SPOKANE, Wash. -- Gonzaga's Kennedy Croft is a dichotomy of a volleyball player — she's laser-focused on winning, but there's something foundational about the joy that just being on the court gives her. It's a dynamic even she finds hard to place, even if her performance does plenty of the legwork for her.

"I knew Kennedy was the kind of kid we wanted in our program in like the first 30 seconds I saw her play," said GU head coach Diane Nelson. "I had seen her play when she was young and then she came to our camp and I see this 5'10 outside who just finds a way to get it done."

Croft has become an x-factor for the Zags this year while doing a little bit of everything — averaging 2.79 kills per set and racking up 20 service aces to lead the team, all while notching digs and blocks in all but one game so far. Anything it takes to win, she'll make it happen.

"That's really been her the whole time," Nelson added. "She's grown and matured, which is necessary for her because she's such a joyful, happy go lucky girl. But the core of who she is hasn't changed."

Take, for example, a career-high 27 kills against Long Beach State in Pullman on Sep. 10, the most kills in a single game for a GU player so far this season. The junior outside hitter was on a roll, attacking for a game-high .462 average with just two errors to propel the Zags through a five-set grinder. More often than not, when the Zags were surging, it was because Croft and her outside running mate McKenna Marshall (16 kills) were on the attack — and that's just the way Croft likes it.

"Doesn't matter how well she's playing or not — she's the person who wants the ball," Nelson said. "Back in my playing days, I didn't have that. I was more like, 'Ooh, I don't want to be the one to have the pressure on me for something,' but she loves that pressure."

But when the Zags fell by the slimmest of margins in a decisive fifth set, Croft felt like she might as well have had her worst game of the season. With the way she operates, a win is all that matters. 

"I didn't really think of it after the fact, honestly," Croft said. "All I could think about was the result."

Pack it up. On to the next.

That intense competitiveness is a trait she shares with her family, which is chocked full of athletes of all kinds. Her father Derric played basketball at San Diego State and Western Washington, going on to play professionally in Europe, and her brother Jayden played football at Central Washington. Her uncles Tim and Brad both played collegiate football too — Brad won a Rose Bowl as USC's quarterback, and Tim has been coaching at Tumwater for more than two decades. 
Croft's cousin Cade Otton is a legitimate NFL prospect at tight end for University of Washington, and the two were inseparable from a young age. 

But perhaps most significantly, her grandfather, Sid Otton, the winningest coach in Washington state high school history after 49 years of coaching, has always loomed large in their lives as a stabilizing force — a manifestation of greatness, in more than one sense. Any member of the Croft-Otton clan will tell you that's where it all starts.

"Since we were all really little, we were all raised in the same little town and looked up to him," Croft said. "Not only being a great coach with the program that he built in Tumwater, he brought that into our family too, just being a really good leader for all of us."

For their grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary in Hawai'i, the Ottons and Crofts created the "Otton Olympics," a series of athletic team competitions between family members. It didn't require much to dial up the competition, Croft said, but that's just the way their family interacts.

"I can't even say that anyone's more competitive than the other, to be honest," said Tana Otton, Croft's mother, who coached volleyball for 20 years and won four state championships before retiring to watch her player collegiately. "But Kennedy definitely gets the most fired up by far."

Now in her fourth year at GU, Croft has become an active stakeholder in the future of the program, a role she's embraced with the same kind of energy. After a condensed spring season that saw the Zags go 7-11 but win four of their last five, the team sat together and talked about what they wanted to see out of themselves when they returned for the fall. 

And with nine newcomers, seven of them transfers, Croft's learned that sometimes, wins come in different ways. And as it's always been, family is at the center of everything.

"Nowadays, I think of success in a different way," Croft said. "You know, it's not always wins and losses that dictate your success — it's also your relationship with your teammates and how you're building the program up … That could be tradition-wise or just leaving a legacy and wanting to make the younger kids feel like they have an opportunity to grow this program too."

Tana Otton has appreciated being able to see it happen before her own eyes, as she travels over to the East side of the state frequently to see her play.

"I can't say it enough to people when I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, it's a dream to watch them interact with each other on the court,'" she said. "No matter if it's after a bad play, a good play, they're supporting each other. 

"They love each other off the court, too. It's a really fun group to watch and be around right now."

On the court, Croft is self-possessed as they come. Pressure situations manifest themselves as they will, but they don't faze her — and they never really have. 

"Kennedy is one of those teammates who would run through a brick wall just to make a play," said sophomore outside Zoe Thiros. "That's why it's so much fun to play next to her. Her hustle and desire to win is contagious — I've never doubted how willing she is to be gritty when it counts."

It's a different kind of pressure now, with younger teammates looking to her for stability and motivation in the dredges of a season that still doesn't seem quite normal. But she's never looked at a challenge and turned away, so why would she now?

"It doesn't matter who's on the other side, it doesn't matter how big they are — does not care," Nelson said. "She doesn't know not to back down. She says 'give it to me again, give it to me again … You just want to root for her all the time."

Up Next

Croft and the Zags return to WCC action tomorrow at the Charlotte Y. Martin Centre against Pacific at noon. Check GoZags.com and follow @ZagVolleyball on Twitter and Instagram for up-to-date game time and ticketing information, coverage and more.