Sammy Nute is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Valley Christian High School for AZPreps365.com

The game of volleyball has two main competitions, indoor and beach. Valley Christian High School girls volleyball senior Korah Nordin excels at both.

Nordin's volleyball journey began relatively late compared to many other kids. She started playing volleyball at 8 years old at her local YMCA, but did not begin playing club until she was 10.

One of the reasons for the late start was her juvenile arthritis, a condition the star outside hitter struggled with early in her young life.

"I was born with it, and my parents started noticing it because I wasn't crawling right when I was a baby," Nordin said. "It would flare up in different places. My knees, my fingers, basically every joint I have has flared up."

The arthritis was a problem in her early years and has sometimes affected her on the court.

"It was more when I was younger, and the flares kind of stopped when I started club volleyball," Nordin said. "Sometimes it got hard because I would have to play through it, but I do have a really high pain tolerance because of it."

With her arthritis behind her, Nordin shifted her focus to her promising high school career beginning at Valley Christian. One bonus for Nordin was that she would have her best friend and current beach volleyball partner, Kate Phillips, beside her throughout the process.

"We have been best friends since we were five," Nordin said of her and Phillips' relationship. "We both started playing volleyball around the same time, and we played together on teams for a lot of our lives. So, it has been really cool to go through high school with her and continue improving with her. We were together winning 12U tournaments, and now we won state last year."

Although both players excel on the court, their relationship shines on the sand. In their sophomore season, Nordin and Phillips placed third in the Arizona Division II beach volleyball state tournament. Then earlier this year, as juniors, the two girls stormed through the competition, winning the 3A state championship while only losing one set the entire season – an accomplishment Nordin saw as the best in her career so far.

"We like to have fun when we play, but we are both very competitive," Nordin said. "We are not gonna laugh about our mistakes. We really just want to get it done and win. But, we both have fun when we are playing, and it is intense energy."

From an outside perspective, the 2021 indoor season for Nordin went just as well as the 2022 beach season. The team won the state championship, and she was a significant contributor coming in third in almost every category. But Nordin was not the star she could be.

Now in her senior season, Nordin has broken out of her talented teammates' shadow and stolen the show. Nordin leads the team in kills per set, digs, and digs per set, and is second on the team in hitting percentage with a stellar .417. Her hitting percentage is also third in all 3A volleyball, as she and Phillips top the category. Nordin is also third in all 3A in kills with 339, leading her team and her region.

"We want her to touch the ball every single play," assistant coach Bob Davies said. "Whether she is passing it or hitting it, she needs to be one of the three touches every single play that we have. If you look at our stats, when she touches the ball, we get a kill."

Even when Nordin was not getting all the kills, head coach Tyler Trathen saw what she contributed to the team daily.

"Even with Kate Phillips and Cara Braun, who went to San Diego State, Korah was the backbone of our team," Trathen said. "She didn't get the spotlight like the other two, but what was awesome to see was that Korah was really holding our team together, and by the end of the season, she was matching if not getting more kills a game than Cara was, so it was really cool to see her grow as a player and teammate last year."

Previously, Nordin had struggled to get recruited because she is committed to pursuing her dreams of becoming a pediatric nurse and helping kids like her when she was a child with arthritis. But, recently Nordin announced that she committed to Concordia University Irvine, where she will continue her volleyball career as well as begin her nursing career.

According to Trathen, if anyone can carry the workload it is Nordin because she is always looking to improve.

"With Korah and I, we have a really deep relationship," Trathen said. "She is always looking for feedback, and she is always asking for a change in what she could do on the court or sand. If you watch a game, she will always be looking at me. It is not so much to get recognition, but it's more that she is looking for the next angle that she can approach the next kill and make sure she is efficient."