Wearing a blue EC volleyball shirt, Kiley Tamblyn stands at 5 feet 4 inches on a good day, but her play on the volleyball court makes her seem like a giant.
Tamblyn is EC’s libero on the women’s volleyball team and she has accounted for 291 digs on the season, averaging 5.4 digs a game.
In volleyball, a libero is someone who specializes in defensive skills and must wear a contrasting jersey color from her teammates.
“Kiley makes our team better,” coach LeValley Pattison said. “She plays hard, never takes a play off in the game or in practice.”
Tamblyn actually was a soccer player and comes from a soccer family. Then she did a beach volleyball camp with Nicole Cordova and converted from soccer to volleyball.
Cordova played a pivotal role in Tamblyn’s love for volleyball and now Tamblyn is coaching with Cordova for the Big Dog Club volleyball team.
“I fell in love with volleyball from the get-go,” Tamblyn said. “I absolutely love everything about volleyball: the pressure, the diving and the really tall chicks.”
She began her volleyball career in the fifth grade and has been a volleyball player ever since.
She took her volleyball talents to South High School where she was an all-area libero her junior and senior years, while receiving the Spartan Award, the Most Inspirational and Athlete of the Season.
Tamblyn’s height might be a disadvantage to her but she makes up for it being by getting to every ball.
Since she cannot be taller, Tamblyn pushes herself to go 100 percent every practice and every game because the only things she can control are her effort and her energy.
“My height pushes me to play, condition and try harder,” Tamblyn said. “I make sure I’m first in running, lifting and basically anything because I am really competitive.”
Volleyball brought her to EC as she wanted to follow in her sister’s footsteps since she also played for EC.
“I would come to watch my sister play and hear all the nice things she said about Le Valley and how she is the best coach just made me want to play for her,” Tamblyn said.
Tamblyn is the anchor of the Warriors defense and is one of the main reasons for their success this season. She is a team captain for the Warriors, but she said that it takes six women not one, to be successful.
“Kiley is a great leader on the court and she brings great enthusiasm and positive encouragement to our team,” teammate Donella DiDemenico said.
Tamblyn wants to go into nursing after next year, but she is still deciding if volleyball is going to be in the mix. She is talking to some small private universities with the hope of getting a scholarship for volleyball.
“I think she is very good and could really help a team at the university level,” Pattison said.