Seacrest Country Day's Breanah Rives becomes third volleyball player in state to get 2,000 kills

Seacrest Country Day's Breanah Rives continues to cement her high school legacy.

The Missouri State commit eclipsed the 2,000 kill milestone Saturday morning against Lourdes Academy at the Warrior Invitational at Westminster Christian. Rives became the first Collier County and Southwest Florida player to reach the milestone.

Rives also joins rare company statewide, as Lake Worth Christian's Sarah Franklin (2,049 kills, 2014-19) and The King's Academy's Madeline Furtado (2,024 kills, 2013-18) are the only players in Florida to eclipse 2,000 kills.

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"I kind of got caught off guard in the beginning today,” Rives said. “I didn’t realize I was going to hit 2,000. Once I hit it and saw everyone cheering, I was like, ‘Wow, I actually did this.’ It was kind of like a shocking moment.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do this without our setters and the team we have. I was all around blessed and thankful for the opportunity I got… I knew it wasn’t going to come easy to me because I don’t have the height that every other girl has. You have to work for what you want, so I gave it my all.”

Breanah Rives, stats by season

First Baptist (2017-18)

2017: 222 kills, 104 digs, 54 aces, 7 blocks

2018: 290 kills, 224 digs, 55 aces, 13 blocks, 15 assists

Seacrest Country Day (2019-22)

2019: 417 kills, 281 digs, 69 aces, 47 blocks, 2 assists

2020: 337 kills, 211 digs, 26 aces, 16 blocks, 8 assists

2021: 518 kills, 212 digs, 32 aces, 26 blocks, 14 assists

2022: 230 kills, 165 digs, 20 aces, 18 blocks, 13 assists

Career started all wet

Rives didn’t grow up a volleyball player. She swam for T2 Aquatics in elementary school before making the switch to volleyball during her fifth-grade year.

In the seventh grade, Rives starred at First Baptist and anchored the Lions to a runner-up finish in the Class 2A Championship game in 2017. A year later, she was a Naples Daily News Volleyball Player of the Year finalist as an eighth-grader with the Lions after finishing with 290 kills and 224 digs. Since then, she won the Southwest Florida Volleyball Player of the Year award last season after a 518-kill campaign that brought Seacrest a state championship.

“She’s the youngest of four,” Noel Rives, Breanah’s mother, said. “Her oldest sister played volleyball, basketball, and ran track. Both of her brothers wrestled and played football. One of my sons went to college, so I think she grew up right out of the womb in a very sports-oriented family, having older brothers always pushing her.

“She was a swimmer for T2, a very good swimmer, and they were going to move her up (an age level). One day, we we’re driving home and were excited and she started crying and said, ‘Mom, do you know what it’s like swimming in a pool for three hours and you don’t get to talk to anybody?’ At that time, we sat down and wanted to find something else that fit her personality better. That’s how we found volleyball. And it was (Seacrest coach) Jan (Class) who came to us when she was younger and he said, ‘I see something in her.’ She fell in love with it when she was 12 and 13.”

Noel Rives added that what happened Saturday might not have been possible, if it weren’t for one girl who declined the club team’s invite back when Breanah was 10, about to turn 11.

“She started playing volleyball during the summer,” Noel said. “That’s when she first tried it when she decided she wasn’t going to swim. She wasn’t very good, and she actually didn’t make the travel team, but we didn’t know that, because when the roster went out, she was the 11th man, but there was a girl that didn’t accept it, so she was the 10th man. Jan came to us and told us this two years ago, and said, ‘There’s something about this girl. I want her on that team.’ So, they put her on the 11s.

“By the time they sent the roster out, the girl declined, but we never knew. That was really cool, because if it wasn’t for Jan, who knows. When you don’t make a team, you might just move on to something else. She had to prove herself that year, because she was the youngest on the team with (former CSN hitter) Cassidy Bloom and all these really good players.”

In an elite Class

Class has had the three most decorated hitters in recent Southwest Florida memory in Rives, Paris Thompson, and Skylar English through his club program, Gulfside, and he was by her side the entire time since she started.

“Honestly, I’m so proud,” Class said. “Breanah started Gulfside Volleyball with me since she was 10 years old. At that moment precisely, she was my player, that was the team I was coaching, 11-under when Breanah was 10… Then on the tryout day, the coaches didn’t want her. I was like, ‘I’m going to be the coach of that team. I’m going to take the responsibility because I saw the potential in her.’ I had her on my team, and the rest is history.

“I remember one day Breanah told me, when Paris and Skylar were juniors and seniors, ‘That’s my dream, is to be like those girls.’ That was Bre’s dream.”

Fort Myers' Thompson now plays at Notre Dame while Barron Collier's English is at FGCU.

The more exciting prospect for Rives (2,014 career kills) is that she's primed to overtake both Franklin and Furtado, becoming Florida's all-time kill leader when her prep career comes to a close after the end of this season.

“I feel like that would be so special, because it would give recognition of my team too, and the amazing people I have around me,” Rives said. “It would be very special to get to Sarah Franklin, because she’s playing for Wisconsin now. That’s like a girls’ ultimate dream to have. That would be so cool, and so amazing. I’d be highly blessed.”

Next up for Rives and the Stingrays will be trying to repeat as champions in Class 2A, where they remain the favorites as the postseason inches closer. Going back-to-back could cement her status as one of the best players to come out of Collier County, as well as Southwest Florida.

“We would be leaving a legacy for everything, not just winning last year, but winning this year,” Rives added. “If you look in Collier County who’s won states back-to-back, it would just mean everything. We have such a family on and off the court. To me and the girls, it would mean that we know who we are and we left that legacy giving it our all.”

Breanah Rives prep accolades

• Southwest Florida Volleyball Player of the Year (2021)

• Volleyball Player of the Year finalist (2018, 2019, 2021)

• Naples Daily News All-Area First Team (2018-21)

• Naples Daily News All-Area Second Team (2017)

• Florida Dairy Farmers Class 2A Player of the Year (2021)

Follow Southwest Florida Sports Writer Alex Martin on Twitter: @NP_AlexMartin. For the best sports coverage in Southwest Florida, follow @newspresssports and @ndnprepzone on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Seacrest Country Day volleyball's Breanah Rives eclipses 2,000 kills