Heavy Duty: Hawaii’s McKenna Granato

SEATTLE >>

It’s the Big Bang Theory personified nearly every time McKenna Granato takes a swing. The Hawaii junior hitter hits a heavy ball … a really heavy ball … regardless if it’s early, late, or in the middle of a volleyball match.

It’s allowed Granato, listed generously at 6 feet, to compensate for her shortcomings in terms of size. When thinking about dominating outside hitters, the thoughts are big, a la 6-4 Nikki Taylor big.

But the graduation of All-American Taylor, and her 4.54 kills-per-set average, had Hawaii needing to diversify its offense this season. The Wahine have, relying much more on a middle attack than previously, and spreading the sets around by design as much as necessity.

Still, there’s always been the need for that go-to, bail-us-out hitter. That designation has been worn by No. 3, who picked up her first All-Big West honor on Monday after leading the Wahine in kills (3.94 kps), fourth-best average in the conference.

Granato has taken 1,061 swings in 99 sets for Hawaii (20-7) which is preparing for today’s NCAA first-round match against Illinois (21-10) here at the Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmondson Pavilion. It’s 237 more attempts than she had in 101 sets last season, when she averaged 2.90 kps.

The Punahou School graduate still is considered the L1 (primary left-side hitter), but she’s donned the mantle worn by Taylor the previous season. She’s worn it well, her former club coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos said.

“When you look at her size … and I’m not undermining her in any way … just saying that for her size she’s been able to do pretty good,” said Ah Mow-Santos, in her first year as Wahine head coach. “Of course, I think she can do better. You can always do better, but when you think of L1s, the other colleges aren’t using 5-9, 5-10 girls out there.

“It doesn’t surprise me. I coached her in club, so I knew what she could do. She’s an all-around player and she’s done pretty well at handling that (L1) spot.”

What has set Granato apart is her ability to bring the heat late, at a time when opponents’ defenses are tiring. It happened at the end of the Oct. 14 five-set victory at Cal State Northridge, where the Wahine saw Granato reach the 600-kill career milestone and come up with four of her 24 kills and two aces in the deciding Set 5.

“You look at her and you don’t think she can hit that hard,” Hawaii sophomore setter Norene Iosia said. “But then she hits it and it’s like, ‘Man … .’ She’s still hitting hard, hitting harder at the end of the match.

“I feel like our connection is better, that she’s been working really hard to score more points. I don’t know what she did, but it’s working.”

Granato isn’t sure either.

The most visible change is the lack of gum-chewing (discouraged by assistant coach Angelica Ljungqvist).

Granato’s mind-set has always been: “Work Hard. Play Harder.”

“Timing is really important and my timing with my setter has gotten better,” she said. “I’m not good at hitting zingers (the fast sets) and we’ve slowed the sets down, which has me getting to the ball and contacting better. And I think I’m hitting smarter. But there’s still a lot to work on.”

One thing would be serving consistency. She is second on the team in aces (33) and the leader in service errors (53).

Her defense continues to improve, with 18 double-digit dig matches, 11 in conference. Her biggest dig may have come in the Big West finale on Nov. 18 at UC Irvine, where she ran down a ball near the bleachers, keeping the play alive that allowed Hawaii to take Set 2 26-24 en route to a sweep.

Hawaii waited out a bye week, waiting on an NCAA at-large berth. Granato wasn’t worried about the team getting in.

“I wasn’t nervous,” she said. “I thought mathematically our RPI was good enough. I’m glad we’re going to Seattle. I thought they’d send us East, like Penn State, Florida or Texas.

“I’m very excited. I think we’re peaking at the right time, not only in our last two matches but in the practice gym. There’s no drama with this team. It feels like a family.”