MARION, Ohio — Kam Roberts spent four years doing the least glamorous job in volleyball, and she did it better than anyone else in her conference. The Pleasant High School senior libero will officially sign with the University at Buffalo on Friday, Nov. 13, closing a record-setting high school career and opening a Division I future, the Marion Star reported.
Roberts will graduate early and enroll at Buffalo in January, according to the Marion Star. The Bulls are an NCAA Division I program in the Mid-American Conference — the same league that runs through Ohio — and they carry a 15-11 overall record and a 7-8 mark in MAC play this fall, the Star reported.
The numbers behind Roberts’ senior season explain the scholarship. She produced a Mid Ohio Athletic Conference-high 311 digs to go with 267 serve receives, handed out 88 assists that led directly to kills, and served 88.9 percent with 58 aces — second-best on her team and in the MOAC — and 289 service points, according to the Marion Star. Along the way, she passed the 1,000-dig plateau for her career.
A libero’s work rarely leads a box score, but coaches measure it in rallies saved. “The thing she does well is she reads hitters so well,” Pleasant coach Kory Ute told the Marion Star. “You have to be able to do that as a libero. She finds a way to get to the ball. It’s almost perfect passing once she gets to it.”
Roberts was the catalyst for the best regular season in Pleasant history, the Marion Star reported. The Spartans won the MOAC title outright, claimed a fourth straight district crown and reached a third consecutive regional final. Most remarkably, they navigated the year without losing a set until the regional final — a streak that reached 78 sets.
The personal honors followed the team success. Roberts was named second-team All-Ohio in Division V by the state coaches association, and she became a two-time winner of the Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month award for Marion County girls, taking the honor again for October, according to the Marion Star. The October field she beat out included Elgin volleyball player Kendra Appelfeller, Ridgedale cross country runner Alena Villavicencio, River Valley volleyball player Myla Kenney and Marion Harding cross country runner Noel Stidham.
Roberts credits her growth as much to attitude as to technique. “I put in a lot of work behind closed doors, but having teammates around me has really built my confidence,” she told the Marion Star. “Their skills are so good that they make me look good as well.” She described adopting what she called a “goldfish mentality” from her Mintonette club team — forget the last play and move on — and said it steadied both her and her teammates after mistakes.
Ute told the Marion Star that Roberts’ refusal to let a ball drop sets the team’s tone: “She has a will to not want to fail. She has a will to make sure things happen. She’ll throw her body into the stands to get a ball if it means it’s going to win the point.” Roberts put it more simply in the same interview: “You need to be a little bit selfish because every ball can be yours. I try not to let any balls hit the ground.”
Her Pleasant career also brought home two regional championship trophies and a state runner-up finish, according to the Marion Star — hardware the program had never stacked up before this group came through. Roberts said the foundation now passes to the juniors behind her, and that she is spending her final weeks soaking up time with friends before the early graduation shortens her senior year.
“There’s definitely nerves, but I’m excited,” Roberts told the Marion Star of Buffalo. “The coaching staff is so great. They make me feel like I belong there.” Ute, for her part, told the Star that Buffalo may not yet know what it is getting: “She went up there and fell in love with it. I think they have no clue what they are getting yet. She was a hidden talent.” The two other recruits in Buffalo’s incoming class are also graduating early, Roberts noted, so the trio will start college together in January.
Roberts is not the only Ohio senior signing early this month — college programs across the state announced signing classes this week, including Ohio softball’s five signees, among them two Ohio stars, and Ohio State softball’s eight-player class, ranked in the nation’s top 40. What happens next for Roberts is Friday’s signing at Pleasant, then a January move to Buffalo and a spring of workouts with the Bulls before her first college season next fall.