Maggie Lile was voted the Impact Player award, the highest team honor, by her 2021 Spring Grove volleyball teammates. She was also the choice for the Hustle Award for the second straight season. The Heart Award went to Brielle Neeley. The Most Improved honor was shared by Kenadee Gerard and Lydia Solum, who are both repeat recipients. Gerard was also the MIP in 2020 and Solum in 2019.
These four standouts were also among the seven Lions who were Academic All-Conference as letter winners who achieved at least a 3.4 GPA during the volleyball season. The other three scholars were seniors McKenzie Fisch and Julia Halverson plus sophomore Katelyn Kraus. Fisch also earned one of the most prestigious honors as Academic All-State, denoting seniors on the section roster with a 3.80 cumulative GPA through their entire four-year high school academic career. The team received the Silver Academic Award, recognizing a team GPA between 3.50 and 3.75.
Lile (Impact, Hustle), a junior libero, has been a varsity starter for four seasons and already a two-time all-conference selection in her junior and sophomore seasons after receiving Honorable Mention All-SEC as a freshman. She recorded her 1,000th career dig during Spring Grove’s section tournament run. Lile is capable of playing every position. As a libero, she anchored the defense and was the primary passer to initiate the offense. When the setter played the first touch, Lile became the setter on the second touch. She was also a third-touch attacker from the back row. While leading the Lions for the second straight season in digs (448) and passing rating (2.40), she also had 62 set assist and 48 kills. Lile served with 94% accuracy and 28 service aces.
Neeley (Heart), a senior middle hitter, was honored for her non-statistical contributions, but she did perform ably during significant action at the net where she put away 59 kills with a strong 23% hitting efficiency along with 16 scoring blocks.
Gerard (co-MIP), moved into the starting lineup with an explosive season as an outside hitter. The junior All-SEC attacker led the Lions in kills with 260 and also scored with 16 blocks. She became a part of the serving rotation where she put over 93% of her serves in play while scoring with 17 aces.
Solum (co-MIP), a junior middle hitter, scored with a team-high 32 blocks and the third-most kills (116) with 19% efficiency. She moved into the starting lineup at the net as well as into serving rotation and responded with 93% serving accuracy and 26 aces. In addition to being recognized by her teammates, Solum was also honored by conference coaches while receiving Honorable Mention on the All-Southeast Conference Team.
Earning their fourth varsity volleyball letter were Lile and All-SEC junior Addyson McHugh. Third-year letter winners were Solum plus seniors Neeley, Rachel Normann and Julia Halverson. Receiving a second letter was Gerard while first-year letter winners were Fisch and Kraus plus senior Danika Holty.
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