Kee volleyball team returns six letterwinners for 2014 season

The 2014 Kee volleyball team will return six varsity letterwinners from a squad last season that finished with an 8-18 overall record, including a 10th-place Upper Iowa Conference record of 2-7. That mix of returning varsity experience will combine with some young newcomers to hopefully make for a formidable Hawk line-up throughout the year, according to Coach Rich Ellis.
“Our biggest key will be team continuity,” Coach Ellis said. “The girls will need to learn how to play together and be willing to play where the team needs them the most. We will have a few girls playing new positions this year and they are going to need to accept their new role in order for us to be successful.”
That veteran half dozen includes the senior foursome of Sadie Hill, Valerie Meyer, Nicole Vinson and Molly Walleser, as well as the junior tandem of Mikayla Gavin and Erin Rud. Although most statistical categories last season were topped by seniors now lost to graduation, Meyer, Gavin and Walleser do return with the second- through fourth-best kill totals, respectively, from last season, with Gavin and Meyer also bringing back Kee’s top two blocking totals and Walleser returning with the team’s third-best service ace total and fourth-best serving percentage, all behind senior leadership from last year.
The newcomers being looked to this year may be new to the varsity volleyball court, but much like Meyer, Walleser and Vinson are certainly not new to the varsity level of competition, and some significant success at that level. “Our biggest weakness will be youth and inexperience,” Coach Ellis explains. “We only have three girls in Molly, Val and Mikayla that saw significant time last year and we will have three freshmen rotating in and out of the line-up. However, two of those freshmen are just coming off a state softball appearance, so they should be able to handle the mental part of the varsity game.”
Kendra Cooper and Chloe Severson make up that freshman state softball tandem referred to by Coach Ellis. Along with that high level of success at a high level of varsity competition, those two also join Gavin in measuring 5’10” tall, with Meyer and Walleser each up there as well at 5’9”, creating a great deal of optimism for Coach Ellis.
“Our biggest strength will be our size up front,” he said. “Our shortest front row player this year will be 5’9”. Combine that size with some athleticism, and we should be very strong up front.”
A somewhat upperclassman newcomer will also be looked to for significant contributions this season, as junior Lilly Winters will take the court for the Hawks for the first time this season after spending last school year in Italy. “We will be looking for leadership from Lilly Winters,” Coach Ellis commented. “She is a solid player who will be a great addition to our line-up.”
Mixing all those ingredients of veteran experience, height, athleticism and other leadership possibilities will hopefully help overcome the graduation loss of the main statistical and overall leadership from last year’s squad. “We have three rather large holes to fill,” Coach Ellis remarked. “We lost Ellie Heiderscheit and Kaylee Darling, both who have been playing varsity for four years. We also lost our setter from last year with Alivia Winters graduating. These are big shoes to fill, but so far, we are doing a good job filling them.”
Coach Ellis can see that the mixing of those ingredients has already started to produce some positive results for the Hawks so far in this season’s early going. “I am very pleased with the effort in practice so far,” he noted. “A couple of the upperclassmen have come to me and told me that we are going to be better than they thought we were going to be. I attribute this to the hard work they are putting in.”
With the separating of the Upper Iowa Conference into a bigger school division and smaller school division this season, Coach Ellis likes his team’s chances of playing their way to the top of their small school division. But he still sees some of the traditional larger schools as the overall league favorites again this season.
“Our goal is to finish on the top of our division this year, and I feel that we have a very good shot at that,” he said. “I think South Winn, North Fayette Valley, Clayton Ridge and Turkey Valley will be fighting for the top spot. However, after that there will be a dog fight for the remaining spots. One of the remaining teams could knock off one of the top four to crack a spot up there.”
Kee’s quest of achieving this season’s goals is scheduled to get underway this Thursday, August 28 with a home double dual against Seneca, WI and De Soto, WI. The Hawks will get their first crack at Upper Iowa Conference action September 4 at Turkey Valley in another scheduled double dual that also involves New Hampton.