Leadership is a theme in Allison Davis’s volleyball career. The freshman setter, who was a captain throughout high school, has again found herself as a starter and a captain, this time for N.C. State.

Despite the fact that senior Melissa Rabe held the position as a starter last year, Davis was able to come in and take over the role of starting setter this year. She has started all 22 matches this season going into Wednesday’s contest at Duke. But Davis said being a leader early in her college career is a natural role for her.

“That’s my goal. In high school, I was always captain and starting setter,” Davis said. “So that was my goal, to come up here and be an impact player right away.”

Coach Charita Stubbs, who played college volleyball at Arizona in the early 1990s, said the chance to start is a great opportunity for first-year players.

“It’s really important as a freshman to come in and get the opportunity to play. That’s always a freshman’s goal,” Stubbs said. “So there’s a little pride that goes along with that.”

But with the jump to collegiate volleyball and the leadership that goes hand-in-hand with being a setter, Davis has also faced learning and adjustments — with her newfound home comes the tough environment of practice. “It’s a whole different world,” Davis said. “The training’s 110 percent harder than it ever was back home.”

Stubbs even went as far as to say one of the best parts of her young player’s game is her ability to handle the first-year coach’s intense coaching style. “The fact that she can take me on a daily basis and still keep a smile on her face is probably the best part of her game, as well, just being able to deal with the day-in and day-out rigors that take place,” Stubbs said.

One area Stubbs said Davis is improving is her ability to put the ball in different areas of the court. But the coach said it’s something a player doesn’t fully achieve overnight.

“[Her strength is] her ability to run and put the ball in a much better window than she did in the beginning, so she’s still tactically working on where she should set and why she should set,” Stubbs said. “I don’t think that that’s something you really understand for a while.”

Meanwhile, sophomore middle blocker Aiwane Iboaya said Davis has done a solid job of adjusting to being away from her home in Florida. She said the freshman has also done well at handling one of the most important positions on the court.

“She’s come in, [taken] a major role in the team because the setter is like the quarterback of volleyball,” Iboaya said. “So it’s the leader. She sets all the plays up, so she’s done a good job of that.”

Iboaya also said the team doesn’t have to worry about Davis being a defensive liability, as shorter setters might be because of their lack of height.

“She’s 6-[foot]-1. So she’s a really big body,” Iboaya said. “But she’s blocking a lot of setters.”

Another consistent part of Davis’ game is her use of a dump, when she fakes as if she is going to set up a teammate for a hit but actually spikes the ball herself. It usually works, giving her team the point.Stubbs said the dump is a good move for Davis to use and that she wishes the setter would do it more.

“The more that she makes herself a dump threat, the more she opens up the court because if she goes up and she’s shown that she can dump, the middle has to respect her, which means now it’s time to set our middle because it’s going to be a one-on-one situation,” Stubbs said. “She really doesn’t understand the dynamics of that or that it’s OK to dump multiple times in a row.”

Stubbs also noted Davis’ need to spread the ball around to more hitters. She said the problem wasn’t getting worse, but also that it hasn’t gotten better. Stubbs said it’s not so much the number of sets to a particular player as it is the mindset behind those passes.

“She has to understand who the key people are to set at the right time,” Stubbs said. “And that part she really doesn’t understand.”

Iboaya said Davis’ ability to have variety in who she sets will help everyone on the team.

“Distributing the ball will help everyone get into the game, not just one person. It’ll give that person, if she’s messing up, time to breathe or calm down,” Iboaya said. “And it’ll also keep the team guessing so they’re not just always going to that one person while the other people are just standing around.”

But with Davis still having areas in which she can improve over the final eight matches of the season, Stubbs said she’s also seen her player grow since the season started.

“In the beginning she wasn’t really the most disciplined player, so for her to kind of work on being more disciplined and also working on all the different athletic things she needed to do was a struggle for her,” Stubbs said. “But I think she’s embraced it.”