WARNER – The fact that Warner is back in the State B Tournament volleyball field should come as no surprise, however, the way the Monarchs accomplished that feat is noteworthy.
Warner has just four seniors on this year’s squad and needed to defeat Hitchcock-Tulare and Colman-Egan, two members of last year’s state tourney, to get there.
“We just have a good group of young kids,” said Warner coach Kari Jung, who last week won her 800th career match.
She said the freshman class is one to keep an eye on.
“We’re pretty excited about that class coming through, yet,” Jung said. “They really push each other.”
Jung said the players are the ones who push themselves to get better and make sure they can get back to the state tourney.
“We’ve been fortunate that the kids really love to play,” Jung said. “They spend a lot of time out of season. … I think they put the expectation on themselves. … I think they put the onus on themselves to get there.”
Jung knew the challenge heading into the season with so many young players, but they have risen to the occasion.
“This year they surprised us a little bit. We knew we had a lot of young kids that would be on the court,” Jung said. “The level that they’ve been able to play, because there’s some rotations that we have no senior out there.”
Not that the seniors don’t have key roles. Far from it. MaKenna Leidholt and Raegan Wood are valuable starters, while the other two seniors bring energy off the bench and have been mentors for the younger girls.
“They have just been incredible leaders in practice and around school,” Jung said.
The Monarchs, 31-6 on the season, are the third seed and will face Harding County in the final opening-round match on Thursday. Jung said the Ranchers are similiar to her team.
“They also do not have seniors on the court. … They start sophomores and juniors,” Jung said.
She said Harding County can play defense and features an efficient offense
“They definitely can pick up a lot of balls. … We’re going to have to be ready to hit some corners,” Jung said.
Meanwhile, the Ranchers do not have over-powering hitters, but yet know how to find open spots on the floor.
“(Their hitters are) not as strong as the last two opponents we had,” Jung said, “but they’re good at placing the ball.”
Of course, not many teams can hit the ball like Hitchcock-Tulare and Colman-Egan. Jung thinks facing those two foes in the postseason will help her team heading into the state tourney.
“Looking back now, that’s probably the best thing we had to do to help us prepare,” Jung said, “because at state it’s going to be whoever is on for that day.”
The Monarchs, who have had played in the last five state championship matches, understand what it’s like having a target on their back, but Jung said that will be different this time around.
“I kind of like going in where we’re at,” Jung said. “We’re the underdog there on our side, so I think that will help us down the stretch.”
Jung said there are a couple of keys for her team to have success in this week’s state tournament.
“I think we need to be able to serve and serve receive. … We are way better when we’re in system and we have can have a little bit faster attack,” Jung said. “When we’re out of system we give too many easy balls and then we have to play defense, much harder defense.”
One of the traits of this year’s Warner squad is that it features balance and depth. The Monarchs have multiple hitters who can do damage from a variety of angles.
“That’s part of the reason why we run a 6-2, is because we have so many talented hitters, and if one’s not one, hopefully the other ones are,” Jung said. “So we can mix it up a little more and it doesn’t put so much pressure on one player to do everything.”
Of course, regardless of the names or the year, the one staple of every Warner squad is playing air-tight defense and keeping balls from touching the floor.
“Even if you have an off night on offense, you can still play solid defense. … We feel that defense really keeps us in matches when we’re outsized at the net,” Jung said, “and so we kind of focus on that a little more.”
