After winning two state volleyball championships at Loch Raven High School, Tara (Vinje) Kahnert then led the Loyola volleyball team to heights it hadn't seen before and hasn't seen since-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championships in both 1991 and 1992.
She was, said Paul McMullen in a 1992 Baltimore Sun article, "the most important figure in the Greyhounds' growth from also-ran into a championship outfit."
"I think we had talented players who played well together and encouraged each other," Kahnert says. "We cared more about the team and having fun playing a game we loved than we did about our individual stats."
Kahnert was a 5-foot-11 middle blocker, finishing her career with more than 300 blocks, but she did more than just intimidate opposing hitters at the net. She was a terrific hitter herself-compiling more than 1,000 career kills-and also was her team's strongest server.
In 1991, she was named the MAAC Player of the Year, and also the MAAC Championship's Most Outstanding Player after the Greyhounds beat La Salle 3-0 in the championship match. She repeated as tournament MVP the next year when Loyola knocked off Saint Peter's 3-1 in the league final. Kahnert was twice a first-team all-conference pick.
In her senior year, she also got to play with her younger sister Wendy, who played the same middle blocker position. Kahnert chose Loyola in large part due to the fact that her family could see her play as often as possible.
A math major with a minor in computer science (she also has a master's degree from Loyola), her academic record was equally stellar. She was the first Loyola student-athlete to earn Academic All-America honors twice, winning third-team accolades as a junior and a second-team award as a senior. She also was a three-time MAAC All-Academic Team member.
Active at the Grace Fellowship Church in Timonium since college, she currently serves there as the Director of Women's Ministry.
