MLC looks for growth in sophomore class for success
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NEW ULM -- While young, the Martin Luther College volleyball team brings some solid experience this season.
The Knights have two returning setters to lead the offense this year, with senior Ella Walz and sophomore Kourtney Zech both looking to set up their hitters for success.
"They both ran our setting system last year and they're both coming back," MLC head coach Emma Holtzhueter said. "That's helpful for some consistency."
Also returning this year is senior libero Anna Kieselhorst to run the defense.
"This will be her third year as libero," Holtzhueter said. "So again, helpful for some consistency. And then we've got [junior] Hannah Rodmyer, who's a returning middle [hitter] and we've got two more sophomores, Greta Nolte and Kiara Humann, who are both returners that are going to be on the court a good amount. We actually have a fair amount of returners back from last year."
The Knights rostered 11 freshmen last season, posting a 4-21 overall record with a very young team. MLC added four more freshmen to the roster this year, meaning the team retains its youth, but that extra year of experience for the sophomore class will be important for this season's success.
"I think having experience is big," Holtzhueter said. "Everybody was so new [last year], so much of the team was new to college volleyball. Just having all the people coming back with experience, legitimate game experience, is going to be really helpful."
Among the new freshmen class, Holtzhueter expects two of them to contribute right away.
"We have another middle, Hannah Rimpel … who I think will be big in the middle," Holtzhueter said. "And then Kenzie Loberger is the other freshman who is great in the front row, great in the back row, so she's definitely going to have an impact."
Holtzhueter said that, while she expects the team to have grown from last year, the roster is still young and will have to work to continue to develop throughout the year.
"With so much youth last year, we're still young," Holtzhueter said. "We still have a lot of freshmen and sophomores. But I think we're actually looking to not just adjust to college volleyball, now we're looking to actually push and really pursue matches to win. We're always pursing a win, but having experience and making use of that experience is a big thing this year."
Along with that, MLC is going to look to teamwork to win matches this year.
"We have really good chemistry this year," Holtzhueter said. "I think our ability to communicate and adjust is going to be really strong. And then our infusion of some freshmen that can make an impact, I think those things are going to work really well together."
Throughout the season, Holtzhueter is looking to push what the team to accomplish.
"Really trying to step up to the next level and really push not just working together but how we speed everything up, how do we add more variety to what we are doing," Holtzhueter said. "I think we're always looking to improve in blocking -- we tend to be undersized compared to our opponents -- so just really making sure we're putting up a good defensive block consistently is going to be a big push."
Holtzhueter expects the University of Northwestern -- a perennial contender in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference -- to be the team to beat once again in the conference this year, while the University of Wisconsin – Superior and the University of Minnesota – Morris are also teams to look out for, with Bethany Lutheran College making a push as well.
The Knights earned its first win of the season this past weekend with a 25-21, 25-21, 25-14 sweep of Rockford at a Triangular at Buena Vista, but sit at 1-4 record overall after dealing with some injuries early this season. MLC will play a quadrangular at Morris this upcoming weekend, starting with its first conference game of the year against Morris on Friday at 3 p.m.