Former Rise draftee Kenna Sauer has found her groove in Vegas
Sauer was drafted by the Rise, but Vegas gave her a chance to play. She's coming back with her new squad, so I talked to her about her season so far and the upcoming game in Gand Rapids.
When Kenna Sauer entered the pro game, it was as a member of the Grand Rapids Rise. The team made her the 18th overall selection in the inaugural PVF draft, and she was one of three draft picks that survived training camp without being waived. Grand Rapids kept her on the team, designated as part of the practice squad. Now, the outside hitter is on the cusp of playing her first game in Van Andel Arena, the home of the Rise. The twist - she’s doing it as a member of the visiting Vegas Thrill.
The Thrill had entered the season with Angel Gaskin and Stephanie Rivera Pacheco as depth behind their starting hitters, but the decision makers in Vegas are a restless bunch. Eventually, both were waived, as was Holly Toliver, who was brought in as a potential replacement. The first player they settled on was Meghan McClure-Jemison, a rookie from Stanford who had been placed on waivers by Atlanta. The other was Sauer.
I spoke with Kenna Sauer on Friday afternoon, who explained that being claimed is an abrupt experience that comes with complicated feelings.
“It’s kind of out of nowhere. We don’t really have a say in it; do you wanna go here? It’s like, they claimed me,” she said. “She called me in and said ‘You’re going to Vegas.’ Then you have 48 hours to get to Vegas. You’re just told out of the blue, basically, and that’s how pro sports work, you know?”
Despite that, which she called a wild series of events, the primary emotion Sauer felt was positive.
“I was feeling excited because I was gonna have an opportunity to compete and to see the court,” she continued. “As a practice player, we’re not allowed to dress on gameday. We’re not active. I was really excited about [that,] because I was like ‘This is the opportunity that I wanted, and I get to play and I have a team that has a space for me, a need for me.’ That alone can feel pretty good. Like, ‘They need me for something, so let’s see if I can go fill this for them.’”
That couldn’t take away the sting of suddenly leaving her newfound friends in Grand Rapids.
“I was also feeling a little sadness, kind of, because I had gotten so close with my team in Grand Rapids and my coaches. I know they all really cared for me and I loved all of them. Part of me was sad that I had to leave. And I felt like I had just settled and [started] opening up and making closer friends, so the timing was pretty tough,” she admitted.
Going to Vegas was an unexpected change of events for Sauer, but not one she was totally unprepared for. She had met with representatives of the team prior to December’s draft and knew they had at least some measure of interest in her. Furthermore, she was a five-year college player who spent time at Missouri, Texas Tech, and Houston. Adapting to her surroundings is a skill Sauer has in her toolbelt, one that she said is even more important as a pro.
“I transferred twice in college, I think that really helped to prep me for all this moving around. It definitely wasn’t something I was terrified of,” she said. “Showing up to a program that already operates a certain way and have their own flow, you’re just inserted. That’s very similar to transferring in college. Obviously, in college, I can have a longer recruiting process with these teams and coaches and get to know a coach and know if I’m gonna vibe well with them and the team. This isn’t really like that, so I just think you have to be really adaptable.”
Moving across the country and finding her way in a new team and a new system are just the latest in a string of things Sauer has had to adapt to since entering the PVF. She enumerated two more things she had to overcome:
“There’s a lot of factors, not even to use them as excuses, but you’re playing with different balls. The balls are heavier than the NCAA balls, so you have to learn to pass a completely new ball, which was actually a lot more difficult than I was expecting. You know, [rookies are] coming off no break, so I’m pretty much on month seven of what will be a nine month season. So, I really had to slow myself down. I was like, ‘All right, slow down, be nice to yourself.’ It can get stressful if you let it overwhelm you.”
The hefty schedule Sauer mentioned is no joke. Her Houston Cougars played their first game of the 2023 season on August 19th, an exhibition against Rice University, and their last on December 2nd in the NCAA tournament. Instead of the standard layoff until the next season, she was swept into training camp in the first week of January and is still playing. That much volleyball will take its toll.
Nevertheless, Sauer has found herself on the court in five matches, averaging 2.2 sets played and 5.4 points scored, including one ten-kill perfomance. That paints the picture of a perfectly suitable bench player, and she has claimed her place as a member of the Thrill hitter rotation. A key to her success has been resisting the temptation to expect too much from herself.
She compared the transition to pro ball to her freshman year in college. Everyone who got to the college was the star at their high school, so the games get faster and the girls hit harder. It’s another step in difficulty when graduating to the professional ranks, and Sauer realized that it would be unreasonable to think she would walk into immediate stardom.
“It’s okay to not be the best of the best your first year here. I think, as athletes, naturally, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be the best and compete and do all this. It is hard coming from college, where we’re playing a very high level in college, but this is even higher. Just have grace with the process,” she explained. “There’s girls that have ten-plus years playing pro and it just puts it in perspective. You don’t need to be amazing your first year and break records and do all these things. Just enjoy it and learn.”
Sauer brings an admirably even-keeled mentality to every aspect of the game I asked her about. She is more well-spoken than most professional athletes and wore a thoughtful expression through most of our conversation. When I mentioned her return to Grand Rapids for Sunday’s game, though, she broke into a rare smile.
“I’m really excited to go back. Like, I genuinely am excited to go back, mostly because I’ll get to go hang out with some of my old teammates,” she said.
Only then did she think to comment on the game, and quickly dropped back into her professionalism.
“This is our team’s first time playing them. I feel like I obviously have a little more knowledge of Grand Rapids and how they work. I’m sure they’re growing a lot and changing a lot as a team, but it’s a familiar place. It’s interesting, but I have a lot of respect for everyone there, so it’s not anything that makes me feel uptight or I don’t feel any bad blood toward them at all. I’m actually just really excited to go back and see them,” she said, with that smile tugging at her lips again at the end.
When I gave Sauer the chance to add anything she thought was important, she circled right back to that point.
“That’s something for me about sports and about volleyball in general that I personally love, is that I get the chance to make new friends and meet people that I’ll be close to for a long time. So the fact that I got to do that twice in this first season is pretty cool. I’m grateful that I get to go back and I have people that I’m excited to see and hang out with.”
She may have only spent two months in Grand Rapids, but for Sauer, this is a happy homecoming.
Some quotes were lightly modified for clarity. For a transcript of the interview, click here.