The Aberdeen Central volleyball team heads into the coming season with an extra bit of motivation.
After piecing together a 15-win season last year, the Golden Eagles fell in the SoDak 16, one victory short of qualifying for their third straight Class AA State Tournament apperance.
“We always want to get back to that tournament,” said Central coach Jackie Bindenagel. “We had some really nice wins last season and then fell just short in that playoff game.”
The Golden Eagles will be led by four seniors: Kyley Wirebaugh, Karlie Nieman, Lauryn Burckhard, and Alivia Miller.
This will mark the fifth year on varsity for Burckhard and fourth year for Miller.
“They’ve all seen varsity time. … Just a real solid crew,” Bindenagel said of the foursome. “We’re looking for some leadership out of them, too, and so far they’ve set the tone early on in the season for that.”
Central has a large amount of juniors on the team this fall.
“We have a huge junior class. We have 11 juniors,” Bindenagel said. “They’re all very good volleyball players.”
The group is led by Kamdyn Borge and Cami Albrecht, who saw major minutes a year ago. Other key juniors include Kendyl Fisher, Kalli Huff, and Julie Malsam.
“It’s a pretty special group,” Bindenagel said.
The Golden Eagles will once again continue to be aggressive from behind the service line in order to help get opponents out of system.
Bindenagel said the focus has been on the serve-pass game.
“We’ve been spent a ton of time serving and passing, because if we can’t do that very well, then we’ll struggle to do anything else,” Bindenagel said. “So that’s our focus right now, and then as the season evolves, we just hope to keep leveling up with our offense.”
Central starts out the season with three matches in four days next week.
Bindenagel said the aim is to get better each week with the end goal of reaching the state tournament.
“We want to get into that state tournament. Sioux Falls, they have so many great teams down there, so anytime we can beat some Sioux Falls schools, that’s a fun thing and we did that last year,” Bindenagel said. “We beat a couple of those schools, so that’s something we look at, and just week by week, match by match, how do we get better?”
Central will play at O’Gorman on Tuesday, before hosting Rapid City Stevens and Rapid City Central at Golden Eagles Arena on Thursday and Friday.
“It’s nice to start on the road. I like a road trip to start us off, because everybody is just so ready to play, they don’t care where it’s at,” Bindenagel said, “and then we can settle in at home for two matches against some Rapid City schools that we know are always solid. So it will just give us some real good experience right away to make adjustments if we need to.”
Bindenagel, now in her eighth season at the helm of the program, likes what she has seen so far in practice with the current mix of players on the squad.
“This group already seems really cohesive, which is fun,” Bindenagel said. “I think that’s probably the biggest piece of the puzzle, regardless of who is on the court, just playing well together, not afraid to make mistakes, taking chances, and then just having the confidence and the skills that they build.”
Central possesses athletes who have experienced success in other sports such as basketball and golf.
“These kids do have a lot of experience on a big stage with other sports, and that will only help them and help this team,” Bindenagel said.
Add it all up, throw in some motivation to get back to the state tourney, and it has the makings of an exciting season.
“I’ve been waiting for the start of the season for a long time,” Bindenagel said. “I’m thankful it’s here.”
