Experienced Lady Panthers ready for action

(Sentinel photo by Brian Schekirke) K-P's Amanda Dirksen completes a pass to the setter during preseason practice last week. [Click to enlarge]

Experience speaks in the favor of the Kingsley-Pierson volleyball squad this season, according to Coach Jon Mouw. "All [our seniors] played varsity last year," he said. "There's a lot of experience in that crew. Some of them will be [playing for their] fourth year."

That pack of five seniors is led up front by Briana Schaeuble, Amanda Dirksen and Ashley Ruba. "We have a couple of strong hitters," Mouw said. "Especially Briana - she averaged over four kills a game last year."

Schaeuble will start in the middle, with Dirksen on the left and Ruba on the right. Setting them up will be fellow senior Kelsey Krieg. The fifth senior on the Lady Panthers' squad is libero Dani Sudbeck.

(Sentinel photo by Brian Schekirke) K-P's Ashley Ruba focuses on getting her pass to her partner in a drill during preseason practice. [Click to enlarge]

Mouw expects this team to work well together on offense and produce some points. "I think we should be fairly strong in the offensive category," he said. "I think that's one of our stronger points."

In addition to these five seniors, Mouw will look to a handful of juniors as well as freshman Deandra Mahrt.

"[Deandra] is quite likely to see some varsity playing time," Mouw said. "And there are a couple of juniors that will break in for some playing time as well."

Of course, these things can change as the season progresses and Mouw recognizes that. "Some things are pretty set," he said. "And we'll wait and see on a couple others."

In addition to a strong offense led by a trio of senior hitters, Mouw expects his squad to show strength from behind the serving line.

"I expect to see our aces go up this year," he said. "I'm really looking for fewer errors from the serving box this year. As a team, we'll be a little more consistent this year."

And Mouw expects that consistency in the serving box to produce a domino-like effect to other areas. "Overall, that consistency will go to pretty much every category," Mouw said.

Looking to the Lady Panthers schedule, the Maple Valley Conference experienced a few changes since last year. The MVC combined with the Boyer Valley Conference to form the Western Valley Conference. The new conference will have a north and south division. A part of the north division, K-P's conference division features no new teams, but Whiting and West Monona move to the south division.

Mouw expects Galva-Holstein to be a challenging opponent for K-P again this season. However, Mouw also added, "There are a lot of teams in our conference that are just very solid."

"Any given night, if you don't show up and play, you can get beat," he said. "I'm not expecting too many easy nights. You have to show up and play every night, that's a given."

The Lady Panthers ended up in about the middle of the conference last season and finished just over .500 overall with a 15-14 record.

"Throughout the year, we usually see some pretty tough competition," Mouw said. "I'm expecting us to do better than last year with this group [we have] returning. Last year at times we struggled with consistency, but I'm really looking for us to improve this year."

K-P opens up their season at home next Tuesday, Sept. 2, hosting Alta at 6 p.m.