By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

INDIAN SPRINGS – Margot Balliet has been playing volleyball since she was in the seventh grade. On Nov. 3 she signed her National Letter of Intent to play volleyball at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla. College volleyball, however, came as a secondary consideration to where she would attend college. She gave thought to a few schools out in California, where her older brother attends school, but when she visited Eckerd, the small Division II school jumped to the top of her list.

“I liked the free-spiritedness of the school,” Balliet said. “It’s by the beach too, which helped, but I really just felt at home on campus.”

Eckerd had jumped to the top of her list without volleyball factoring in. Once she decided Eckerd was at the top of the list, she reached out to the volleyball coaches at the school expressing a desire to play. After attending a summer camp in July of 2015, she was offered a scholarship.

“They gave me some time, I wanted to talk to my parents about it,” Balliet said of the decision. “But we talked about it and I called them (Eckerd coaches) in mid July to tell them I was coming.”

Balliet’s numbers during her time at Indian Springs are incredibly impressive. In her three years of varsity experience with Springs, she accumulated 718 kills, 706 digs, 368 aces, 451 assists and 15 blocks. Springs won two area championships and appeared in the schools’ first-ever volleyball Final Four in her senior season.

At Springs, she spent time as a defensive specialist and an outside hitter as well as a setter when injury called her to that role. She will be competing for a spot as a defensive specialist as a freshman at Eckerd. She will enroll at Eckerd in the summer before school starts to start practicing with the team and will also have the option to try out for the beach volleyball team as well, something she is keen to do. As far as what she thinks her chances are to play right away this fall?

“I’m pretty competitive,” Balliet said with a laugh. “We’ll see what happens, I’m excited.”