LYNNWOOD — Five new faces on this year’s Edmonds Community College volleyball team hope to lay the groundwork for success by forging components of cohesion, communication and progressive improvement.
“We’re rookie’d up. We’ve got two sophomores and the rest are freshmen,” coach Bill Kellogg said. “As long as I can keep them building throughout the season and we don’t plateau, we should be in the playoffs.”
“We’re really young so we need to build confidence in each other,” added team captain Nettie Witheridge. “Once we get all our plays running and play together as a team, we should do just fine.”
Kellogg, who’s been coaching at EdCC since 1998, raised concern over his new players transitioning from the high school to college level of play.
“I have to teach these kids how to run a faster offense. The faster the tempo, the more kills your going to get,” said Kellogg, who coached at Cedarcrest High School for 18 years prior to EdCC.
“We have a lot of people from different areas of Washington. We’ve got a lot of good, experienced people, but we’re coming into a new defensive and coaching (scheme),” captain Tierra Campbell said. “A lot of stuff has changed for them, and one thing that they have to work hard on is changing what they used to know in high school … and change the way we operate. But they’re working hard at doing that and adjusting to that too.”
As the only two returners from last year, Campbell who plays middle, and Witheridge, who plays opposite, will help this year’s team with the transition to college ball, Kellogg said.
Kellogg emphasized that this year’s success will rely on transitioning to a quicker game. A majority of this responsibility lies in the hands of setter Stephanie Hern.
“Our setter is a pretty talented kid out of Cedarcrest. She’s starting to pick up,” Kellogg said. “She runs the offense, so she’s having to learn that.”
“It’s a lot faster paced, but its a lot better too,” Hern said.
“She’s learning to set a quicker ball and keep it off the net,” Kellogg said. “If you set it tight, you’re blocked. In high school you might have one blocker, but now your going up against two or three.”
Along with the progress of Hern, two new outside hitters, Nichole Jensen and Serena McCleary, have shown promise, Kellogg said.
“The two outsides are young but they’re coming on strong,” he said. “Jensen has got some skills. Serena has worked hard. She plays with lots of heart.”
Although Kellogg said the offense is coming along, he added the defense still has a lot to learn.
“We have lots of unforced errors right now,” Kellogg said.
However, Kellogg said the defense isn’t without talented players. “Natanya Parsons is our libero. She’s the anchor of our defense. She’s a great passer.”
Some players began preparing for the season by playing during the summer months.
“We go down during the summer and play outdoors,” said Campbell, who added that playing at Green Lake and Alki Beach helped her vertical.
“She’s got good hops. She gets up there pretty good,” Kellogg said.
Along with the physiological benefits of playing during the offseason, Campbell said building team unity was another incentive.
“We’re coming together really well as a team. We bonded really well. We came together at the spring of last year,” Campbell said.
“(We’re) looking forward to the season. We hope to make playoffs like last year and go farther in NWAACC.”
“The big battle is between Shoreline, Bellevue and Whatcom,” Kellogg said. “They’re pretty loaded up. It’s going to be the same kind of battle this year.”
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