Munster sophomore Gracyn Gilliard loved everything about playing basketball in New York in September.
Everything but the injury that nearly cost the 5-foot-10 right-side hitter the rest of her volleyball season.
“It was amazing, a super fun experience,” she said. “The energy was electric. It sucks that I got hurt, but it was still fun to be in that environment.”
Gilliard fractured a knuckle on her left ring finger while playing in a basketball tournament at Rucker Park in New York, a legendary streetball venue.
She returned to the volleyball court just in time for the sectional round, helping Munster advance to the Class 4A LaPorte Regional on Saturday. The Mustangs (17-15) will play Crown Point (21-12) in a morning semifinal.
Munster coach Kalin Miller raved about Gilliard’s play during three sectional wins, especially the 26-24, 25-20, 26-24 victory against Lake Central in the semifinal on Oct. 14. Gilliard led Munster with six blocks and added five kills and three digs in that match.
“That was probably the best game she’s played,” Miller said. “I didn’t expect her to play like she did. Her hitting and blocking were on point.”
Gilliard said she was thrilled just to be playing again, but winning didn’t hurt.
“I was really excited to play, and I’m glad we had the outcome we did because I’m super excited to play at regionals,” she said. “I hated sitting on the sidelines.”
Gilliard doesn’t sit much in either sport when she’s healthy. She starred for Munster’s girls basketball team last season, when she averaged a team-high 17.9 points and was named to the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association’s all-state third team.
Gilliard, who is already on college basketball coaches’ radars, also plays for the Lady Gym Rats in Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League. That’s the team that went to New York during a September weekend when Gilliard had no volleyball matches on the schedule.
“I was a little intimidated, honestly,” she said. “It’s such a big event.”
Gilliard suffered the injury when she was reaching for the ball and it hit her fingers awkwardly. She brushed it off at first.
“I kept playing,” she said. “But then I looked down, and it was a little discolored, and then I was like, ‘Oh, wait, it kind of hurts.'”
At the end of that weekend, Miller knew something was up when she received a different kind of text message from Gilliard.
“She just casually threw out, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ when she usually just tells me,” Miller said. “I thought she was going to be out for the rest of the season, but she healed up quickly.”
Gilliard obviously didn’t enjoy her stint on the sidelines, but she didn’t waste it. By watching her Munster teammates attack the net, she noticed a flaw in her fundamentals.
“I wasn’t snapping my wrist,” she said. “I was thinking that my swings were weird compared to theirs. So I fixed it. That was a big factor in sectionals. I was finally hitting my spots.”
Gilliard’s presence also provided a mental boost for the Mustangs, according to senior setter Brooklyn Clayton, who leads the team with 518 assists.
“Her energy always brings us up,” Clayton said. “Sometimes we’ll get down, and Gracyn has more of a bubbly personality, so it’s easy to look at her and fix your own attitude. And she’s probably our best blocker. She knows how to get around any hitter.”
Gilliard said she remains committed to volleyball but might try to avoid juggling two sports at the same time in the future.
“I think I was taught a valuable lesson to not play other sports during the season,” she said with a laugh. “But I love playing volleyball. It’s a go-go-go type of sport, and I really like the competitiveness of it. I’ll be back every year for volleyball.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
