As the set floats in the air, Belle Patrick comes through and pummels the ball into the ground, giving Patrick her 1,000th kill of her career. In an interview with the GH Falcon, the Virginia Tech commit spoke on her journey from young volleyball player to future D1 star.

When did you begin playing volleyball competitively?

I began playing when I was 12 years old for Triangle Volleyball, and at that age, I was playing 2-3 times a week.

How do you feel COVID impacted your development?

With COVID, practices were shut down for over five months, and then after that we could have private lessons, so I think there was a setback. However, I think that it improved people in the mental side of volleyball.

What did your volleyball schedule look like over the summer?

Over the summer we practiced for about 2.5 hours a day. We played most of our tournaments during the school year so the summer was mostly for going to college camps and training individually.

How did your recruiting process go?

On June 15th [of my junior year] when I got emails, I assigned calls and talked to as many coaches as I could. After each call, if I didn’t like them I would cross them off of my list. I went to three camps and knew after I went to the VT camp that was where I wanted to go to college.

What made you choose Virginia Tech?

The atmosphere, the coaches and the culture there were exactly what I wanted. It is very competitive, but it is also very supportive of each team and the coaches are awesome.

What are you looking forward to for the rest of the high school season?

I would like to win a state championship and have a good last four years. I’ve been here for the last four years and it’s kind of sad for it all to be ending but I’m hoping to go to the state championship and win.

As Patrick finishes her senior year, she is enjoying her last season with her teammates she played with for four years in high school