THE YOUNGEST OF four children by seven years, Kendall was an unwilling passenger to her sisters’ volleyball matches and tournaments. Kasey, 11 years older, played at UC Santa Barbara. Conley, nine years older, played at Washington State and Hope International.
“I would sit there, at these tournaments that went from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and I hated it,” Kendall said. “I wanted to be running around and playing with my friends. Not having to sit in the bleachers. I was not a fan of volleyball at first just because I had boring memories associated with it.”
A young Kipp swore she would be an Olympian in either swimming or soccer. Her parents never pushed her into volleyball. In fact, she found the sport on her own terms, which is how the self-described “stubborn” Kendall preferred it.
“No one pressured me to, which I think is why I ended up wanting to do it,” she said.
When her friends started playing in middle school, seventh-grade Kendall thought she’d give it a try. Consider also her hometown: Newport Beach is a high-achieving family-oriented community and a hotbed of volleyball.
Kipp, who grew up on the East Bluff Harbor View area surrounded by parks, pools, fields, and greenbelts, said, “I can’t imagine a better place to grow up. Everything is top-level. Growing up around that, you just have certain standards and expectations for yourself.”
Volleyball, at first, was a struggle.
“I had no control over my body at all,” she said. “I was a mess. I was the worst on my team. I had no skills. I didn’t even think I was going to make the middle school team. I was so goofy, everyone called me, ‘The Baby Deer on Ice Skates.’”
“I remember seeing her as a seventh-grader,” said Steve Astor, who would become her coach at Corona del Mar High School and now is an assistant at Kansas State. “She was super long, super skinny, but it was pretty clear she was a different-level athlete. That was obvious from afar.”
Two years after taking up the sport, Kipp was a freshman starting in a raucous enemy gym at rival Newport Harbor High before a standing-room-only crowd.
“It tests your character for sure,” Astor said. “That area is the best in the country for high school volleyball. It’s fight or flight. Sink or swim. We played in some gnarly environments with students yelling at you. In all those rivalry matches, I don’t remember her ever playing poorly.”
While playing middle blocker as a sophomore in a CIF Southern Section…
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