HERMOSA BEACH, California — Deahna Kraft is, in some ways, like any other athlete or individual striving for greatness in their respective field: “You want to be good now,” she said on SANDCAST. “You want to win now.”
And yet, often in that quest to be good now, to win now, to dip into the cup of instant gratification of leaning on the same strengths one always has, growth becomes stagnant, and those ninth and seventh and thirteenth place finishes continue piling up. To be sure, these are not bad finishes, but Kraft is not kept up at night envisioning celebrating a tournament exit on a Saturday morning in Manhattan Beach.
This entire off-season, then, she did what few are willing to do: She sucked.
For the majority of her career, Kraft, a 6-foot 25-year-old from Seattle, has blocked, or at the very least split-blocked. She has the height, the hands, and the ability to get off the net and make a play the position at an elite level. She has the supply-demand in her favor, with demand for blockers being high and the supply of them being relatively low. Yet after taking inventory of the best blockers in the world — Ana Patricia Silva, Kelly Cheng, Taryn Kloth, Katja Stam, Tanja Huberli, Svenja Muller — she realized that many of them, with the notable exceptions of Brandie Wilkerson and Taliqua Clancy, were taller than her. Her conclusion? Her ceiling was highest as a defender.
With only a single AVP tournament prior to this week’s Manhattan Beach Open, Kraft viewed the dearth of events as an opportunity, an extended off-season to grind through the muck of learning a new position.
“It’s been long but probably the best off-season I’ve ever had,” Kraft said. “I joined the [USA Volleyball] development group [coached by Scott Davenport] transferring to become a defender so I needed the time and learning a ton of different things. I think it was the first off-season I’ve bene able to fully trial and error things. I think the biggest thing that I’ve noticed the past two years is I haven’t been able to commit to a system or something you want to try in your game because you don’t have enough time. Playing with that is scary too because you’re going to be bad for a little bit. It’s going to come in and out of focus, being able to apply what you’re learning. I was able to do that, playing NORCECAs with different people and suck. Because I’m trying different things and feeling the anxiety of going all in on something. That’s something I’ve really focused on trying to do.”
How’s it been going?
Better than Kraft could have imagined.
She picked up a remarkably athletic partner in Lexy Denaburg, a 6-foot blocker in her rookie season out of UCLA, and debuted with a seventh at AVP Huntington Beach in May. She finished the tournament fifth in digs, trailing only players who played more sets than her (Melissa Humana-Paredes, Megan Kraft, Betsi Flint, Kristen Nuss) while notching more than notably accomplished defenders in Sara Hughes, Hailey Harward and April Ross.
Two weeks later, on just three hours’ notice, Kraft and Denaburg flew to Stare Jablonki, Poland, for a Challenge event and promptly qualified by winning in two straight upsets.
“I’ve been able to see that transfer into my game. I still go back on habits that aren’t as good, especially if you’re doing it for six years, but I’m able to see when I’m doing it, not doing it,” Kraft said. “I’m just trying not to focus on results at all this year. It’s hard not to. I think the last two years, I was too result focused and it made me worse, just trying, every tournament, to get better. I’m still going to take a minute if I lose to decompress but it’s helped me change my whole perspective on how I want to approach this year and how I want to get better.”
It is the counterintuitive nature of sports that when an athlete releases their grip on results, the results often seem to come. And come they have.
In July, Kraft and Denaburg won gold at a Futures in Leuven, Belgium, without so much as dropping a set. Two weeks later, in Brussels, they finished fifth, losing only their quarterfinal match against Germans Sandra Ittlinger and Kim Van de Velde. Both tournaments are the highest finishes of Kraft’s international career.
“I just want to be surrounded by people who are really good and that makes you better,” Kraft said. “Put yourself around people who are great and you’ll either rise to greatness or learn you’re not meant to be there. I think I’ve been able to rise pretty well or work hard enough to at least compete with the level.”
She knows she has a ways to go before she reaches the level of, say, a Kristen Nuss or Nina Brunner or Melissa Humana-Paredes. She knows the competition is thick to put her name on the Manhattan Beach Pier or qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. But that’s also sort of the point. It’s the striving, and the mystery of whether or not she will get there, that makes life fun.
“It still might not come. Sometimes there’s some magic involved in what you want – really good draws, really good partners. I’m going to work really, really hard and put myself in a position to get a little magic,” Kraft said. “Sometimes a partner changes your life, sometimes it’s a career-changing tournament. I do set goals, I think everyone’s goal is to go to the Olympics and play at the top level, everyone wants that. I keep those goals in mind but I’m just going to work really, really hard to give myself the opportunity to do that. I want those lofty goals but I’m not shouting it from the rooftops. I’m just going to put my head down and work, and as my dad always says, the harder you work, the luckier you get. That’s what I try to do.”
