Photo by Sam Thiel The 2021 Minneota volleyball team includes front row (L to R): Emma Bottelberghe, Lyzah Sussner, McKenzie Tolk, Natalee Rolbiecki and McKenna Yost. Back row (L to R): Lyssa Kremin, Abby Frie, Elivia Faris, Ireland Stassen, Megan Krog, Kennedi Jurens and Ella Johnson.
MINNEOTA — Last season, the Minneota volleyball team saw another successful campaign, going 12-1 in the pandemic-shortened schedule. This year, the Vikings will have to replace some key faces, but bring a balance of youth and experience to the floor under coach Hayley Fruin.
Minneota will have five returners from a season ago, including Natalee Rolbiecki, Abby Frie, Ireland Stassen, McKenzie Tolk and McKenna Yost. Newcomers Ella Johnson, Emma Bottelberghe and Elivia Faris will also look to make an impact on the floor.
Fruin said during the first couple of weeks of practice, their main focus is just continuing to improve each day on fundamentals such as passing and serving as well as non-game attributes like leadership.
“We’ve got a lot of improvement to make. Each day of course there’s a goal to get better and work on little things like the leadership aspect and defensively we’ve got to make some improvements there because our blocking isn’t our strong suit,” Fruin said. “And then serving and passing, simple things, but it just makes a difference if you can pass a ball and you have three offensive players you can set to at all times. We’re not a big team so that will be important for us.”
Fruin said after seeing her team make several deep postseason runs in the past few years, including winning back-to-back state championships, she expects her group to maintain that drive and finish near the top of the conference and make another run in the section tournament.
“Obviously we’ve had a great last few years and last year ending the way it did it left everybody a little motivated because we had a great solid team last year and we have a great senior group coming in this year,” Fruin said. “We’ve got a tough conference, so everybody’s got to stay healthy and we’re hoping to finish as one of the top teams in the conference and then come section time, hopefully get to the end of the playoffs and compete.”
Fruin added an area of strength for their team will be their consistency and will look to rely on her veteran players throughout the season.
“I think overall our consistency; with us having such veteran players it works in our benefit where we aren’t going to get stuck in a lot of rotations and they just know how to battle and get out of it,” Fruin said. “We’ve got enough players that have played long enough that I think consistency each and every night for us will be key.”
Minneota will start its season on Saturday on the road against Mayer Lutheran at 5 p.m. Going into the season, Fruin said she’s looking forward to getting out on the floor and competing again as a team and knows as long as they stay healthy and work hard, they can have another strong year.
“Just getting out there and competing. It’s going to be a tough year, our conference is tough this year but as long as we stay healthy and work hard and get better each and every day, I’m hoping that we can definitely make a name for ourselves,” Fruin said. “I’m also just hoping to compete in a normal atmosphere.”
"make" - Google News
August 25, 2021 at 12:22PM
https://ift.tt/3jfGkIr
FALL PREVIEW: Vikings look to make another championship run - Marshall Independent
"make" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WG7dIG
https://ift.tt/2z10xgv
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "FALL PREVIEW: Vikings look to make another championship run - Marshall Independent"
Post a Comment