AOW: Medin earns Player of the Year honor
Like a true team captain, Raei Medin believes the Avocado East Player of the Year award could have gone to anyone on the Del Norte High girls volleyball team. So it came as a surprise to the junior when she earned the honor.
“Honestly, it could have been anyone,” she said. “We are a team and we all contributed together to make us a strong team.”
That might be true, but Medin certainly played a key role for Del Norte. The outside and right side hitter collected a team-leading 277 kills while leading the Nighthawks to a 22-10 season and a second straight Avocado East League championship.
It backed up a stellar sophomore campaign which saw Medin compile 275 kills, 45 aces and 246 digs. Her power and precision at the net are outstanding, but she also can pass and dig at a superior level.
“She is multifaceted,” Del Norte High girls volleyball coach Nathan Rendon said. “She sets, she passes, she plays defense, she can hit and she is not afraid of leading the team. She is always in the huddle trying to say her peace and rally the troops.”
Medin helped rally Del Norte to six straight wins to close the regular season. The last one was a 3-2 victory over nemesis San Dieguito Academy to force a co-championship in the Avocado East League. Medin registered a season-high 20 kills in that one.
“It was a huge win,” she said. “SDA was ahead of us in the power rankings. They were fourth and we were seventh, so it was amazing to beat a team as great as them.”
Medin closed the regular season with double-digit kills in her last seven matches.
“All of the credit goes to Grace Rickard, our setter, and our passers,” Medin said. “We would have gotten nowhere without them.”
The Nighthawks were tabbed the No. 7 seed in the San Diego Section Open Division playoffs and lost to No. 2 Cathedral Catholic in the opening round. It was an abrupt end to a strong season.
Medin will now turn her attention to club volleyball. She plays right side for the Wave. She is also hoping to draw interest from colleges this summer.
“I am definitely working on recruiting right now,” she said. “I am drafting emails and looking up colleges for volleyball and academics.”
Medin has been playing volleyball since the end of her fifth-grade year. A friend got her to give it a try and it was not much longer after that she quit soccer and put her full focus on volleyball.
“Everyone starts from the bottom and I definitely missed the ball the first few times I tried to hit it,” she said. “But as time went on I knew I was made for the sport. Maybe not made for it, but it was something I really enjoyed and it was something that fit my skills.”