Draft Prospect Profile: OH Audrey Koenig
Koenig has the trifecta of size, skills, and athleticism, and it makes her lethal.
Every player who can be considered a future professional is good at what they do, but Florida State outside hitter Audrey Koenig is a specimen of pure volleyball excellence. When we spoke in early August, Noles head coach Chris Poole asserted that she’s not just pro material — she has what it takes to one day play on the United States national team.
Awards voters agree that Keonig shines among her peers. She has been accoladed in every year of her college career, adding the title of ACC Co-Player of the Year to her resumé as a junior. She was the team’s primary hitter, and converted her 868 attacks into a .289 hitting percentage. At the same time, she was entrusted with playing all six rotations and her 291 total digs were second on the team.
She’s able to generate plenty of power from a 6-foot-3 frame, and jumping as high as 10-foot-8, she’s able to swing down on the ball and create sharp angles as well. Koenig has harnessed her physicality by means of her high understanding of the game. It’s no surprise that she’s become such an effective outside hitter.
Opposing defenses expect Florida State to give Koenig plenty of offensive touches. It then becomes her prerogative to find ways to take them by surprise with what she does once she ball comes to her.
“She's continuing to be able to add to her game, understanding that if everybody is back on their heels defensively because she is such a physical hitter, that's where you've got to learn to be able to do roll shots into the middle,” said Poole. “Over the past year, she's gained a lot more confidence on trying some things that at first she was a little bit reluctant to try because it was just outside her comfort zone.”
Now she takes pride in her ability to misdirect her opponents with all kinds of midair trickery.
“Whenever you do hit an offspeed shot and it doesn't work and you're like, ‘Man, I could have just hit it.’ Sometimes it's more satisfying when a tip drops, though, like, no one can get your off speed shot and you didn't even have to swing and you can get a point. So I think it's just trusting it in practice and just keep throwing it in there,” she said.
“Not hitting where you're facing is a big one. I love, like, turning my shoulders towards the angle and then just hitting line. It's harder for defenders to read that. Just using your wrist to redirect the ball is always frustrating,” continued Koenig with a grin. “Or if nothing's going your way, you can always tool them. Cause there's really not much they can do about it if you swing off their hands. It's probably the worst feeling as a blocker.”
As a self-described perfectionist, Koenig refuses to become complacent no matter how many awards roll in.
“I always see little things in my game that can get better. I think just communicating that with your coaches and being ready to make changes and take risks in your game for it to happen is what has continued to help me,” she said. “If a coach is silent, I take that as negative. If someone has a technical piece of advice to give me, like if I didn't hit a shot and they say ‘Hey, they've dug this shot a couple of times in a row, why don't you try something else,’ that really registers with me.”
Two areas where Koenig could improve during her senior season is blocking and serving, and she’s hungry to make those gains.
“I'm definitely excited to just train. I work at making sure to look where they're swinging and not following the ball. It's a huge thing, and that's something I usually forget about during games. So, just working during practice to be able to like read, like, if they're trying to tool you, if the seams open, filling the seam, yeah, a lot of little technical things,” she said.
Although Koenig wasn’t terrible at the service line last season, her serve isn’t up to the level where she’d like it to be. Her goal is to iron out two serves she can use in different contexts — a safe version unlikely to error or ace, and a high risk/reward version to bring the heat and dial up the pressure on the opposing serve-receive unit. Ideally, by embracing a situational serve approach, she’d both be able to increase her ace count and minimize errors.
In addition to playing indoor volleyball, Koenig is also a member of the Florida State beach volleyball team. She started playing both ways in college and took to the sand nicely. Poole, who had advocated for her to start playing beach in the first place, pointed out a few ways that experience has helped her improve her indoor game.
“She has gotten the ability to be able to read and get her hands on the ball [on defense]. The biggest thing is a little bit more court awareness, because when you're in double, you need to find the open court. You know there's going to be court open because most teams are going to play with a blocker and a defender. So I think it helps your vision. You learn to have a little bit better vision out of it,” said the coach.
Koenig agreed that playing beach has helped her improve her court vision, and reiterated the importance of reading the hitter rather than the ball.
“It's something that took a little bit of time for me to fully learn and be confident in myself to be able to actually like get the ball up and read,” said Koenig. If someone like scores a tip shot on me or something where I'm like, ‘Man, I could have definitely dug that if I was looking at the hitter,’ then that's like kind of redirects my attention back to like their arm swing and not just losing it to the ball, you know?”
“I think the other thing that it does too is the sand is resistant in itself,” Poole added. “So there is some strength training involved there with the sand and movement training, speed training, so I think all of those are positive. I'm a proponent of it. You need to still continue to play indoor as well, but I think it's great cross training for our players to also be able to go out in the sand.”
Other players I’ve featured in this series have privately expressed interest in playing beach volleyball rather than turning pro in the spring, but Koenig is the first to tell me that her mind is all but made up. She loves playing beach, and with another spring of beach eligibility on the table for her after the indoor season ends, she’d rather delay the start of her professional career in favor of another few months in the sand for the Seminoles.
“I feel like I'm the type of player that really likes to learn and try new things. With beach, it was like a blank slate and I didn't know anything going into it. I've just had so much to learn and it was really fun for me to be able to figure out a new sport and grow in that area. So, yeah, I feel like I have a lot left to learn in that sport and that makes me want to continue playing as long as I can,” Koenig explained.
A team may call her name during the upcoming PVF draft regardless. Draft rules allow a team to retain the exclusive negotiating rights for a drafted player for two years following the draft, even if the player does not immediately sign with that team. It’s how the Columbus Fury were able to bring in third-round draftee Kendall Kipp on April 12 after she’d spent the previous few months playing for Il Bisonte Firenze in Italy.
The Florida State beach volleyball season ends just before the conclusion of PVF league play, which would allow a similar path for Koenig as that taken by Kipp. A team who believes in Koenig’s potential may see drafting her this year as an investment in their playoff push. Additionally, the opportunity cost of drafting her a season early is low. The jump from college to pro ball is steep and most 2024 draft picks failed to make the cut for their parent team. If that trend continues, a team is unlikely to be missing out on a season-long contributor by spending a mid-round draft pick on Koenig.
My understanding is that most players drafted last December had a handshake agreement with the league that they would be willing to sign if selected. So, I put the question to Koenig — if a team approached you saying, ‘We’d like to draft you and keep you on the back burner while you play beach,’ would you be open to that? She thought for a long time, smiled, and said yes.
“She's one that I would highly recommend to professional coaches. And I've already told friends in the past year that this is a player you're going to want to keep an eye on when she comes out because she is good enough to play at a high level,” said Coach Poole.
When Koenig looks back at the days when she was emerging on the college scene, she sees the blueprint for how she can succeed as a professional.
“When I came in from high school, I definitely was not a star player and it took a lot of patience and openness to learn and for me to like jump to the next level. So, I think just as long as I want to get better and I have the willpower and the dedication to keep growing and, you know, just believe in myself, I think that that will help me succeed at the next level.”
Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity. To watch full Florida State games, click here and here.