(Griswold, IA) – The Griswold Tigers volleyball season was one season that many will always remember. The Tigers finished 21-11 overall and battled in the Corner Conference with East Mills, Stanton, and Sidney, which are three teams that were state-ranked at one point this season. Head coach Jody Rossell was happy that her team took every challenge head-on and competed to the end in every match.
Three seniors are graduating this year after a very successful season on the court by all three. Lindsey Keiser played as a defensive specialist this season accumulating 127 digs and earned the Tiger Award for Griswold this season. Libero Whitney Pennock broke multiple school records including the records for digs and digs per set in a season with 516 digs and averaged 5.73 digs per set. Pennock also was the top server this season for Griswold with 44 aces and served 94.4%. The final senior is setter Carolina Arcia, a player who broke the school record for assists in a season with a total of 770. Arcia is also second of all time in a Tiger career in assists while being second on the team in blocks with 26, and in aces with 41 while serving 89%.
As Griswold will be missing their libero, setter, and defensive specialist for next season, the Tigers will be returning their entire front row. This is where their successful junior varsity team will be looking a bit different next season as a few will have to step into a varsity role. They also have a young squad of girls coming up to the high school level next year that will help to take over a few of those roles.
One aspect of Griswold’s success was their consistent and aggressive serving game. The Tigers served 92.2% this season with five girls serving above 90% overall. Coach Rossell talked about how their success relied on “serving tough” this season.
Coach Rossell knows that as she will be missing her seniors, they will be bringing back a lot of talent. They return their top hitters Marissa Askeland, R’Nya Kirchhoff, and Gabbie Greiman who all had over 200 kills this season. The blocking game will have to improve for a young back-row and the team will have to be more confident overall while working on the floor.
Griswold finishes the season ready to go into the next. In the meantime, head coach Jody Rossell is getting ready for softball season.
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