She’s really bad at dodgeball. In that game the point is to avoid getting tagged by the balls sailing towards you. She prefers to duck, dive and dodge right in front of them and take the hit.

Kristin Lutes is the team captain for Sacramento State’s volleyball team. The position requires the mentality of the anti-dodgeball player. She thanks her sisters for teaching her what it takes to be a good libero.

“They taught me how to play volleyball by pinning me up against the wall and firing as many balls as possible at me,” Lutes, a Kent, Wash., native said.

“I can remember the girls would go outside and pound balls at Kristin,” Linda Lutes, Kristin’s mother, said. “It’s probably part of the reason why she is so good defensively.”

Athletics ran in the Lutes family. Her father, David, was a three-sport athlete in high school dividing his time between track, basketball and football. He accepted a four-year scholarship to play quarterback at the University of Washington. He sparked the Lutes’ passion for volleyball.

While other clubs were up to 45 minutes away from the Lutes’ home, her father built a club from the ground up. As the director of athletics and activities for Kent School District, her father had access to plenty of gym time and equipment.

“We started out with eight teams for 14- to 18-year-olds,” Linda Lutes said. “It has been grown into one of the best volleyball clubs in the state.”

In the seven years that Lutes spent playing for the Kent Juniors Volleyball Club the team won four straight Puget Sound Region titles and qualified for the Junior Nationals in 2003. Seven of Lutes’ teammates play Division. I volleyball.

Pulling double duty, Lutes also played for the Kentlake High School volleyball team. That team went 118-5 in the three years that Lutes started and collected three South Puget Sound League championships along with three 4A state titles. The team also set a state record with 91 consecutive wins.

Sacramento State volleyball head coach Debby Colberg’s teams are legendary for their defense, and Lutes fits right in. She was named Libero of the Year in the Big Sky conference as a freshman in 2003. Currently the team captain is leading the Big Sky in digs per game and ranked 25th in the nation in that statistic, and the entire team is ranked 6th in the nation in digs per game. The team is also on top of the Big Sky rankings with a 15-7 record for the season so far.

“She made an immediate impact on the team as a freshman,” Colberg said. “[As team captain], you know she is going to give good advice.”

The strong family unit supporting Lutes has allowed her to excel in the classroom and on the court.

“My parents are the most wonderful people in the world,” said Lutes. “They did everything they could to let me do school and volleyball.”

David and Linda Lutes raised Kristin in the same house for her entire life in Kent, Wash. The couple has been dating each other since they were 14 years old and been married for the past 30 years. This past summer her parents moved out of her childhood home into a 900-square-foot apartment, waiting for their new home to be built.

When Lutes moved away in the summer of 2003 it was a big change, since the baby of the family was finally leaving home. Her older sisters Michaela, 26, and Trina, 24, had already flown the coop several years before.

“I cried,” Linda Lutes said. “I knew that was something she had wanted to do. She loves it down there. We save as much summer vacation to go to as many volleyball games as we can.”

Lutes nearly didn’t leave the state however; she was verbally committed to Eastern Washington, the rival of Sac State volleyball.

“Compared to Eastern, Sacramento State felt like a family,” Lutes said. “I thought the [Sac State] campus was gorgeous, I loved all the trees.”

During Lutes’ visit to the campus she stayed with then senior and co-captain of the team, Lisa Beauchene. Lisa is now the assistant volleyball coach at New Mexico. Lutes became the first libero to be recruited and given a scholarship by Sacramento State.

Lutes and the Hornets are on a three-match road trip against three conference rivals. If they win all three the team will cement their first place bid in the Big Sky to host the conference tournament.

The Hornets will return to the Hornets Nest to face their rival, Eastern Washington, on Oct. 27.

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Brad Alexander can be reached at [email protected]