Oct 8, 2025 3 min read

Name: Natalie Carr

Grade: Senior

School: Canon-McMillan

Sport: Volleyball

Carr’s week: A milestone was achieved by Carr last Tuesday when she recorded her 1,000th career kill in a match against Seneca Valley. She finished with 18 kills and 14 digs in the match, a 3-1 loss and followed that up a dozen kills and 15 digs in a 3-0 sweep of Hempfield Thursday.

Carr needed 210 kills coming into the season to reach 1,000

“It’s always been a goal since I started playing as a freshman,” Carr said. “It was a number to work towards and each year it got more realistic. Hitting it in the middle of the season this year is just awesome.

Pure perseverance: Carr’s journey to 1,000 kills started as what she described as “the worst player” on her 10u club team. That’s when she first started playing volleyball and she didn’t take to the sport right away.

“I couldn’t underhand serve the net,” Carr said. “It was bad.”

Carr refused to fail, however. It’s in her personality to become the best she could be and she applied that to volleyball. It’s certainly paid off.

“I asked my parents to buy a volleyball net and I was always outside practicing,” Carr said. “I just tried to get better and had private lessons every week. There was a jump from 10 to 11 (years old) where I drastically improved. The self-motivation and drive to keep getting better helped me keep improving.”

Youngstown State bound: Carr has grown from that young girl that couldn’t serve over the net to a Division I volleyball player. She’s headed to Youngstown State. The Penguins’ coaching staff were in communication with Carr from the first moment they could, and the school was a good fit, because she wanted to stay close to home.

“I’m super excited and grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given that have allowed me to play at the next level,” Carr said. “I didn’t want to go far away for college. I talked to them on June 15 my sophomore year when they could first start talking to me and stayed in contact with them through February when they asked me to come for an official visit. I went up there, talked with the coaches, and some of the players, walked around campus and just fell in love with it. I knew after being there that it was definitely the school for me.”

Making adjustments: Many of the players around Carr on the Canon-McMillan volleyball team that reached the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals last year graduated. That put Carr into a leadership role with some younger players around her. Carr’s garnering a lot of attention from opponents when it comes to blocks, but she said the team has done a good job of coming together as they make a push toward the postseason.

“Most teams that we play try to put their bigger blockers and try to play defense around me, which makes it more difficult,” Carr said. “We have to spread the offense around on our side of the net, which we’re doing a better job of. All of our other hitters are very capable of putting the ball down when it is distributed to them.”