Grace Witcher was the leading scorer for her team in the first tournament match against the hosts, the California State University, Stanislaus Warriors, in which the Gators won the match in five sets. As a freshman, she witnessed her teammates place the “San Francisco State” sticker on the California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament bracket board. But when she got the chance to be the one to place the team’s sticker on the board, she felt gratefulness, an emotion she will always carry with her.

“Even if I wasn’t the one putting the sticker on the thing, I would have still been so excited and happy,” Witcher said. “I was just so grateful, not only for my performance in that game — it really was a team effort, and we needed that win to get us through.”

Witcher began her journey at Norris Middle School in Bakersfield after being a gymnast in the early years of her life. She had the support of her parents, who also played sports at the collegiate level. Her mother, Janae Witcher, spiked the ball at the University of Southern California in the late ‘90s. Her father, Josh Witcher, was a catcher for the University of Oklahoma Sooners around the same time her mother played volleyball at USC. 

“They hear the good things, the bad things and more,” the Witcher’s daughter said. “If I need a motivational talk, I’m calling my dad. When I’m dealing with anything else, I’m calling my mom and my grandma; they both go hand in hand. They’ve seen me at my highest and my lowest points in my life. I can never thank them enough for everything that they do for me.”

When Witcher first stepped onto the court, she had the nerves of making a first impression, but said there was comfort coming from her experience in gymnastics, gifting her with hand-eye coordination. 

“I just remember being there and I was always the best one on the team,” Witcher said. “I was the first one to overhand serve. I was the first one to be hitting the ball. It was definitely like ‘Wow, I could be pretty good at this.’”

Witcher’s senior year stats at Liberty High School in Bakersfield tallied 67 sets played, 3.6 kills per set, kill percentage at 38.2% and a hit percentage at .221. After their playoff run in 2022, she committed to San Francisco State University after speaking with head coach Matt Hoffman. Witcher was one of the earliest among her teammates to commit. Hoffman started Witcher’s recruitment while initially watching then-high school athlete, now Gators outside hitter Aidan Goodrich play in her section finals.

“We tried to watch her play a lot in club [volleyball] and we always kind of missed seeing her play,” Hoffman said. “I saw her last name on the jersey and it looked familiar, and so I looked it up and we had meant to recruit her the whole club season. And then I saw her at that match and she had a great match.”

Witcher entered the Swamp in 2023 and was coming off the bench in her freshman year. She scored four kills and five assists in 69 sets. 

However, Witcher wanted more playing time and decided to transfer back home to Bakersfield, attending the California State University campus there during her freshman spring semester and was on their beach volleyball squad. However, she missed competing in indoor volleyball. 

Mallori Rossi, head coach of the Taft College Cougars, said “it just seemed like things clicked” when Witcher joined the Cougars for her sophomore year. The experience from SFSU and Cal State Bakersfield, along with the “competitive drive you don’t find in a lot of athletes” was invaluable to Rossi. 

“‘Let’s raise a bar up.’ ‘Let’s have a little higher standards for ourselves.’ ‘Let’s really take this program to the next level,’” Rossi said, describing Witcher’s attitude. “And so she really understood that and was on board with motivating everyone, helping everyone get there.”

Through that motivation, encouragement and the act of handwriting letters to teammates, Witcher helped everyone be in uniform, literally and figuratively. Getting extra reps, watching film, conversing with Rossi and her academic successes set the bar for her teammates. 

“She really led by example in all of those different areas and she had high expectations for her teammates,” Rossi said. “But she was also doing it by herself, which helped the team to jump on board because they saw their leader doing it as well.”

Throughout the 2024 season, Witcher led the Cougars to a 27-5 season, 14-2 in conference, and into the NorCal Regionals. The Cougars secured a bye past the first round. They won against Hartnell in four sets in the second round before being swept by Sierra College in the third round.    

Witcher led the Cougars with 462 kills, and was second-most in digs with 195. She stood up to the challenge of setting the bar for those around her on and off the floor. 

Witcher blossomed as an athlete in ways beyond stats and awards. To her, the experience with Rossi left its invisible mark on the court. 

“It wasn’t really my skill set that she worried about; it was just mainly my confidence,” Witcher said. “If I made a mistake, instead of being like ‘Oh my gosh, why did you make the error?’ — Now I have positive self-talk and I’m able to brush off what I’m doing, and she taught me to, instead of dwelling on your mistakes, just trying to give back to your team in a different way.”

The two would often be in Rossi’s office, conversing about volleyball, life, talking Witcher out of her self-criticism on the court and reminding her that making mistakes are part of the game. Rossi also reassured her key athlete of her potential. 

Away from the Swamp, Witcher maintained her relationships with the Gators squad, including two of her best friends, Tamiya Wilson and Goodrich. She said she visited four to five times while she was a sophomore in the Central Valley and attended one of the Gators’ games at California Polytechnic University, Pomona. That support was reciprocated by Gators volleyball, who showed support when Witcher won awards as a Cougar. 

After months of talks of coming back, Witcher decided it was the best move for her to come back in Gator purple. While she attended the Gators’ game in Pomona, she came up to Hoffman and said, “If you ever want to take me back, I’m here,” and the two began talks for her comeback. 

“I kind of jokingly said, ‘If you want to stay, you can stick around for two years.’” Hoffman said. “And that led to a series of conversations of it being a good fit and why don’t we try this again, if you really want to come back, and we’d love to have you.” 

After weeks of long, thought-out conversations with her family and Hoffman, she ultimately decided to come back to SFSU.

Goodrich was the first teammate Witcher told the news to and the two planned to surprise Wilson together. Witcher created an edited video that begins with a black screen and the Joker line “I always come back” before showing a photo of Witcher from her freshman year. The two FaceTimed Wilson, and when she watched the video, tears streamed down her face as she processed the news of her best friend’s comeback. 

“When she transferred, I really took it hard because she was like my closest friend and one of my favorite people ever,” Wilson said. “When she came back, I was in tears because I was like ‘Oh, we only had one season together, now we get another season.’”

Upon her return to SFSU, the Gators squad had young new faces in the gymnasium, including some who were in the starting lineups throughout the season. Given her personal experience as a nervous incoming freshman on the team, Witcher was instrumental in calming her younger teammates’ nerves.

“I felt as though, because half of our team basically were all incoming freshmen, I felt a special place in that,” Witcher said. “I obviously have already been here before, but being able to welcome them with open arms, and even though I was nervous to be brought in on a new team, it was super cool to be a part of welcoming the babies on the team.”

In 2025, the Gators had a preseason start of 1-6, but it didn’t deter them from what was possible. After a 5-6 start in the conference, including a four-game losing streak, they turned it around with a 5-2 run to end the regular season with a 10-8 conference record. This key seven-game stretch lifted them into the fifth seed and into the CCAA tournament. 

Witcher was a key starting athlete in the Gators’ 2025 season and collected more accolades, including the WWU Invitational All-Tournament Team in the preseason, All-CCAA Second Team and All-CCAA Tournament Team. Witcher led the Gators in kills with 328 and digs with 301. 

The Gators opened their tournament run against the hosting Stanislaus State Warriors, where they avoided an early exit by winning the fourth and fifth sets to move on. Witcher trailed only Goodrich in kills per set and digs per set. The two were the key athletes in the Gators’ run in the tournament. 

“She’s played a huge role on the court, but on top of that, just how we are as a group, she contributes so much leadership-wise,” Goodrich said. “I think a lot of people look to her to bring energy and fire and compassion, ‘cause one thing about her, she’s always gonna bring that. I think that’s why she’s so important to us and why it’s noticeably different when she’s not on the court.” 

The Gators defeated the 19-5 Cal Poly Pomona Broncos in the next game of the tournament before losing to California State University, San Bernardino Coyotes in their first CCAA tournament finals appearance in school history. But the end of a season wasn’t a dark cloud over the team as they saw the light of their success. They were proud of each other, and Hoffman said he was proud of the girls for how far they’ve come after the tough preseason start. 

“To watch our growth from August ‘til now, and looking back, we were 0-3 in five-setters and a couple of them weren’t very close,” Hoffman said in the postgame press conference. “To say we now are winning five gamers against the No. 1 seed in the tournament, that just shows how far this team has come… When you have such a young team, just to see so much growth happen in a short period of time was really enjoyable to be a part of.” 

Rossi paid a visit to see Witcher at the tournament, to witness the transformation and the higher-level success of her former group’s leader. 

“She has such a big heart herself and is always so thoughtful and giving,” Rossi said. “And to just see her have that confidence in herself and be making an impact at San Francisco State has been just a lot of fun to see, to know that we had a little part to do in that transformation and helping her gain that confidence to where she could take it on with her back to SF and make a bigger impact.”

Though Witcher isn’t present at Taft College anymore, the impact she’s had on her former teammates and Rossi remains in motion, according to her former coach. This season, the Cougars went 30-3 overall and 8-0 in their conference. Rossi said Witcher helped with the foundation of their winning culture.

“When she played on the court, she just brought a dominant level of play to the court, and I think everyone else just naturally followed her,” Rossi said. “That was very instrumental to the success of our season last year and I think building this program to be a top program.” 

Witcher said her path to transferring from a community college to SFSU can serve as an example for other athletes looking to transfer to a four-year university.

“Some people don’t even transfer out from JUCOs,” Witcher said. “So I think it’s really important, or it’s a really good impact that I’m having on them, to show them that, yes, you can go and you can transfer to a university. You can make a big impact. Even if you go the JUCO route, that doesn’t mean that your worth is anything less.”

Outside of the court, when she isn’t occupied with homework en route to completing her degree in kinesiology, Witcher and her friends go to the beach, watch the sunset, swim, play beach volleyball or have movie nights at home. She also loves trying out new food spots, which she said is her No. 1 hobby. 

Only being a junior, Witcher will have just one more season to accomplish a championship with the Gators. She reflected on the journey she’s had on the court from the first moment to the present. 

“I’ve learned of lessons that I’ll carry on with me when I have a job, when I have a family,” Witcher said. “I think being in those lows, and having the pep talks from older teammates, from my dad, has really helped me ‘cause now I can apply those pep talks into things in my actual life outside of volleyball. All of a sudden, the problems in the world aren’t that big.”