CENTERVILLE —
The Centerville Redettes return after sharing the conference title last season with a 4-1 conference record. It was the first time sine 1978 that the Redettes either shared the conference crown or won the title outright.
Centerville will need to replace four starters though if they expect to extend on their successes last season.
"We are going to have to replace four quality seniors that provided for a lot of success for our program," head coach Tom Hill said. "We will be asking a lot of our seniors that are going to be stepping into big roles this season. We are going to be missing our top two hitters from last year, putting more pressure on our returning players and our kids that have only seen limited varsity experience. Our experience is the biggest weakness we have going into this season here we are going to be asking a number of kids to step up to the speed and the production of a varsity player."
Makenna Pershy, Jessica Demry and Shelby Royer are the three returning starters.
Pershy is an outside hitter that recorded 181 kills and 434 attack attempts last season. She was second team all-conference last season and earned an honorable mention all-conference nod in her sophomore season.
Demry is a striker that earned 599 assists last season, averaging 6.81 per game. She was first team-all conference last season and was an honorable mention in 2010.
Royer will return as the team's libero, after recording 131 digs last season as a junior.
"A strength of ours coming into this season is the fact that we have a number of seniors on our varsity team that want to continue the success that we have built here at Centerville in the past few seasons," Hill said. "We won a share of the conference championship last year for the first time since 1978. It was a great accomplishment for our program and we have seniors that are motivated to make it happen again."
Junior Maddie Lange leads the list of returning letter winners from last season. Lange played back row in the team's starting rotation throughout the season. Other returning letter winners are Lauren Craver, Mallory Craver, Kiley Micetich, Sammi Cowan, Makenzie Richmond and Kaitlyn Moore.
Hill said Alyssa Barger, a freshman outside hitter, and Joslyn Henderson, a sophomore move in from Des Moines Valley, are promising newcomers to this year's team.
Last year, the conference finished in a three-way tie for the conference crown. Coach Hill expects an even closer finish this season.
"I expect this season to be an even closer race to the finish, if that is possible," Hill said. "I feel that each of the three teams that shared the championship last season lost some key individuals and will be looking to find some quality replacements to be able to achieve another championship.
"We expect that we should be able to be competitive once again in the conference, but with the number of kids that we need to replace from last year's team, we will need others to make a strong commitment to being focused and willing to put themselves on the line for the team,” Hill said.
Centerville will face a tougher travel schedule this season. They will be on the road 11 times during the regular season, hosting teams just four times.
2012 Volleyball Schedule
8/25 at Grinnell Tiger Invitational, 9 a.m.
8/28 vs Moulton-Udell, 5:30 p.m.
8/30 at Moravia, 5:30 p.m.
9/4 at Eddyville-Blakesburg, 5:30 p.m.
9/6 at Ottumwa, 6 p.m.
9/8 at Burlington-Notre Dame Tourney, 9 a.m.
9/11 at Davis County, 5 p.m.
9/15 at Ottumwa Tourney, 8:30 a.m.
9/18 vs Albia, 5:30 p.m.
9/25 at Chariton, 5:30 p.m.
10/1 vs Kirksville, 5 p.m.
10/6 at Oskaloosa Tourney, 8:30 p.m.
10/9 vs Clarke, 5:30 p.m.
10/16 at Pella (Newton/Pella Triangular), 6 p.m.
