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Being Upfront: With defense, passing set, West needs big contributions from hitters in 2012
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
These are strange times for Plano West volleyball.
The Lady Wolves failed to win a playoff match for the first time during head coach Brittany Bridge's tenure, which is entering its ninth season, in 2010 and followed up by missing the postseason in 2011 after losing to Plano East in the finals of a three-team playoff.
Those two seasons have left West, the only program in Plano ISD history to advance to the UIL State Volleyball Tournament (2007), in a different spot in 2012.
Peters (verbally committed to TCU) isn't just throwing around the typical preseason hype either. She is one of four players, along with seniors Abigail Curry (North Carolina), Katie Stebbins (Colgate) and Brooke Coleman (Ohio), set to continue playing at the next level. The Lady Wolves also have eight returners from last year with seniors Julia DeVinney, Paige McKiddy, junior Morgan MacGilvary and sophomore Camryn Vecera joining the aforementioned college commits.
"I don't think we are going to be right there from the get go," Bridge said. "But this group has a lot of fight, they all like each other and they work really hard, so there is the opportunity to really go places."
Those who saw the West backcourt last season may experience déjà vu in 2012.
"Defensively and in terms of setting up our offense, we return everyone," Bridge said.
The offense will run mainly through Coleman and Curry, the latter of which was the District 8-5A Setter of the Year last season, though junior Alyssa Kool has gotten plenty of reps in practice as well.
"Abby and Brooke both bring different things to the table for us," Bridge said, "but they both have excellent ball control and court awareness."
Getting the ball to the hitters will be Peters and Vecera, though freshman Ania Mlynarczyk, who was described by Bridge as "super athletic," is turning heads early on as well.
"We have some of the best defensive players and setters in the state," Stebbins said.
"I think the defense has been doing really well and we've been getting good setting so far," Peters added. "So as long as we don't let up, I think we should really set up the hitters well and we've got a group up front that has a lot of potential."
That being said, West's front line is still largely unproven.
"I think that is completely fair to say," Stebbins said. "We have so much potential and a lot of drive, but you can't be sure where that is going to take you until you actually get going."
West struggled with hitting consistency last season and has made some adjustments.
"We have been working a lot on foot speed," Bridge said. "We need our (front line) girls to be able to transition and attack in the same play, because that is something we were not good at last year."
West will be without Laura Jones (who graduated) and Sarah Bennett (who transferred to Bishop Lynch) this season, but numbers shouldn't be a concern.
Stebbins, who has played middle at the varsity and club levels in the past, is shifting to the outside. She will be joined there by MacGilvary and sophomore Maddie McKiddy, who Bridge noted as someone with, "a lot of potential that has really been improving her swing and coming into her own." In the middle will be McKiddy's older sister Paige as well as DeVinney and junior Kelly Bennett.
"We've got girls up front that we think can be very good," Bridge said. "But a lot of them are new or moving into new roles, so right now the focus is learning how to feed off each other and connect with the setters."
West will have a little more time to do that this season.
A shift from 8-5A to the six-team 10-5A (West, East, Plano Senior, Allen, McKinney Boyd, McKinney) means an elongated non-district run following tournaments in Duncanville, Allen and Pearland. The Lady Wolves, who are on the road at 6 p.m. today against Lovejoy (ranked No. 1 in Class 4A) before playing in the Duncanville Tournament of Champions Friday and Saturday, open district Sept. 21 against Boyd. The Lady Broncos advanced to the Class 5A State Finals last season and bring much of that squad back in 2012.
"It's a new district," Stebbins said, "and it feels like a new start for us."
A new start West hopes leads the team to an old destination.
"It was heartbreaking not to make the playoffs last year," Peters said. "So that is definitely a motivation for us this season and we are looking for a big improvement."
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