Loyal volleyball team bringing substantial experience to the court
By Valorie Brecht The Loyal Greyhounds volleyball team comes into this season with a group of experienced seniors who are hungry for a win and want to leave their mark on the conference in this, their final year.
“We have a high senior load this year, with six seniors, two juniors and the rest are sophomores,” said coach Jaedyn Pieper.
Only two team members graduated last year. Last year, the team finished 3-4 for fourth place in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference, and went 12-12 overall. They won their first playoff game versus Alma-Pepin before falling to Columbus Catholic in the second round. This year, they are looking to improve on that performance, with specific goals being to win the conference and host two playoff games in their home gym.
Another goal is to win at least one of their three tournaments this year, if not more. Loyal will host its first home tournament on Sept. 7, in what Pieper plans to make an annual event. The Greyhounds will travel to Chippewa Falls Sept. 14 for the tournament being hosted by McDonell. Finally, they will have a tournament in Abbotsford on Sept. 28.
As for how practices have looked different this season, “We’ve been focusing more on passing fundamentals and serving,” said Pieper. “We spent a good 45 minutes of each practice just doing passing drills. We also had the middle schoolers join us before their practice would start.”
This year, all the varsity team members are returners, with the exceptions of sophomores Annika Schley and Mallory Jakobi. Seniors Molly Zvolena and Olivia Nikolai will serve as outside hitters. Junior Addysen Wolf will be a middle hitter. Senior Taya Rakovec will play middle and the opposite side. Senior Autumn Zvolena is out on an injury, but is hoping to return to the floor within a couple of weeks. She was a strong hitter and blocker last year.
Junior Laila Prior will be the setter this year. She split her time last year between varsity and JV.
“She has some big shoes to fill from Danielle Strey, who graduated last year. However, she had some varsity playing time last year as our serving specialist. She also played club ball this year and participated in our MAC training (‘Movement, Athleticism and Champion’ summer conditioning program for female athletes). She will be our 5-1 setter, meaning we’ll have just the one setter. She’s a quiet leader but really came out of her shell when put in this group, as they will welcome anybody,” said Pieper.
The coach recognizes that the team will face some tough opponents this season, including Columbus Catholic, who went undefeated in the conference last year and had a 38-6 overall record; Colby, who went 6-1 in the conference; and Gilman, who was 4-3 in the conference. Still, she is looking forward to the challenge and hopeful her team can make some noise locally and, of course, leave it all out on the court.
“I would encourage the community to come out and support us,” she said. “I will say this is the best team I’ve coached out of my years coaching. I started when these girls were in eighth grade, so it’s been cool to see them develop over the years to now where they are as seniors.”
The girls’ first official game took place Tuesday, when they had their home quadrangular. Their next game will be next Tuesday, Sept. 3, at home versus Blair-Taylor. Pieper also encouraged people to mark Oct. 8 on their calendar, as that game will be Dig Pink, a fundraiser for cancer research. Community members are encouraged to wear pink and stop by the school early that night for a chili feed and basket raffles. It will also be homecoming week.
Jaedyn Pieper is assisted by JV coach Viki Pieper and C-team coach Lindsey Theis.
Members of the Loyal volleyball team are (front from left) Olivia Nikolai, Molly Zvolena, Hope Peroshek, Payten Wolf, Mallory Jakobi, (back) Addysen Wolf, Jordynn Corder, Taya Rakovec, Annika Schley, Autumn Zvolena and Laila Prior.
VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS
