HS Volleyball Preview by Alan Brake

LADY WILDCATS VOLLEYBALL SEASON STARTS AUGUST 27

The Montgomery County R-2 Lady Wildcats’ Volleyball teams open the 2012 season this Monday, August 27, with a home match against Warrenton.  The Jr. Varsity match will be first, at 6:00 p.m., and will be followed by the Varsity match. 

Next week the Lady Wildcats will have two road matches, as they play at Bowling Green on Tuesday, September 4, in an East Missouri (EMO) Conference match (JV match is first, at 5:30 p.m.).  Then on Thursday, September 6, they will play at New Haven in a non-conference match (JV match first, at 6:00 p.m.).

The R-2 Volleyball Head Coach is Stephanie Finke, who is in her second year as the Head Coach.  Her assistant coach is Megan Hollenbeck, who is in her fourth year in this position.

The Lady Wildcat Varsity squad will include the following players:  Senior – Justice Kobusch; Juniors – Gabby Ball, Emily Johnson, Jessie Paddon, Caroline Shaw, Kiersten Sublette, Sophie Teeter and Foreign Exchange student Marianna Marinho; Sophomores – Anna Ash, Amy Jordan, Sierra Kolan and Tori Van Doren; and Freshman – Victoria Weitkamp.

The Jr. Varsity team includes the following players:  Junior – Sammie Korte; Sophomores – Christina Ferguson, Lauren Hill, Kayla Knipfel, Paige Saak, Heaven Vaughn and Foreign Exchange student Lea Hartmann; and Freshmen Allison McGarvey, Karlie Schmidt, and Carli Shaw.

Coach Finke has 5 returning players from the 2011 team, who either started or saw significant playing time last season (Kobusch, Teeter, Van Doren, Ash and Kolan).  The hope and expectations for this season are that with this experience the Lady Wildcats will win more matches than in 2011, in which the very young and inexperienced team won only 1 match.

Coach Finke had the following comments concerning the 2012 season:  “We are still a somewhat inexperienced team at the Varsity level, as 9 of our players have not played at the Varsity level.  However, we hope to build on the fundamentals we learned last year on both the Varsity and Jr. Varsity teams and have a successful 2012 season.”

The players and coaches hope you will come and support them, and cheer them to victory.  Best wishes to the Lady Wildcats for a successful 2012 season.