IHS volleyball season begins at home Thursday
August 22, 2018
The Ipswich High School volleyball season begins on August 23 in Ipswich, hosting Aberdeen Christian for an LRC match and the Lady Tigers' next appearance will be at a tourney in Milbank on August 25. They will next play a non-conference match in Groton on August 28.
"Pre-season practices have been going pretty well, albeit long," says IHS head coach Trent Osborne. "There are some growing pains as there are at the beginning of every year, but the girls have worked hard this summer in the gym and in the weight room and some have really improved. Replacing seniors is never fun, and replacing an all-conference setter (senior Kamryn Heinz) due to a career-ending injury is never something that you want to do. But we know what needs to be done and there is no turning back. Our schedule is packed with teams that played in the Class A and Class B Round of 16 matches and state tourneys last year, so we don't have any time to waste."
But teams sometimes regroup around a fallen leader and hopefully that will be true of the 2018 IHS Lady Tiger netters. "We have plenty of work to do, but have the capability to be a tough team to beat by the season's end," Osborne continued. "We are looking to use the beginning season's schedule as a building block to try to build some early positive momentum. We have some players that have really improved since last season and we will have to get them some court time to see what is the best position for them (and us). We started to play well at the end of last season and look forward to building off of that improvement. We are going to need to develop role players to compliment senior Abby Grabowska at the net and pick up setting duties. There are a number of girls that are going to have to grow up VERY quickly and other seniors Sydney Loken, Olivia Gohl and Ashlee Thorson are going to need to step in and take on some leadership responsibilities in order for us to be successful."
Having four juniors should help, as well, and they include, alphabetically, Kendra Osborne, Jessica Pullman, Alexa Rossman and Avery Sylte. The sophomores, and there are ten of them, include Hailey Bierman, Halie Feldman, Kate Geditz, Lindsay Grabowska, Halle Heinz, Tarynn Kleffman, Ashton Loken, Paige Mehlberg, Chesney Olivier and Bailey Pitz.
Tasia Rivera is a freshman hopeful.
Osborne is being assisted in coaching duties by Kayla Nilsson.
The Region 2B tournament is scheduled for October 29, 30 and November 1 with the Round of 16 matches set for November 6. The State B will be held in Sioux Falls on November 15-17.
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