(Avoca) The AHSTW volleyball roster has been hit hard by graduation. The Lady Vikes are coming off of a 27-win season in 2021.
Just two starters return for coach Kelsey Muxfeldt this year. “We lost a pretty good senior group last year, actually six of our eight starters. We are kind of in a rebuilding year, but we have Grace Porter coming back. She’s been our starting libero the last two year. That’s a good position to have back. Delaney Goshorn started last year in the middle for us and Saydi Paulsen also so some varsity time for us last year.”
The lack of experience means they’ll have a lot to cover in practice. “Right now we are working on getting as many touches as we can. Focusing on being aggressive serving, serve receive, we are going to be young and we are going to have a lot of inexperience, but I like what I’ve seen from some of our seniors and underclassmen so far. They all seem to be working hard and trying to fill some of those spots. It will be an exciting year.”
Coach Muxfeldt identifies some of the players that have the possibility to step into larger roles. “Right now they are kind of all still open. We have three seniors that could see some playing time with Kaleah Guyer, Ella Stamp, and Hannah Nielsen. Really our sophomore class and junior class has a lot of strong athletes in it too.”
They’ll also have to replace four year starter Ally Meyers at setter. Freshman Halle Goodman may be the the front runner for that spot with Lauren Yates also competing. With such a young group they are focused on daily improvement. “Focusing on the little things. Being aggressive serving and making sure we are getting good passes off of serve receive. We want to run a quick offense, but right now we really focusing more on the defensive end and how we can improve there. I’m seeing a lot of improvement and these girls did a good job of showing up this summer to get some reps in. We want to compete and be competitive and make sure we are doing those little things right to get better and be playing our best volleyball in October.
The team will participate in the clinic at Atlantic on August 20th, scrimmage SW Valley on August 23rd, and kick off the season with their home tournament on August 27th.
AHSTW coach Kelsey Muxfeldt:
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