Ayanna Watson is already enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is preparing to begin her freshman year of college women’s volleyball.

But recently she was back home in Las Vegas at Bishop Gorman for graduation. She went through the gym and saw her name on the wall for her recognition as the state’s best volleyball player and state championship banners.

“Seeing my name in the gym again is kind of surreal because I was like, ‘Wow, I really did do all that stuff,’” Watson said.

Watson left her mark as one of the greatest high school volleyball players in Nevada history. She led the state with 568 kills, which made her the state’s all-time leader in career kills with 2,195.

Watson was named the Gatorade state player of the year for the third time, and was the 5A Southern Region player of the year while leading the Gaels to a 33-8 record and their third straight 5A state championship.

For her record-breaking performance, she was named the Nevada Preps Girls Athlete of the Year.

“She is humble. She’s grateful. She’s a good kid,” Gorman girls volleyball coach Gregg Nunley said during the season. “A lot of (the great girls volleyball players) know they’re good. A lot of them aren’t very coachable, but Ayanna is. She’s a sweet girl off the court, but on the court she’s a super tough competitor.”

‘Really satisfying’

Watson’s senior campaign started in Indonesia, where she missed Gorman’s first few games while playing with USA Volleyball at the FIVB Women’s U21 World Championship. At the start of the season in the fall of 2025, Watson was 389 kills away from setting the state’s all-time mark, unbeknown to Watson.

“It was funny because I had no idea,” Watson said. “It’s also funny in a sense because it just gave me more of a tie back to Vegas and Gorman. I don’t foresee myself ever living here again, my heart is always going to be here. I really am glad I got to set that record, especially with the group of people I got to do that with because I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Watson set the new state record during a three-set sweep at Foothill on Sept. 29, when Watson recorded 21 kills.

“I was confused when everybody stopped for like five minutes (during the game),” Watson recalled. “‘Why are we clapping? What is going on?’”

Watson wasn’t just dominant against Nevada opponents. She recorded a season-high 35 kills to help the Gaels beat Mater Dei (California), then ranked No. 4 nationally, in four sets on Sept. 18. The Gaels almost got a game-winning ace on match point, but the ball ended up staying in play, which allowed Watson to get the game-winning kill.

“Even when I watch the video back, I get chills,” Watson said. “ … I knew I was going to get set. The whole gym knew I was going to get set and then I called for the ball and I scored and we won and it was like a ‘Yeah, we did that,’ type of thing because we lost (to Mater Dei) the year before. It was really satisfying to be able to do that this past year.”

‘Not losing’

As a senior, Watson was second in the state with a .422 hitting percentage and added 304 digs. Gorman went undefeated against Nevada opponents and swept Coronado in three sets to win the 5A title on Nov. 9, behind a 25-kill performance from Watson.

“That was definitely satisfying to win again because I had told my team, ‘We’re not losing. We cannot go out with a loss. This can’t be the last time people see us because that was our chance,’” Watson said.

Watson said as a senior captain, she wanted to be a more vocal leader and be a “shoulder to lean on” for her younger Gorman teammates.

“Our team, most of the seniors were starters,” Watson said. “We all just agreed that we couldn’t let that be our last run together and have it come out as a loss. We all just locked in, came together and they’re all my best friends. I still talk to most of them almost every day, so it was really good to be able to win with them.”

Watson is the daughter of former Gorman boys basketball star C.J. Watson, who spent 10 seasons in the NBA. C.J. won two state titles at Gorman (2000 and 2002) and was a two-time Gatorade state player of the year.

Ayanna credited her father for preparing her for the college recruiting process and what it takes to perform at a high level while in college. And C.J’s two Gatorade player of the year honors proved to be motivation for his daughter.

“He motivated me in a competition sense because he got Gatorade player of the year twice,” Ayanna Watson said. “I told him I was going to beat him and I did. That was a really nice feeling for me and he told me after I did it that he was really proud of me and wanted me to be better than him.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.

Source link