Head volleyball coach Kristina Sloan — in just her second year at the helm — has a tough challenge with her young team this year after she lost several key players from last year’s powerful squad.
Gone are Alexa Hanowski, Kallie Jergens, Samantha Angell, Kalley Anderson and McKenzie Swanson.
This year, Sloan will be looking to Daisy Kent, Brynn Barthel, Carly Baumgartner, Hope Amundson, Brinley Zoller and others to unify, perfect skills, learn new positions and communicate at the highest level to stay competitive in a tough league.
“Our biggest goal this year is learning to run a quicker offense,” Sloan says. “The girls are on board with it, but with that comes a lot of changes they weren’t used to doing in the past. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Sloan has nearly 60 girls try out for the five levels of teams in Becker. She has decided to keep 13 girls on her varsity team.
“I have a lot of seniors this year,” she says of the nine 12th-graders.
Team captains for Sloan are Brynn Barthel and Daisy Kent.
Those two players — along with Amundson and Baumgartner — are what Sloan calls her key players.
“Brynn Barthel, coming off an injury is ready to get all the kills she missed last year,” said the head coach. “Her hitting is spot on and she will probably be our top hitter on the team.”
Sloan is also appreciative of the energy other players are bringing to the court.
“Hope Amundson, being an outside hitter this year, she has this ability to hit around the blockers and the power that comes from her will,” said Sloan. “She will also be one of my top hitters.”
Baumgartner has some big shoes to fill as she is taking over Hanowski’s role as Libero this year.
“She is quick in the back court and great at reading the hitters,” said Sloan of Baumgartner.
Sloan has been taking her girls through standard warm-ups at practices so far this year but at times the girls get antsy and say, “Coach this is so boring”, Sloan says.
“But I focus on motions that will be stressed and followed through onto the court,” she says. “We tend to do a lot of passing and serve receives (at practice). If you can’t pass, you certainly can’t do much else.”
Sloan has help from JV coaches Greg Lynch and Racquel Barthel as well as new ninth grade coach, Brianna McGinty.
“The most enjoyable part (of coaching) is being with these girls and seeing them grow as a team,” Sloan said. “As a former player, I see their ups and their downs and I try and help them learn from both.”
Sloan says this year, she and her coaching staff stress to the players how they don’t have to be best friends, but you need to be friendly towards each other.
“I’d say the hardest part of coaching is putting everyone on a team after three days of tryouts,” she says. “The second hardest thing is getting them to talk on the court. They are great at talking off the court, but it’s all a work in progress.”
Sloan’s goal — as it is every year — is to take first place in the Granite Ridge Conference.
“Cathedral and Albany will be two very competitive matches for us this year,” she said. “They both run a very quick offense and are just strong all around.”
Playoffs will be hard, Sloan says.
“Our section is also pretty tough and we need to come ready to compete and play smarter not harder,” she says.
Becker’s first four games of their season will be a test. They face Rogers, Big Lake, Monticello and Mora, but Sloan expects nothing but great efforts from her squad.
The varsity volleyball team consist of Carly Baumgartner, Brinley Zoller, Daisy Kent, Hope Amundson, Amanda Kolbinger, Leah Andersen, Megan Hoppe, Jessica Gruber, Payton Anderson, Samantha May, Sarah Garding, Brynn Barthel and Tina Martell.
Schedule:
Aug. 30 vs. Rogers;
Sept. 1 vs. Big Lake;
Sept. 6 @ Monticello;
Sept. 10 vs. PACT;
Sept. 13 vs. Zimmerman;
Sept. 15 vs. Milaca;
Sept. 27 @ Zimmerman;
Sept. 29 @ Albany;
Sept. 27 @ Cathedral;
Oct. 4 vs. Little Falls;
Oct. 18 vs. Foley
