Any senior in high school knows this feeling.

Whether it’s getting together with extended family around the holidays or running into people you haven’t seen in awhile, the number one question a high school senior will be asked is based around what they’re going to do after graduating.

If you play a sport, that question has another layer added onto it with athletics in college.

Trinity Lutheran senior Stella Kleffman knew it all too well. She would get asked about her college decision constantly, but now, Kleffman can give a definitive answer after she officially signed her national letter of intent to play collegiate volleyball at Kentucky Wesleyan College on Tuesday in the commons of TLHS.

“It felt really good, especially knowing since I’ve been stressed about it,” Kleffman said. “Now that I have it officially on paper, I can take a deep breath and enjoy the rest of my senior year.”

Kleffman had a wide range of supporters come out to attend her putting the pen to paper.

Her family was there, of course, as well as Trinity head coach Faith Wilder-Newland, and a couple of her volleyball teammates who play on the basketball team got out of practice and showed up in their practice jerseys to see Kleffman make it official.

“It was awesome, especially having such supportive friends throughout this process, knowing it’s going to be a little hard when I have to leave and everything, but I know they’ll be able to come to all my games and I’ll be able to come home on some weekends, so it’ll be fun to see them all again,” she said.

Brownstown Central senior volleyball player Reagan Nuss also was there to support Kleffman. The two are currently on the same club team, and they played in Chicago last weekend and will be playing again in Indianapolis this weekend.

Nuss also is going to play college volleyball, and she’s committed to Mount Vernon Nazarene in Ohio.

“We were never friends because we were rivals when we played Brownstown and she was good, and I was like, ‘Huh, I’m not sure about her,’” Kleffman said. “Now that she’s on my travel team, we have a close bond together. She’s leaving to go up to Ohio, so we’re kind of in the same boat in volleyball.”

Kleffman’s little sister, Annie, sat next to her at the table when she signed her NLI, but she has no intentions of following in her sister’s footsteps.

“I tried to pressure her to play volleyball, but I think since she has been around it so much, she doesn’t like it,” Kleffman said. “But she’s big into basketball. That’s her thing.”

Kleffman got into volleyball by watching her older cousin play at Columbus East. She remembers going to all of her games as a kid, and that’s what got her interested.

Kleffman was a big piece of Trinity’s state runner-up team in 2021, and as far as her role at Kentucky Wesleyan, she’s open to whatever the team needs.

“I think it depends,” she said. “I’m thinking more of libero and DS (defensive specialist) since my height for college.”

Before she heads down to college next fall, Kleffman wants to continue to work on the mental side of the game. Among things off the court, Kleffman joked about needing to figure out how to do her own laundry now.

“Definitely mental game because that’s always a big thing for volleyball, just making sure you stay calm for pressure situations,” she said. “Knowing that you’ll be playing in college, that’s how it’ll be in every game.”

She’ll arrive on campus a little earlier than the other students because the team will do some preseason training in early August. In addition to playing volleyball, Kleffman plans to major in political science with the goal of becoming a family law attorney.