Bio

It didn’t take Grizzly Volleyball fans long to notice Jekaterina “Kate” Stepanova when she first stepped onto the court for Missouri State University-West Plains in fall 2008. The outside attacker from Riga, Latvia, lit up the West Plains Civic Center arena and other courts across the nation with her massive swings and her love for the game, and it made her one of the program’s premiere players.

“Kate was a player whom everyone noticed immediately on the court,” recalled Grizzly Volleyball Head Coach Paula Wiedemann. “She’s 6’2” and could get your attention a lot of ways. She was a complete player who could score a ton of points and keep the opponent frustrated by her defense and physical presence at the net. She lit it up when she took swings and was smooth when playing defense and passing, and you could see how much she loved the game when she was playing.”

Stepanova developed that love and skill for the game in her hometown while attending Murjanju Sporta Gimnasium. When she brought those talents to the Grizzlies in 2008, she immediately made an impact on a young, but talented, squad, leading the team with 57 kills and 65 digs in its first outing of the season at the Iowa Western Community College Invitational Tournament. That was just the beginning of a long and illustrious career with Missouri State-West Plains.

“She was a great all-around player but is remembered most for her attacking,” Wiedemann said. “She had a great vertical so everyone loved watching her get up and pound a ball. It’s almost like you couldn’t wait to see what she was going to do once she was in the air, and more often than not you loved the result!”

She pounded her way to multiple all-tournament team and tournament MVP awards throughout her career with the Grizzlies and was one of the steady, go-to players who could be counted on to make plays when needed. “When the game was on the line, we wanted to put the ball in Kate’s hands. She was our ‘go to’ player and, especially during her sophomore year, she delivered,” Wiedemann said.

Such was the case in the first round of the 2009 NJCAA Division I Women’s National Volleyball Championship, when Stepanova took control of a tightly contested match against Northwest College with her attacks and put Trappers on their heels to help the Grizzlies secure an 18-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23 victory. Her efforts in that and subsequent matches against Iowa Western Community College and then defending national champion Western Nebraska Community College propelled the Grizzlies into the championship match against College of Southern Idaho.

The Grizzlies’ second-place finish at the national tournament that season is one of the accomplishments Stepanova is most proud of. “Finishing in second place in the NJCAA was an amazing and unforgettable experience. It was so gratifying because of all of the hard work we put in throughout the course of the season. I truly cared for my teammates, and we laid it on the line the entire season and were rewarded with a great run in the tournament,” she said.

The close bond between Stepanova and her teammates is one of the reasons Wiedemann considers the team to be one of the best in program history. “The group of players she played two years with were one of the closest teams I’ve ever coached. The work they put in together to be the absolute best was not just for volleyball – it was who they were with each other. They had fun together, they worked hard together and they were successful together. The 2009 team was not the most talented team overall to play for the Grizzlies, but they had something special which transcended their ability to play the game at an extremely high level,” the coach said.

And at the center of it was Stepanova, who helped guide the 2008 team to a 38-15 record, its 10^th consecutive NJCAA Region 16 Championship and a seventh place finish in the NJCAA national tournament. The following season, she guided the 2009 team to a 27-9 record, its 11^th consecutive Region 16 championship and the second place finish at nationals.

“When you think of all the great teams and players who have been part of our program, Kate absolutely comes to mind,” Wiedemann said. “She not only played at a high level, she made everyone else around her glad she was on her team. Being the leader on the floor can sometimes be hard, but she made it look easy because of how close on and off the floor she was with her teammates.”

In addition to the team accolades, Kate earned several individual awards, including all-tournament team honors in the 2009 national tournament and NJCAA All-American honors both seasons, as a second team honoree in 2008 and first team honoree in 2009. She also earned first team All-American honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) in 2009.

She made her mark in the Grizzly record books, as well. She is second in career attack attempts (2,584), fourth in career kills (1,127), fifth in career points earned (1,347) and career attacking percentage (.327) and seventh in career digs (999).

Stepanova graduated from Missouri State-West Plains in May 2010 with an Associate of Arts in General Studies degree and transferred to Florida State University where she helped guide her team to the 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) volleyball championship and a final four appearance in the 2011 NCAA Volleyball Championship Tournament. Individual honors also came her way; she was named an AVCA second team All-American, a Volleyball Magazine second team All-American and an All-ACC Team member, to name a few. In addition, she competed on Florida State’s inaugural sand volleyball team in spring 2012 and helped the team take third in the national championship, and she reached the national semifinals in the pairs competition, earning All-American honors.

She received a Bachelor of Science in Social Sciences from Florida State in May 2012 and transferred to Florida International University where she played on the sand volleyball team in 2013, helping guide it to a 43-6 record and a third place finish at the Collegiate Sand Volleyball National Tournament in Gulf Shores, Alabama. She was part of history when her team won the first collegiate sand volleyball match, defeating University of Alabama-Birmingham 5-0 on March 3, 2013. She was named to the AVCA’s Collegiate Sand Volleyball All-American Team in 2013 and was her team’s MVP.

In December 2013, she graduated from Florida International with a Master of Science in Recreation and Sports Management and now plays volleyball professionally in Switzerland. But Kate still has very fond memories of her time as a Grizzly and of the West Plains community.

“My fondest memory is being involved in a community that truly cared about my well-being,” she said. “At that point in time, I could hardly speak English. I was in a different country with a completely opposite culture and lifestyle. It was shocking at first; however, the people of West Plains helped me adjust quickly. Everyone I met during that time was very open and willing to help in any possible way. Coaches, teammates, fans, instructors, tutors, as well as my host family, were there for me along the way.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my two years in West Plains,” she continued. “Grizzly fans are one of the best fan bases I have ever been a part of, in terms of support for a program. Our fans were our friends, classmates, tutors, students and community members who consistently supported us at home and on the road. I would like Grizzly fans to remember me as a Hall of Fame hitter who truly cared about West Plains and the people of that community. The memories I have with those people I will cherish for a lifetime.”

Grizzly Career Statistics

•  2008-2009
• Games Played 279
• Kills 1,127 • 4.03/game
• Attack Attempts 2,584
• Attacking Percentage .327
• Assists 23 • .08/game
• Blocks 153 • .54/game
• Aces 67
• Digs 999 • 3.58/game
• Points Earned 1,347

 Florida State University Career Statistics

•  2010-2011
• Games Played 236
• Kills  702 • 2.97 /game
• Attack Attempts  1,950
• Attacking Percentage .231
• Assists 48 • .20/game
• Blocks  96 • .41/game
• Aces 25
• Digs  613 • 2.59/game
• Points Earned 779.5