www.staradvertiser.com/2019/09/25/sports/no-4-pittsburgh-puts-faith-in-akeo/No. 4 Pittsburgh puts faith in Akeo
By Billy Hull Today Updated 12:15 a.m.
The number is not a surprise to Pittsburgh freshman Lexis Akeo.
Akeo is one of 70 Division I women’s volleyball players representing 47 different schools on the mainland who graduated from high school in Hawaii.
In her third collegiate preseason tournament, at Utah, the Utes had three girls from Hawaii on their roster and Pepperdine, which she faced the same day, had two.
Awesome? “Yes,” she said. Surprising? “Not really.”
As Akeo put it, if you’re from Hawaii and grew up playing volleyball, you know how much talent there is.
“The competition in Hawaii is pretty tough volleyball-wise,” Akeo said Tuesday while on a six-hour bus ride to Virginia for tonight’s Atlantic Coast Conference opener against the Cavaliers. “Volleyball is a huge part of who we are as a people, and I think it’s amazing for all of the girls from Hawaii to be off at (Division I) colleges and doing so well representing the state.”
Akeo might not be surprised at the number of players from Hawaii, but she’s a little shocked at the situation she finds herself in a month into her Panthers career.
After leaving her high school friends early in the summer to get to campus for workouts by the end of June, Akeo was in the middle of a practice in mid-August when returning setter Kylee Levers suffered a season-ending knee injury.
Four days after her first college class, Akeo was on the court as the starting setter for the Panthers in a win over Cleveland State.
“It is definitely a shock,” Akeo said. “We had a surprise injury to the starting setter and so I had to be able to step into the role as setter and it’s just worked out. It’s definitely been interesting.”
It’s also been successful. The Panthers are 11-1 to start the year, with Akeo averaging 10.49 assists per set. She’s third on the team with 13 aces and is one of five girls averaging more than two digs per set.
The Panthers swept through their first three tournaments and are 3-1 against ranked teams after splitting a home-and-home series over the weekend against then-No. 4 Penn State.
Pitt swept the match at University Park, Pa., before losing at home in five.
On Monday, the Panthers jumped to No. 4 in the AVCA Top 25 to record the highest ranking in program history.
“Our team is so highly skilled and experienced that I don’t even have to do that much,” Akeo said. “(My teammates) have really helped me move into my position and have helped me get situated with the team and blend together.”
Akeo finished in the top five of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Fab 15 three consecutive seasons at Kamehameha and was the 70th-ranked recruit nationally in the class of 2019, according to Prep Volleyball Senior Ace.
Her older sister, Kamalani, finished her four-year career at Pittsburgh last season and is third on the school’s all-time assists list with 3,956.
“The whole culture and vibe at Pitt was something I was always about and how they helped my sister so much — I wanted that same experience to play collegiate volleyball,” Lexis said.
Kamalani now plays professionally in the Czech Republic, so the younger Akeo hasn’t gotten to talk to her older sister as much as she would like.
Lexis Akeo hasn’t been overwhelmed by the jump in competition so soon from her high school days. Instead, she has simply enjoyed the experience.
“I would say in Hawaii we’re very skilled, but over here (the girls) are just so much bigger and so much stronger and faster that it is just a whole different animal,” Akeo said. “It’s actually really exciting to get to play with and against these high-level athletes.”
Pittsburgh is one of five ranked teams (including Hawaii) with players who graduated from Hawaii high schools.