The pieces are there for the Aberdeen Central volleyball team, now it’s just a matter of fitting them all together.
The Golden Eagles feature a blend of veterans and newcomers this season.
“The pieces are not in place, yet,” said Central coach Jackie Bindenagel, “but that varsity corps is fun right now.”
Unlike last year when Central was forced to play a lot of inexperienced players due to graduation, this year’s squad has proven players across the court.
“Last year it was a crew of rookies and we knew we needed to gain experience and just keep getting better all the time,” Bindenagel said. “Now this year the bar is higher. Not that it was low last year, but there are different goals in mind.”
The Eagles plan on featuring more of a balanced attack along the front this fall. Grace Kuch will once again be a strong hitter, but will have a strong supporting cast.
“We feel like we have a really balanced team right now. Last year I felt like we were pretty one dimensional. We had to rely on Grace Kuch and our outsides a ton,” Bindenagel said. “Our middles are really playing well right now and we’ve got a couple of right sides swinging really well, so we’re hoping we can be kind of back to that balanced attack that we’ve had before.”
Taryn Nieman and Madi Struble will be in the middle, while outside hitters include Kuch, Leah Gough, Madi Aldridge, and Ashley Wangler.
The backrow will be anchored by senior leaders Sydney Evans and Anna Malchow, along with junior Sawyer Bahr.
Key newcomers include freshman Emma Dohrer and eighth-grader Lauryn Burckhard.
Put it all together, and Central, which opens the season by hosting Brookings on Tuesday night, should have a potent blend to put on the floor this season.
“We’ve got a really nice crew coming back. A lot of these kids got some experience as sophomores and now they’re coming in as juniors playing well,” Bindenagel said. “Our seniors are doing a fantastic job as well. We’ve got some young kids to add into the mix.”
Bindenagel said the players have put in the time during the off-season and there is plenty of excitement heading into the year.
“We had probably one of our better summers ever. I think we averaged 50 kids at every open gym,” she said. “We have middle schoolers in that mix, but our kids were present, they went to some nice camps, they worked really hard. We’re just excited for what this season looks like.”
As is the case every season, the Eagles would like to finish in the the top three of the Eastern South Dakota Conference. And then there is that matter of getting back to the state tournament, something that eluded the squad last season.
“We really, really want to get back to that tournament. That’s always the goal,” Bindenagel said. “You don’t want to focus on it the whole time, but you can focus on it by thinking about every single match, because that really seeds you for it.”
