The 2015 volleyball season was a highly competitive one. Five of seven Journal covered teams finished with winning records. Two won conference titles. Four made Rochester. One played for a trip to state. The 2016 season looks to be similarly good. Teams will mix it up amidst a TRC and sections that look to be gauntlets. FC, R-P, Kingsland, and Lanesboro have senior heavy squads. M-C, R-P, FC, and Lanesboro return “milestone” players. It could be a year of a bunch of four and five set matches.
Few area volleyball seasons begin without talking about Mabel-Canton right out of the gate. Lonnie Morken’s Cougars broke a six-year section title game draught in 2015. M-C was SEC (14-0) and 1A East champ (1A Runner-Up), posting a program best 35 wins versus 3 losses, a sixth straight 30-win season. Two losses came to state champion W-E-M (split a two-setter) and state runner-up Faribault-BA (section title match). M-C played just one senior. They’ll have two in 2016. They return all four All-SEC players and eight of nine full-timers. Heading the cast is fifth-year starter Coranda Vickerman (5’9” setter/OH). The reigning two-time SEC Player of the Year, three-time All-SEC pick, earned 1st Team Class A All-State in 2015. She led the team in assists (808), digs (323), and aces (76) while adding 209 kills. She’s within reach of 1,000 career digs and 2,000 career assists. Vickerman gets help from fellow senior, versatile Courtney Graves (5’9 MH/Setter). The third-year starter is a two-time All-SEC pick (180 kills, 173 assists). The junior class features two-time All-SEC selection Savannah Slafter, M-C’s best pure hitting weapon. The 5’7” OH led the Cougars in kills (398) while adding 271 digs and 64 aces. She is closing in on 1,000 spikes. Two-year starter, All-SEC junior Dakota Delaney (5’9” MH) also returns (234 kills). Third-year starter Lexi Thorson (5’5” OH, All-SEC HM, 250 digs, 152 kills, 116 assists) leads the sophomore class. Maddy Michels (5’6” sophomore RH), Payton Danielson (5’3” freshman OH, 226 digs, 64 aces) and Kenidi McCabe (5’3” 8th grader setter/DS, 181 digs) complete the ‘we’re back’ list. Entering his 23rd season, Coach Morken is well within reach of 600 career victories. The Cougars start the year #3 in Class A (highest ranking since the early 2000s).
In Rushford, the Trojans come off a successful 2015 campaign. Nikki Schultz’s girls posted a fifth consecutive winning season. R-P made it to Rochester for a second straight year (fell to M-C in the 1A East semis). They finished fourth in the TRC (8-4), going 20-9 overall. The Trojans played in seven five-set matches. A trio of regulars graduated. The super senior core foursome of Brianna Koop (5’9” OH), Savannah Skalet (5’5” setter), Ashley Agrimson (5’11” MH), and Mikayla Crawford (5’4” libero) return. Koop, Skalet, and Agrimson were R-P’s three 2015 All-TRC picks (Koop and Skalet repeated). Crawford was Honorable Mention. Koop led R-P and finished second in the TRC with 321 kills whilst nearing the 300/300 club (293 digs). Skalet was the TRC’s most lethal server (66 aces) whilst notching a TRC-fourth best 711 assists and 262 digs. She begins the year three quarters of the way to 2,000 assists. Crawford led the TRC with 581 digs. She has over 1,000 total. Agrimson chipped in 191 kills and a team-best 37 blocks. Experienced juniors Kensay Clobes (5’8” OH) and Nicole Blagsvedt (6’0” MH) also return. Koop, Skalet, Crawford, Agrimson, and Clobes combined for 183 aces.
Travis Malley’s Fillmore Central Falcons will look to step back up as a league and sub-section contender. The 2013/2014 TRC and 1A East champs battled thru a middling 2015. They upset W-K in the 1A East quarters, only to fall to Caledonia in the semis. FC finished at 15-14 (7-5 in TRC). The showing ended a four-year run with 20-plus wins. The Falcons 2016 A-team will be the B’s-squad. They have six experienced seniors. All have a last name that starts with ‘B’. All-TRC libero Tayah Barnes (5’7”) heads the cast. FC’s last starting holdover from the 2013 state runner-up squad is one the TRC’s top defenders (491 digs, 33 aces). She has over 1,000 career repels. Paige Bennett (5’11” OH), their second returning All-TRC pick, was FC’s top attacker a year ago (215 kills). Kendyl Bennett (6’0” MH) platooned the middle (131 kills, team-best 25.5 blocks). Bailey Barnes (5’5”) co-set (368 assists, 167 digs). Kelsey Berg (5’10” RH) and Kenzie Broadwater (5’8” OH) round out the troupe. Junior Cailey Rindels (5’9” MH) also is back after being FC’s second leading attacker (155 kills) and blocker (25). K-Bennett and Rindels were All-TRC HM. After 18 a year ago, the Falcons have 12 girls on varsity.
Lanesboro volleyball begins the year coming off a near nine-year high-water-mark for wins. The Burros went 16-6 in 2015 (10-4 in SEC). They posted more Ws than the three preceding years combined (13). But in the tough 1A Section, they fell to R-P in the East quarterfinals (despite beating the Trojans, and handing M-C its lone SEC set loss, in the regular season). At the top, Julie Schreiber takes over for Chris Knutson. She inherits a squad that notably lost All-SEC OH, RCTC signee Rachel Kimball. Two of three 2015 All-Conference selections return though. Senior setter Lexi Melander (5’6”), already over 1,000 career assists, enters her third year as offensive quarterback. Diddo goes for versatile senior Cassidy Ruud (5’8” OH), who is equally adept up front or in the back. They are joined be senior veterans Maggie Decker (5’5” libero) and Haley Polin (5’11” RH). Long-armed junior Joelie Schreiber (5’11” MH) is an interior force. She was All-SEC Honorable Mention (team leader in blocks) while doubling as the coach’s daughter. She and Ruud were the team’s second and third leading attackers in 2015.
In Chatfield, for the first time in recent memory, the Gophers aren’t loaded with returning experience. Ruth Ann Lund’s girls come off a season in which they went 11-1 in the TRC for a third straight year. They shared the league title after back-to-back seconds. Chatfield went 18-11 overall, losing to eventual 1AA East champ Red Wing in the semis. Team leaders in nearly every statistical category graduated. Included were two All-TRC players (Sheridan Salisbury, Brooke Adler) and three HM players (Maddie Muller, Megan LaPlante, Danielle Kramer). Chatfield returns just two regulars. Seniors Mariah Bell (5’8” MH, 63 kills, 18.5 blocks) and Kyra Dokken (5’7 MH, 67 kills, 24 blocks) are it for big-time varsity experience. Two other seniors (Lexi Schott and Haley Goetzinger) join seven juniors to round out a mostly new squad.
Kingsland volleyball enters the year in recent new territory. The Knights have the same coach for the first time in four years. Brittni McCane returns for year two. The silver and black went 3-18 last season (1-11 in TRC; first league win since 2012). They fell to Schaeffer Academy in a 1A East pig-tail contest. The Knights will boast nine seniors. Alayna Meskill (5’4” DS) and Kailey Link (5’7” setter) are third-year regulars. Kellyn Webster (5’6” OH), Gracie Schmidt (6’0” MH), and Ericka Kolden (5’9” OH) played abundantly in 2015. Sophomores Lauren Buchholtz (5’7” MH) and Taylor Zimmerman (5’4 libero) were two of three Knights (with Link) to play in every set. Buchholtz, in her third varsity season, led Kingsland in kills (150) and blocks (20.5). Link was top assistor (292), Zimmerman the top defender (285 digs). The trio each earned All-TRC HM.
The Houston Hurricanes begin the year like Lanesboro, with a new coach. Brianna Primmer takes over for Hannah Bauman. The double H’er’s went 5-16 last season (3-11 in SEC), losing to the Burros in a 1A East pigtail game. The ‘Canes lost their top attacker (All-SEC Kelly Jerviss) and setter (All-SEC HM Maya Upton) amidst three key graduations. They’ll have four seniors this year, a cast headed by top defender Alyvia King (5’4” OH, 203 digs). From there, seniors Erin Conley (5’5” OH) and Jordyn Holland (5’5” MH), and juniors Becca Lee (5’6” RH, 143 6 digs, 27 aces) and Amber Chapel (5’10” MH) return as regulars. Chapel is the team’s leading returning attacker (64 kills).
*TRC stats courtesy of Bill Bentson.
Leave a Reply