Northwestern finds keeper in frosh Abbott

The way Symone Abbott can jump off the floor, the sky probably isn't the limit for the 6-foot-1 freshman outside hitter from Northwestern University.

And the 2014 Northville High grad has not disappointed in her first season with the Wildcats as she leads all Big Ten freshman with 3.37 kills per set and ranks eighth overall in the conference.

Abbott, who came home last weekend to face both Michigan (Friday) and Michigan State (Saturday), appeared to be coming from another stratosphere when she buried a career-high 21 kills in a three-set win over No. 18 Minnesota on Oct. 5.

"Minnesota was a really good game for us," said Abbott, who has been named Big 10 Freshman Player of the Week twice already this season. "It was a home game and we just came out and played the best volleyball we could without anybody telling us to. It wasn't stressful, we just played that best that we could. It was really natural. Even though Minnesota is nationally-ranked, we proved that we can beat those kind of teams."

On Friday, Abbott recorded a team-best 17 kills in a 25-20, 25-19, 24-26, 25-18 victory at Michigan followed by a six-kill effort Saturday in a 25-17, 25-18, 25-16 setback at MSU.

Nothing, obviously, comes easy in the Big Ten, which has proven to be a meat grinder when it comes to NCAA Division I women's volleyball. The Wildcats, who are 14-9 overall and 4-8 in the conference, have gone 1-6 against nationally-ranked teams, including 1-5 against the Big 10's top-25 rated foes.

In high school, Abbott helped Northville to back-to-back Class A final four appearances. And during her prep Premier Volleyball Club days, she could get away with just going up with her explosive vertical jump and blasting away at opponents on the block without being rarely challenged.

But when she arrived at Northwestern, it became a bit of a learning curve for the former Northville All-Stater.

"Probably I had to make a mental adjustment," Abbot said, "because when you're in club (volleyball) and playing all these teams, all the girls aren't really Big Ten college material, so you stick out a little bit and you don't have to work as hard to score points. So I just depended on my arm and stuff to score points for the team.

"But then when you come to the Big 10, everybody is good. I have to think about it, 'hit it this way, hit it that way.' That's the biggest technical change I've had to my game."

Abbott, however, became a quick learner as evidenced by a 15-kill outing in her collegiate debut in the season opener Aug. 29 against Colorado. On Sept. 27, she racked up 17 kills and two blocks in a win over Maryland. She also posted double-digits in kills in all three victories during the Wildcat Classic leading Northwestern with 3.80 kills per set.

She currently leads the Wildcats with 259 total kills in 21 matches.

"It's been a joy to watch Symone continue to grow develop as a young member of our Northwestern volleyball family," Northwestern coach Keylor Chan said. "Coming in we knew that she had the ability to be a special player on this level, but she's continued to impress us day-in and day-out since the day she arrived on campus. She's already shown that she can play well in the best conference in the country, and as Symone continues improve and become a more consistent threat, she'll be someone truly remarkable."

Abbott's first introduction to volleyball came during her eighth-grade year.

"It was an intramural thing that was open to anybody that wanted to go," Abbott recalled. "And I really liked the way the knee pads looked on other people, so I thought I wanted to wear knee pads, too. So I thought the only way I could wear knee pads was to go to the intramural volleyball. It wasn't any revolutionary story. I just liked the knee pads and started playing volleyball after that."

Abbott, one of five children with an older sister who attends Michigan, chose Northwestern over Georgia Tech where she almost joined former Northville High teammate Rebecca Martin, now a sophomore setter with the Rambling Wreck.

Abbott also considered Central Michigan and Florida International University, but eventually chose Northwestern (where her grandfather Art earned a master's in audiology in 1966.)

And so far the Evanston campus appears to be a good fit both athletically and academically for the former Northville standout.

"I'm going to switch to journalism next semester," Abbott said. "I didn't know I wanted to go into journalism until I got here. I applied and got in Weinberg (School of Arts & Sciences). I may go into editing or broadcast journalism. It's good thing because it's such a great school."

bemons@hometownlife.com