She played almost every sport imaginable when she was young, but when she first tried volleyball at the age of 12, she knew it was the one. Alex Graves, a junior outside hitter for the Whitman women’s volleyball team, has played volleyball for numerous school and club teams every year since seventh grade and has become one of the strongest players for Whitman.

After attending the U.S.A.V. High Performance Nationals in Austin, Texas, in July 2004, she was offered a position on the Northern California Regional B team, which went on to train exclusively for a national tournament in Colorado where they placed 13th out of a pool of 25.

At Henry Gunn High School in Palo Alto, Calif., she was a three-year varsity player and was awarded all-league honors as a junior and senior. She was named MVP her junior season, leading the Titans in kills, digs and aces.
For the past couple years, she has also played for the Vision Volleyball club under coach Jason Dupler, which has twice advanced to the junior Olympics.

She has gone on to become co-captain of the Whitman women’s volleyball team, along with earning the title of the Northwest Athletic Conference Scholar Athlete of the Week earlier this season.

After losing a couple key players and team leaders to study abroad programs this fall, Graves, along with co-captain Kelsie Butts, has had to rally together and motivate a relatively small squad this season.

“Alex and I definitely work well together,” said Butts. “I am more of the calm, intense player whereas Alex plays with a constant excitement and passion.”

Behind the leadership of these two captains, the team has been able to unite in some very competitive games this season, including a narrow loss to strong competitor George Fox University this past weekend.

“We want to be the scrappiest team out there: the team that keeps the play alive until the other team makes mistakes,” said Butts.

Outside of volleyball, Graves is also interested in business, biology and Spanish and is currently pursuing a major in biology with a Spanish minor.

She participated in a study abroad program in summer 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she studied Spanish and famous Argentine women along with traditional art, dancing and cooking. At the same time, she volunteered with a non-profit organization which supports under-privileged women and children.

Through the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC), Graves has also helped with a local elementary school’s Spanish immersion program, reading books in Spanish to children.

This coming summer, she plans on getting a research internship at a biotechnology company, but is still unsure about what to do after she graduates. After taking Spanish since her first year at Whitman, she has given some thought to teaching in Spain for a couple years.

“I work for the Career Center so I hear plenty of stories about people’s experiences doing that and it sounds like a lot of fun,” said Graves.

However, this decision is still a few years off. Graves has plenty of time to make her choice while leading the Whitman volleyball team to a couple successful seasons.