After rattling off 19 wins to just eleven losses in 2021, the Park Hill South volleyball team is looking to improve in 2022.
Park Hill South has some juniors who will be key contributors this fall, including Emma Kimbrel.
The Lady Panthers have four seniors this season who have been stepping up as leaders in Isabel Day, Tatum Kells, Mia Personelli and Camryn Ludtke. Park Hill South will also rely on juniors Emma Kimbrel, Phina Meyer and Peyton Liming.
“All four of them have stepped up as leaders, they have led since my first day last year and they have carried that same energy and leadership,” Park Hill South head volleyball coach Jackie Rathke said. “All four of them bring a different type of leadership, so it’s fun and exciting to see that because I feel like every underclassman has their type of senior leader that they can turn to.”
Park Hill South has some underclassmen stepping up with Liming and freshman Vada Brattin working for that right side spot and freshman Sydni Lafsciano, who has taken over the outside spot. The Lady Panthers are bringing back both of their setters: Ludtke and Kimbrel.
“We just want to continue building that culture and grit. We saw that the work in the summer pays off in the fall season, so we are going to continue to push through and work on the results that we put in,” Rathke said.
Caroline Wengler took last year off but is coming back for her junior season and hasn’t missed a beat in the middle. Park Hill South has Meyer in the back returning with Day on the outside.
“We have a new conference, so it’ll be competitive, but we just want to go into every match and learn from it. If we win, fantastic we can run with that and if we are competitive and things don’t fall our way, then we will to back to the writing board and see what we need to fix,” Rathke said.
Sophomore Lauren Smith, who saw a bit of time towards the end of last season, has stepped up in the back as well. The Lady Panthers will have a good group of underclassmen.
“We are young, we have a lot of freshmen and a lot of sophomores, so we need to remain competitive and remaining relaxed but keeping that hunger to stay competitive and getting those wins I think will put us at even or even better than we were last year,” Rathke said.