Butler middle blocker Grace Boggess (14) deflects a shot attempt earlier this season.
The two halves of Grace Boggess’s college career might actually serve up more differences than likenesses.
Whatever the exact breakdown might happen to be, Boggess, a 6-foot-3 senior middle blocker for Butler University, is extremely grateful for both.
The Center Grove graduate is where she is because of where she was.
“Obviously, I didn’t get to play too much early, but honestly, it helped make me into the player I am today,” said Boggess, whose 57 kills this season rank fourth on the team entering Friday’s match against DePaul inside venerable Hinkle Fieldhouse.
“I had to put in a lot of time in the gym and time in the weight room. I was like, ‘This is my chance.’”
Another key factor — Kyle Shondell being named Butler’s new head coach of March 2023 — played a major role in pushing Boggess, formerly a situationally-used backup, to becoming a fixture in the Bulldogs’ starting lineup.
If the surname sounds familiar, well, it should. The Shondells are volleyball royalty in Indiana, beginning with the late Don Shondell, Kyle’s grandfather, who started the men’s volleyball program at Ball State and went on to a Hall of Fame career with a final record of 769-280-6 (73.2%).
Dave Shondell, 66, who is Kyle’s father, has been the women’s coach at Purdue, a top-20 squad virtually every season, since 2003.
Meanwhile, Kyle Shondell’s uncle, 69-year-old Steve Shondell, presided over one of the most admired dynasties in the history of Indiana high school sports, leading Muncie Burris to a jaw-dropping 21 state volleyball championships between 1982 and 2009.
Kyle Shondell brought more to those Hinkle Fieldhouse practices, though, than just a well-known family tree.
“Kyle came in and had so much confidence in not just me, but the whole team. We truly just needed someone to believe in us,” Boggess said. “I know the spring that he showed up, it made our culture so much better.”
As a result, Boggess’ career trajectory is markedly different. After totaling 113 kills in 100 sets over her freshman and sophomore seasons, she upped those numbers significantly in Shondell’s debut season. She played in 100 sets last year alone and stepped up with 177 kills — and she’s on track to post similar numbers this season.
Boggess’ .339 hitting percentage as a junior ranked her fourth among players in the Big East; her 1.01 blocks per set were the league’s fifth-best average.
Shondell, Butler’s sixth head coach since 1975, had his own challenges to overcome upon taking the job 18 months ago.
The presence of Boggess, it turns out, made things easier — even though the coach rarely spotted her when breaking down game film from the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
“The odd thing is Grace doesn’t appear in those films her first two seasons,” Shondell said. “Then she had a unique scenario where my first spring, we had only one middle blocker, and that was her. You can go two ways with that. You can give up and get worse, or you can buck up and get better, and she got better. Grace made huge strides that spring. She didn’t complain once.”
She’s not complaining now, either.
Boggess, a marketing major who’ll graduate in the spring, looks forward to finishing out her college volleyball career.
More blocks. More kills. More memories.
