Senior Gracie Johnson was named first team All-ACC for the 2022 season Monday afternoon, while freshman Kerry Keefe earned a spot on the ACC All-Freshman team.
Johnson, a captain and an outside hitter, had a season for the record books. She led the team throughout the year, and her stats landed her at the top of several ACC and national categories.
“She’s come in, and she has worked diligently since day one to be the best she can be and to continue to develop as an athlete and in her volleyball skill,” head coach Jolene Nagel said of Johnson after Duke’s last regular season game. “It’s just so much fun to see her lighting it up out there on the court and being so dominant like she has been this year, because she certainly worked very hard for it.”
Here are the marks Johnson left on Duke and ACC volleyball this season and throughout her career.
Personal and team season-bests
Johnson set personal bests in several categories this season. Her 462 kills, .203 hitting efficiency, 538 total points and 5.12 points per set this season were the highest offensive numbers of her Duke career, while her 53 service aces also topped her totals from each of the three previous seasons.
She led the team in total kills, earning over 200 more kills than the second place finisher, sophomore middle blocker Rylie Kadel who recorded 211. Johnson also finished on top in service aces—Kadel was again behind her in second with 28 to Johnson’s 53—and points this season.
Career highs
Most of her records came from this season. Her career-best 29 kills against Wake Forest on Nov. 16 is the third most kills in a game by an ACC player this season, behind Julia Bergmann of Georgia Tech, who tallied 38 against Florida State, and Katrina Jensen of Boston College, who had 30 against Long Island.
Her other season highs were seven aces against East Carolina, 15 digs against Miami, four blocks against N.C. State and 31 points against Wake Forest.
Topping ACC and NCAA categories
Johnson ended the season first in the ACC in service aces with 53, 11 more than the second-place finisher, Parker Austin of North Carolina, with 42. She was also second in the ACC in total kills with 462, behind only Bergmann with 515. Lastly, she finished second in the ACC in points with 538, behind Bergmann again, who had 577.5.
Johnson was also in the top 50 of eight national statistical categories, including being tied for 16th in service aces and tied for 25th in total kills.
Leading the team
Johnson had the most kills of any Duke player in 24 of the 27 matches she played this season, finishing with 20 or more kills 13 times, including in six out of the last seven matches of the year.
She is the only of member Duke’s 2022 team to have 1,000 career kills, hitting the mark Oct. 30 on a match point against Notre Dame this season, making her the 28th Duke volleyball player ever to do so. She follows former teammate Ade Owokoniran, who became the 27th player to reach 1,000 kills last fall.
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Leah Boyd is a Pratt senior and a social chair of The Chronicle's 118th volume. She was previously editor-in-chief for Volume 117.