BY DAVE LINK
Catholic junior Mia Kinney doesn’t mind playing out of her club and college position for the Lady Irish volleyball team.
She is an offensive force as an outside hitter and is a six-rotation player for Catholic.
Yet Kinney will play defense in college, signing scholarship papers to play libero or defensive specialist at Vanderbilt.
And that’s her focus during Catholic’s offseason for volleyball, which is in-season for Kinney at K2 Volleyball.
“I’m just trying to get a little bit more polished in my libero position,” said Kinney, the 2025 5Star Preps Volleyball Player of the Year, “just because pretty much my entire volleyball career I’ve just been doing different things, and just playing whatever (position) my team needs me to.”
Her versatility and talent were a big reason Catholic (25-10) had another big season in 2025.
Kinney combined powerful hitting (332 kills) with her setting (68 assists), defense (239 digs), serving (72 aces), and excellent passing in leading the Lady Irish to the Division II-AA Final Four.
Catholic coach Brent Carter said he’s able to use Kinney’s versatility because his senior libero, Nora James, has similar talents like Kinney.
“We get creative and move our libero around because our libero (James) is also a very skilled player,” Carter said. “Sometimes, our libero is playing left-back defense and sometimes she’s playing middle-back defense, so it gives us a nuance to where we put Mia, and it gives us an attacking threat out of the back row.”
Kinney’s passing is uncanny, too, and it was on full display at the state tournament, where the Lady Irish endured an emotional rollercoaster.
Catholic staved off elimination with a 3-0 victory over Chattanooga Baylor on Oct. 21 in their second Final Four match of the day, then lost on Oct. 22 to Christ Presbyterian Academy of Nashville by a 3-0 set score.
In the loss to CPA, Kinney’s passing rating was 2.82 on the 3.0 scale used for volleyball passing statistics; Carter raved about her passing in the season ending match.
“To knock Baylor out in a sweep was like a big deal to our kids emotionally,” Carter said, “and we just could not get it together against CPA. We needed to be passing well like we normally pass, and we just weren’t, but Kinney still passed a .282 in that match. And a .282 is best in the world. It’s unbelievable.”
Kinney transferred to Catholic from Baylor before the 2024-25 school year, earning All-5Star Preps first-team honors as the Lady Irish reached the state sectionals (quarterfinals).
Her sister, Elli, and brother, Cooper, are graduates of Baylor.
Elli (2023 Baylor graduate) is a junior libero for Vanderbilt’s volleyball team and Cooper (2021 Baylor graduate) is an infielder with the Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball organization.
Mia’s transfer to Catholic was a natural move because she was playing full-time with K2 Volleyball while attending Baylor in Chattanooga.
“It’s helped me out in so many different ways, and I’m really glad we made that decision,” she said of going to Catholic.
Kinney committed to Vanderbilt on June 15 of this year. While Elli was influential in Mia’s decision, she didn’t push Mia toward Vanderbilt.
“She loves it (Vanderbilt), and she just really helped me out through the whole recruiting process,” Mia said. “She didn’t pressure me in any way at all, but she was just there and really helpful for me. She really loves Vandy and I kind of got to see the inside scoop of that, so it was a pretty easy decision for me.”
Kinney said the 2025 season was a thrill for her and the Lady Irish, and she looks forward to another postseason run in 2026.
“I think there’s a bit of a reputation for volleyball at Catholic,” Kinney said.
Carter expects Kinney to take another critical role next season. He said Kinney is the most competitive player he’s coached in almost 10 years, when he coached Kamila Cieslik, a 2017 Catholic graduate who played five years at Rutgers.
“Nobody anywhere competes like (Kinney), and it’s mostly with herself,” Carter said. “She wants to be better every single time she touches the ball, and we haven’t had a kid like her since Kamila Cieslik, in 2016. Just a died-in-the-wool competitor, and here’s the thing nobody would question: She is the team leader.
“After every point, she is the one saying the right things, doing the right things. What she and I spent the most time on was how to handle those situations, and the management of each kid, how they needed to be managed out on the floor. So not only was it a players’ team instead of just a coaches’ team, and it was great.”
PAST RECIPIENTS
2024 — Bella Ekeler (Farragut)
2023 — Kiernan Stamey (Maryville), Tinsley Brown (HVA)
2022 — Devyn Dunn (Catholic)
2021 — Devyn Dunn (Catholic)
2020 — Cassie Kuerschen (Catholic)
2019 — Cassie Kuerschen (Catholic)
2018 — Kayleigh Hames (Webb), Kailey Keeble (Heritage)