Hornets to see change on courts
The Colby Hornets volleyball team has started its 2022 campaign, competing in their first tournament of the season at UW-Stout. With a new system in place and some new focuses in practices, the Hornets hope to compete in the upper rungs of the Cloverbelt-East with the likes of Gilman, Columbus, and Neillsville.
Colby finished in the top half of the conference last year, going 4-3 in Cloverbelt- East matches. They hope to improve on that this year.
New head coach Wade Oehmichen will be bringing some new looks to the team this year in hopes of achieving that goal.
“We’ve instituted a different offense, a different defense, everybody’s learning new call signs,” Oehmichen said. “Now we are looking to run a quicker offense, so you have to let the setter know that the ball’s going to come to a specific spot and all those spots have different numbers. So that numbering system is something the girls have to learn.”
It’s also a system that he was starting to implement at the lower levels of the Colby volleyball system, when he coached the C-team prior to taking over as varsity coach, so younger members of the team will be familiar with some of the intricacies. It’s a bit more complicated than previous offenses, and it will take some time for the team to get used to it, but Oehmichen believes that it’s something that will help his team take advantage of the talents they possess.
Those strengths include athleticism and height, both of which will make trying to run the faster-paced offense easier and more effective.
“If you aren’t overly tall, then it’s difficult to run this kind of offense,” he said. “With our height, running this quicker offense should serve us quite well. Once we figure out our blocking, we’ll also be really hard to hit around.”
Another new facet that Oehmichen will be implementing is the utilization of the weight room during practices. It had not been a focus prior, but he hopes that it will help build upon his team’s natural athleticism.
“When I played, we spent close to a third of our time in the weight room and the rest of it on the court,” Oehmichen said. “So we’ve been instituting that. During our contact days we’re in there. We’re somewhere in the 20’s for a lot of our verticals. So if we can keep them in the weight room, I’m hoping we can get them somewhere in the mid-20s.”
With the season having just begun, the starting lineup is still taking shape. There are currently 12 players on the varsity squad and in their first tournament, all 12 were rotated through in an attempt to find the best fits.
Senior Jorja Weiland is slated to be the starting setter and senior Hayden Willner will be returning as the Hornets left side hitter. Juniors Kylie Orth and Lydia Decker look to share time as middle blockers. Sophomore Savana Thomsen is also returning after playing varsity last year as a freshman and is expected to continue to contribute as an outside hitter. Incoming freshman Daelyn Rieck will also likely be in the main rotation.
Figuring out the back row of the Hornets lineup will be a little more difficult.
As of right now, Colby is looking at not fielding a libero. This is partially because they hope to be able to hit out of the back row more often and utilize more of the taller athletes within their rotation to do so. It will also help the Hornets narrow down who can pass the ball most effi ciently off of serves and spikes. Having a clean receive is a key part of the new offense and something that the Hornets still need to work on.
“Our passing has been our pullback so far,” Oehmichen said. “If we can’t pass efficiently, we can’t run the offense we’d like to and then you are just lobbing them out to the outside. So once we pick up our passing, we’ll be tough to beat.”
The Hornets played seven matches in the UW-Stout Sprawl Invitational this past weekend and only seemed to get better as the team gained more experience in the new offense and defense. After dropping straight sets in the first three matches, the Hornets picked up sets against Rice Lake and Cadott and then won matches against Rice Lake, 25-23 and 25-21, and Turtle Lake, 25-21, 22-25, and 15-10, to cap off the tournament.
They also played Edgar on Tuesday, August 30. Colby started off slow in a tough match against the Wildcats, dropping the first set 25-10, but looked a little more comfortable in the second game. After going back and forth, Edgar pulled away in the latter half of the set and went up 2-0 by carrying that lead to a 25-19 victory.
The Hornets regrouped in the third set with their offense settling and their receives improving. They’d take the third set 25-21 to push the game to a fourth game. It was a back and forth affair that saw huge runs from both teams. The Hornets had an opportunity when Edgar’s ace hitter moved to the back row late in the game, but they couldn’t quite capitalize and ended up falling in a tight set 28-26. Willner and Rieck led Colby’s defense with 15 digs each.
“We are still learning a new offense and defense and we took a big step forward tonight. I couldn’t be any more proud of the girls,” Oehmichen stated.
Colby’s next game is scheduled against Athens. They will be hosting the Bluejays on September 8, with a varsity start time of 7:15 p.m.
2022 COLBY VOLLEYBALL -On this year’s 2022 Colby volleyball squad are in the back row, left to right: Alia Hamus, Rylan Willner, Kylie Orth, Dory Hanson-Mengel, Daelyn Rieck, Lydia Decker, Savana Thomsen, Hannah Trush, Lilly Brezinski and Megan Kosik. In the middle row, left to right: Jaylin Halverson, Hayden Willner, Hillary Feiten, Tori Underwood, Jorja Weiland, Addisyn Weiland and Thalia Campa-Mata. In the front row, left to right: Katie Snapp, Josie Higley, Kennedy Bilz, Sierra Strassburger, Harrison Schmitt, Kya Rinehart and Dakota Hoeper. Not pictured are Anna Kroll, Brynn Lieders, Angelique Hernadez, Rachel Meyer, Anaya Stransbury and Madison Meyer. The Hornets are coached by Wade Oehmichen.STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
