in Minnesota, when Kari played JV as an eighth grader and was called up to varsity for postseason play.
"I've never played with her. She used to hate volleyball," Kylee said, with a laugh, at K-State's media day on Monday. "She's my best friend, so we're excited."
As close as the two sisters may be, Kylee said their personalities are polar opposite. She said her younger sister is "very Type A, very organized," while she is more go-with-the-flow. Being the older sister, Kylee said she's already given Kari advice to "ease up" on some of her controlling tendencies, mostly to "loosen up a little and let other people in so you'll succeed a little bit more."
Like their personalities, the Zumach sisters' paths to Division I volleyball were also very different.
Kylee started playing at an early age, competing as early as fourth grade. She lettered for varsity five years in high school, including her eighth grade season. She earned all-conference honors four times, conference MVP recognition twice and all-state accolades two times as well. She set school records in kills, solo blocks and points.
For a long time, Kari refused the sport her older sister excelled at and her mother and father, Darin and Lauri, met playing. Instead, Kari became heavily involved in competitive dance, traveling all over for solo performances.
"She just resisted (volleyball) for so long, like, 'I don't want to be like my whole family. I want to be my own person,'" Kylee said. "She's very independent, but they got her to try it one year and she fell in love with it."
Kylee grew up tall most of her life and now stands at 6-foot-4. Kari's height was average for most of hers. When a doctor told her she would grow to only 5-foot-8, Kylee said her sister "started bawling." Then Kari grew about five inches in one year and volleyball clicked for her in about ninth grade.
"We were, like, 'Wow, she's going to go to college, too, to play. This is exciting,'" Kylee recalled thinking that year, her first at K-State when she was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year.
Now, Kari's a 6-foot-2 opposite battling for playing time for 13th-ranked Creighton. Kylee, who became the fifth Wildcat in the rally-scoring era to eclipse 1,000 career kills last season, is a veteran outside hitter who said her main priority this season it to lead K-State back to the NCAA Tournament.
Before the games start to count, however, there will a family battle Kylee's been eagerly awaiting since she found out it was on the schedule.
"We are competitive about everything. Last year in the men's basketball (NCAA) Tournament when K-State played Creighton, we were talking smack. Our house was butting heads. We're competitive about everything — volleyball, school, life," Kylee said. "I freaked out (when I found out we were playing Creighton) because she's an opposite and I'm an outside so we'll most likely be matched up with each other for one or two rotations, so I get to block against my sister."
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