Benefiting from a Redshirt Season

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Aniya Clinton said it was "gut-wrenching" to come to Kansas State only to be redshirted and unable to play in games last season.

The redshirt freshman outside hitter is making the most of her chance under new coach Jason Mansfield.

"To hear, 'You're a redshirt this season,' is gut-wrenching just because you've been a part of so much success in your past and you've always been on the court," Clinton said. "Then having to sit that year out, in the moment I was really upset."

And now?

"Seeing the game from a different side really helped," she said. "Like seeing what shots are open for outsides, that's a lot of why I feel like I can score is because I've watched so many games and so much film and I can just see things."

Clinton, a 6-foot-2 outside hitter from Midland, Texas, came to K-State after a highly successful prep career. A four-year starter for Midland High School, she earned the 2020 District 2-6A Outstanding Hitter Award in addition to her selection to the 2020 Texas 6A Girls Coaches Association's All-State team. In her senior season, she led the Lady Bulldogs with 396 kills and ranked second on her team with 274 digs.

She also played for the Texas Advantage club team under head coach and 1984 Chinese Olympian Ping Cao, finishing third in the national tournament in 2021.

But Volleyball wasn't her first love.

"Actually, I played softball until my junior year of high school," Clinton said. "My mom was like, 'If we're going to go to college on either sport, you have to pick soon.' We did a lot of recruiting with softball and went to camps, but it was super hard to get money as a center fielder unless you were crazy good. So, volleyball was the answer. I came here and I loved it."

K-State, 8-5 overall and 2-2 in the Big 12 Conference, is certainly benefiting from her choice this season.

Clinton ranks second on the team with 101 kills, trailing only Preseason All-Big 12 senior Aliyah Carter with 153. She also ranks second with 26 blocks, trailing only Preseason All-Big 12 senior Sydney Bolding with 69. Clinton also ranks third on the team with 110.5 points behind Carter and Bolding. Clinton had seven kills and five blocks in a 3-1 loss to Cincinnati on Saturday.

"I'm excited for Aniya to not just be playing but to be playing really well," Mansfield said. "She probably thinks she can play a little bit better than she did tonight because she has high expectations for herself. The best thing about her is you don't know what players will be like until they get out here and start competing, and she's as competitive as anybody I've coached, and that's really exciting.

"More times than not the talent you see just doesn't come out until they get older. It just doesn't. Her physicality and aggressiveness that we see every match is really exciting. There's a lot of growth left in her. I'm excited to see what she's going to be like next weekend let alone in four years."

Moments after K-State's defeat to Cincinnati, Clinton sat in a black swivel chair the team meeting room. Upon a dry-erase board in black marker read:

Discipline leads to habits
Habits lead to consistency
Consistency leads to growth

"For me, I'm really, really hard on myself," Clinton said. "Sometimes too hard. I really agree with this. We talk about consistency a lot."

Clinton plans to play consistently well as the Wildcats look to advance to the NCAA Tournament this season.

"I feel like we have so much more potential," she said. "Looking at tonight's box score, these are not numbers that we usually put up. I just feel like when we finally figure it out, it's going to click, and it's going to be so good."

Some would argue Clinton is figuring things out just fine during her first year playing with the Wildcats.

"She's very impressive," Mansfield said. "She's special and she has a chance to be great. She holds herself to a really high standard. She's a big part of what we're doing. She's taking that ownership as an attacker and as a blocker. She's learning. It's her first time playing in the Big 12. She continually gets better."

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Sydney Bolding

Aliyah Carter

Aniya Clinton

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