Preparation Key for Cyclone Volleyball This Season

Preparation Key for Cyclone Volleyball This Season –

(8-19-26) – The end of last season didn’t go as expected for Cyclones volleyball.

After having a 14-13 record, Harlan Community would lose their final seven matches on the season, including a first round loss to Glenwood in regionals. Coach Amber Brown felt a difficult schedule and mental challenges created the perfect storm to end the year.

“I think part of it was our schedule. Got a little stronger towards the end, more conference matches, tougher tournaments. But I think we learned a lot about our mental toughness last year and playing at home was rough a little bit mentally.”

However, the lessons learned give Brown confidence in Year Two, despite losing five seniors.

“Looking into this year, we're really focusing on the mental side of our game and trying to, you know, run all sorts of possible rotations and things to prepare the girls for that ahead of time. Yeah, I think it was a rough end of the season, but we did learn a lot and you know, coming into Year Two. I'm going to take everything we learned from last year and hopefully put it into practice.”

Brown says she’ll continue with her two-setter system with senior Taylor Heese, who led the Cyclones in assists with 274 last season, and newcomer, junior Brilie Kenkel. Although there could be variations over the season, depending on the opponent, she feels the 6-2 will be their strongest lineup for her team.

“Brilie Kenkel, the junior, she's going to come in. She's working really hard at getting our tempo down, but her and Taylor have been working really well together thus far in our summer scrimmages, and they seem to be connecting with each other and both with all the hitters, so I think we're probably going to go with that.”

Brown is also replacing her libero another junior newcomer to the varsity team, Vailen Vaughn.

“Vailen Vaughan, a junior is just relentless on defense. She is quick and she is fearless and she's really embraced that role and taken on some more leadership as well and her communication has improved and I think she is just going to be a huge asset to us in that left back libero position and in her serve/receive.”

Aubree Wegner is back with the most kills amongst returning players with 120. Brown has been impressed with how Wegner has handled moving to outside hitter.

“We moved her from the middle to the outside probably a little bit way, halfway through the season last year, and she has just really grown on the outside, you have to pass and play defense and all the things, and she is just the most dynamic player I think I may have ever coached. Like she jumps out of the gym, she's quick, she's working really hard in her transition to really give herself a good angle on the ball so that she has all of her shots available.”

Brown says the mentality and attitude of her squad is already showing changes for the better.

“Honestly, there's been a really positive kind of shift in the culture in our gym these last few weeks and it is carried over to live play and I just hope that we can continue to see that.”

Harlan Community volleyball will begin their season with a scrimmage against AHSTW on Tuesday, followed by a quad at ADM on Thursday.

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