Grace Anetipa and teammates high five in Saturday’s game against Carleton. Anetipa was named MIAC Volleyball Setter of the Week after her performance against Augsburg. (Maxwell Collier/TommieMedia)
St. Thomas volleyball player Grace Anetipa was recently named MIAC Volleyball Setter of the Week following a stellar performance at the Augsburg invite.
Anetipa, a first-year starter, has taken over a role her coach calls “extremely important.” She’s the new setter for the Tommies.
“Grace is an extremely valuable player for us, and she’s taking over for a four-year starter. She’s done really well,” coach Thanh Pham said. “Even though Grace is a bit undersized for her position, you can’t tell that when she’s out there playing.”
The sophomore made the all-tournament team at the Augsburg invite on Sept. 6-7, contributing 150 assists and 30 digs in 13 sets.
“It’s really cool to win the award for the first time, but I just do what I can to help my team,” Anetipa said. “I thought I had a really good weekend, but it was a complete team win. Everybody played so good it was just fun to see it all happen.”
The No. 18 Tommies (16-3 overall, 4-0 MIAC), opened up conference play on Wednesday, Sept. 25 with a 3-1 victory over Concordia-Moorhead in four sets. Anetipa scored five points for the Tommies while adding four kills.
Teammate Frances Egan has noticed the contributions that Anetipa brings to the court.
“In a team sport like volleyball, having a setter who can control the court is important,” Egan said. “Grace has done a great job of maintaining the tempo while creating opportunities for every girl.”
Anetipa sees this season as “a really big opportunity” following a disappointing end to the 2018 season, where the Tommies landed just shy of the NCAA tournament.
“We’ve had a really strong start to the season and we’re playing really good right now,” Anetipa said. “Just to work hard throughout the game, knowing defensive is key for us, we’ve been practicing that alot and we just feel ready to take advantage of the opportunity this season.”
Even though the Tommies started out their season with 16 out of 18 matches on the road, they’re currently tied atop the MIAC. They travel to Gustavus Wednesday in hopes to stay undefeated in conference play.
Jacob Schneider can be reached at schn6923@stthomas.edu.