FALL PREVIEW: Park Hill Volleyball

Three years ago when Park Hill volleyball coach Lindsey Hood took over the program she was working with a young and inexperienced group of freshmen and sophomores. In 2012 the Trojans are hoping those years of development since will finally start to pay off on the court. Coming off a 14-17 season and second place finish in conference, this year will serve as both an opportunity and challenge as conference realignment provides Park Hill will two of the city's top programs as competition in Lee's Summit West and Park Hill South.

Three-year letter winner Lindsey Grace and Davon Thomas return as a seniors to lead the Trojans. Grace led the team in blocks, assists, and kills last season and has already verbally committed to play at Southeastern Louisiana University next year. In a squad heavy with juniors, Angelica Pasek, Lyndi Plattner, and Kelsey Bearce will start with Stephanie Lane, Rylee Stoulil, and Taylor Baehr being a part of the rotation off the bench. Katie Reichert and Olivia Nowakowski are slated to start and contribute as sophomores.

Park Hill won't be a team that features a lot of offensive size, but they hope to counter it with their defense and execution.

"Offensively, we don’t have the big guns that some teams have, but defensively we have the ball control and movement we’ve been working on. We’re getting to balls we didn’t use to in the past," Hood said. "We’re going to have to out-work people since we’re outsized so we have to be smarter and develop our volleyball IQ."

One thing Hood says is different now compared to previous years is the maturity her players have developed and grown into as they become more experienced players, meaning there is more potential to build onto than just the basics. Their defensive blocking scheme is where they hope to see this in action.

"When we introduce new skills, they’re getting it a lot quicker and we’ve got multiple people stepping up to be leaders," Hood said. "We’re working on a new blocking scheme, so if that comes along our defense will come right with it. We may struggle at first, but hopefully by the end of the season we’ll be perfecting it to put it together on the court."

One thing Hood hopes her team will be able to do this year is have fun, which was harder to do as underclassmen who play volleyball year-round and put a significant amount of pressure on themselves to perform.

"Many times I have to remind them they do not need to be harder on themselves than I am," Hood said. "They have the “want” to win, now we are really focusing on the “how” to win."

Park Hill will get a good grasp of where they are in the early season when they compete in the Winnetonka Tournament in early September before going into the start of their conference schedule.