The Southwest volleyball team may not have seen big numbers in the win column this season, but the Lady Trojans’ improvements over their 34 games are quantifiable, and the future is promising.
Steve Voyak, Southwest volleyball coach, said at 2-30-2, the team struggled to reach all its goals, but the team’s improvement could be tracked through its stats.
“We saw improvement in serving, setting and the ability to kill the ball,” he said. “Through the first 10 games, we served at 84 percent with inconsistent aim, and we finished the year at 89 percent and were hitting spots pretty regularly. Sophomore setter Laura Jean Henry ran a 5-1 offense, finished the season with 385 assists and cut her errors in half during the final half of the season.
“Hitters Kelsee Merritt (72 kills), Kaleigh Tull (70 kills), Brooklynn Slye (64 kills), Lyric Bernard (56 kills), and Marissa Freeman (24 kills) struggled at the start of the season but made significant strides with errors by the end of the season and all will return next year.”
Voyak said still needing some work is the team’s serve reception, as the team had some moments and stretches of games, but not enough to make it an asset.
“We played solid teams from Spokane, Sparta, and Fordland close for extended periods of time but could not beat any of them,” he said. “We received compliments from several opposing coaches about our energy, work ethic and our ability to run an offense, despite our record.”
Southwest’s five seniors — Anna Church, Cally Bowyer, Feanne Damen, Olivia Erwin and Signe Suchowski — led by example on the court and in the stat book.
“Anna was a captain and earned four varsity letters in four years and finished with 258 receptions, 195 digs, and 28 aces,” Voyak said. “Cally returned to volleyball after a few years away and served as a reserve. Feanne was a foreign exchange student from the Netherlands and led the team in kills with 134. She has played for several years and stepped right in as an outside hitter.
‘Olivia was a libero and best defensive player with 413 receptions and 380 digs and led the squad in aces with 37. And, Signe was defensive specialist who had 112 receptions and served at 92.1 percent.”
Returning next season will be a solid core of nine, including Henry, Slye, Bernard, Merritt, Tull, Freeman, Juiauna Sierra, Riley Flippo and Montana Skelton.
“All have logged varsity time,” Voyak said. “I think we can go from being competitive to winning matches. Our core of nine players takes volleyball pretty seriously.”
Some highlights of the season for the team were off-the-court accomplishments, like hosting the 39th annual Volleyfest Tournament, one of the longest-running events in the state.
“We also raised $1,700 at our Pink Out event for a local breast cancer survivor,” Voyak said. “Finally, our varsity GPA was 3.89 (62 As and 9 Bs), and 14 girls made the Academic All-State Volleyball Team.”
