PREP VOLLEYBALL PREVIEW: Kamiak’s dynamic duo
Published 12:01 am Sunday, September 4, 2011
The scoring combination of Kamiak Knights’ outside hitter Bryce Larson and setter Ally Bowles is one that opponents have grown to fear.
The two are going into their senior year at Kamiak and have high aspirations for the 2011 season.
But the off-court friendship between the two has
been going on since elementary school and the on-court combination since the seventh grade. They are so close they even sometimes finish each other’s sentences. As they tell it, their friendship off the court only helps their on-court performance.
Kamiak coach Natalie Bowie took over the job
when Larson and Bowles were both freshman and says coaching the two of them has been a pleasure. “This will be a tough year to say goodbye to when it is all said and done,” Bowie said.
But Bowie doesn’t have to say goodbye yet. There is still one more season to see this great scoring combination in action. Of course, it is not the combination of Larson and Bowles that scores all the points for the Knights, but it’s hard to ignore their chemistry.
“Maybe only a handful of assists (to Larson) are from anyone but Ally,” Bowie said. “You just have to watch them. It’s like a sixth sense they have with one another.”
Bowie is well aware of the friendship and even joked about the volleyball match that was made years ago.
“Back in the seventh grade is where sparks flew between Bryce and Ally — and a match was made,” Bowie said.
Larson and Bowles recently sat down with The Herald to tell us more about what makes up a potent scoring combination and their outlook on the 2011 season.
Question: In your opinion, what makes up a scoring combination in volleyball?
Larson: “I feel like it is absolutely everything. On a game point, you need a perfect pass, a perfect set. It doesn’t have to be the hardest hit in the world. That is what people don’t get. They’re like, ‘okay I am going to hit it as hard as I can,’ that’s not how it is. You need to hit it smart and you need to place it.”
Bowles: “And even if the pass isn’t good or the set isn’t good, it’s about making the person before you look good.”
Q: Aside from playing together as long you have, what makes such good chemistry between you?
AB: “We have been friends since elementary school.”
BL: “I know I can call her and she will just be there and she just listens. We just have a really good friendship.”
Q: And that helps you on the floor?
BL: “Yes. It lets us get along.”
Q: Has there ever been a time where you haven’t got along on the floor?
AB: “No.”
BL: “I don’t think so. If we are getting annoyed with each other we just kind of look away.”
AB: “Or if I , she doesn’t do this often, but if I see her getting down, I just tell her ‘Bryce…smile.'”
BL: “We just kind of feed off of each other. We can definitely see when the other one is kind of down, but we definitely bring each other back up. I don’t know many people who can bring me up like Ally does.”
Q: Do you recognize recognize that you are one of the better scoring combos in the league?
BL: “Hahahaha!”
AB: “We have played to together for a really long time, so we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”
BL: “We trust each other. I know if I pass the ball she is going to get there.”
AB: “And I know that if for some reason my set is way off, I’m like ‘okay, at least it’s to Bryce she is going to get it over the net and I will get it next time.”
BL: “We kind of have like, a mental thing going. We just know where each other are.”
Q: The connection that is there between you two, is it a little different than with everybody else, based on the years of playing together?
BL: “During tough moments Bowie will just be like, ‘Bryce get it to Ally, Ally get it to Bryce,’ and that’s it. We just have kind of taken it on ourselves that sometimes we just need to get it done.”
AB: “And it’s not negative toward the other people at all…”
BL: “It’s just that we have that little mental thing, we just know.”
Q: What advantages do you have over other setter/hitter combos?
AB: “I think we have a lot more plays that we run.”
BL: “We do. In my club season I have been an outside hitter and a right-side hitter, so I can run behind her sets pretty well and I can run in front of her.”
AB: “She does really good back row.”
BL: “She will set me and then she will tell me where to go. That obviously helps me a lot. Having a setter that can set the ball and then tell you where to go is really helpful.”
AB: “And even on Bryce’s part, she will see something on the other side of the court that I won’t see and she will say, ‘set me here.'”
Q: Bryce, what is the best part about playing with Ally?
BL: “I just like her presence. I like just looking at her and just seeing her smile and just being with her all the time. It’s like a bonus just having her there with me — I get to hang out with her more. Like we always talk about, it wouldn’t be the same if one of us wasn’t on the team. It would be fun, but it wouldn’t be the same.”
Q: Ally, what is the best part about playing with Bryce?
AB: “Bryce is just an exciting person. It’s the same thing with me, just her presence. Every time I see her she is just always smiling and it just puts a smile on my face. I’m usually a really happy person or I don’t really express my emotions if I’m down. So if I have had a bad day, even if I am not showing it, I feel like Bryce can tell. And she always cheers me up. And she is just great.”
BL: “Awe, thanks man!”
Q: It seems like the most important part of all of this doesn’t have anything to do with volleyball?
BL: “Nope. It’s our connection off the court.”
AB: “Even on the court we have the friendship and we joke around. I mean, we are serious, but we still like joke around with each other.”
BL: “We like to have fun. But, I would say the connection comes from outside of volleyball.”
Q: Do you have a sense of what other teams think you are capable of this year?
AB: “They always have us in the back of their minds, but I don’t think we are ever….”
BL: “A huge target. Just because they look at us and go their tallest person is a setter (Bowles, who stands 6-0), what are they gonna do? They look as us and they go it should be an interesting match, but then we always show them that we really don’t give up.”
Q: What other schools in the league should you watch out for this year?
BL: “Jackson! They (Jackson — the defending state champions) only lost two of their starters. Two of their outsides (hitters) just went to Brazil with me actually (Emmy Allen and Miah Diirell) and they are good.”
AB: “They are very good.”
Q: Is that one of the goals, to knock off Jackson this year?
BL: “Yes. We play them the 10th (of October) and the 18th (of October) and I am ready to just go at them.”
AB: “It’s always one of our team goals.”
BL: “It’s the top goal.”
AB: “And then win state.”
Q: What are your expectations this year?
AB: “I think as a team we are not completely aware of what is going to happen. But we are expecting to be better. I think we will do better than we did last year, because we have some strong players.”
BL: “I definitely feel like we don’t always have the strongest team, but we have the heart and our Coach Bowie definitely puts it in us. She makes it known at the beginning of the year you are going to be not obviously as tall and maybe not as fast as the other teams, but you’re going to have that heart and that is what has always brought us to the top every year.”
Q: This being your senior year, how do you envision the storybook ending?
BL: “Winning state…hahahaha. I think just definitely going as far as we can, it doesn’t even have to be winning state. Just going as far as we can and knowing we put our all into each other and still be friends after.”
AB: “Just pushing each other to get even better, and pushing our team to get even better.”
