Another year, another story about ASU's star middle blocker Claire Jeter. The graduate student is playing in her fourth year as a Sun Devil after transferring from Texas A&M University.
Jeter has watched this program be rebuilt and was there to welcome head coach JJ Van Niel when he took over the program last season. Now, she's put herself in the spotlight, becoming one of the best middle blockers in the country and leading the team for the second straight year being ranked in the AVCA Top 25, currently at No. 13.
However, that's not all Jeter was hoping to accomplish this year.
"My goal is to be one of those strong impact players I know I can be on the court," Jeter said. "I want to be an All-American."
This goal is certainly possible, as Jeter was named on the Big 12 preseason team at the beginning of the year. Jeter has 167 kills this season with 10 aces and 47 total blocks, but arguably the most impressive thing about her season is her 0.447 hitting percentage.
This was something that Van Niel commented on after Jeter hit .526 against BYU.
"Claire was hammering those (hits) so it was really fun,” Van Niel said in a press conference. “Over 0.500, that's pretty good."
She is currently top 10 in the county for hitting percentage and second in the Big 12.
Hitting percentage is calculated by subtracting errors from kills and it certainly helps Jeter's case that she only has 11 errors this season. She went the first 10 games of the season without an error and has 13 games so far this year without one.
"I didn't really notice it (lack of errors) until I had coaches bring it up," Jeter said. "I like to think that I'm a pretty low error hitter, but that was a really cool statistic for me."
Even when she was aware of her run, it didn't impact her playing style.
"I was just playing my game, because I wasn't thinking about it before, and I was still working it out," Jeter said.
It had more of an impact on opponents than Jeter herself, as she said some of her friends on different teams were focusing on getting Jeter to commit her first error.
Out of the top 150 players for hitting percentage this season, only one has fewer errors. Brooke Slusser, a setter from San Jose State, has 10 errors with a 0.424 hitting percentage on 170 total attempts. Jeter has nearly 350 attempts already this season.
One of the most important things to a middle is having a good connection with their setter. For Jeter, this offseason was about developing that relationship with graduate transfer Argentina Ung and redshirt freshman Brynn Covell.
Jeter worked with Ung this offseason doing different drills with the team and on their own. This helped develop a quick connection, which Jeter attributes to Ung’s high skill level.
"We work really hard in practice to make sure that we're working on our connection, and we do a lot of setter breakout stuff, like middle work with setters alone," Jeter said. "It definitely was a work in progress, but Argentina is a great setter so it came quicker than I would say a lot of setters probably would."
The connection has already blossomed and has been noticed by to their coaches and teammates.
"I think Claire and Arg (Argentina) have a really great connection," said graduate middle blocker Savannah Kjolhede. "You can see her 11 kills, which is awesome."
The coaching staff has also helped shaped Jeter's success this season.
"I think everyone in this staff has had a really big impact on me," Jeter said. "JJ came in and told me what I needed to work on. He reminds us that we're good, but reminds us what we need to fix, and gives us those analytics and those numbers."
Assistant coach Preslie Anderson works with Jeter on technicals. Assistant coach Shaughn McDonald helps Jeter with serves, as well as helping find open hits during the game. Assistant coach Ellen Andrews helps keep Jeter motivated and helps make in-game adjustments.
After ASU, Jeter hopes to stay within the sport of volleyball. While she would love to play, she knows that her health isn't a guarantee. If playing doesn't work out, Jeter hopes to turn to collegiate coaching and get a job in her home of Texas.
"I want to coach at the collegiate level, so that's something I'm kind of trying to get into right after this if some good opportunity comes up," Jeter said. "I want to go back home for a little bit, and I want to be with my family."
Edited by Henry Smardo, Sophia Ramirez and Madeline Schmitke.
Reach the reporter at aldeutsc@asu.edu and follow @AlanDeutschend3 on X.
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Alan is a sophomore studying sports journalism. This is his second semester  with The State Press. He has also worked at Blaze Radio.
