Although the Lady Panther volleyball team has had only a handful of pre-season practice sessions, expectations for the 2021 season are already high as Coach Megan Bickel welcomes back a host of players who were key to Timber Lake’s success last year.
Timber Lake will open its schedule on Thursday, Feb. 26, by hosting Harding County on Family Night. The Lady Panthers compiled a 9-12 regular season mark last fall before upsetting the top-seeded Ranchers in the Region 5 tournament enroute to a berth in the SoDak 16 Tournament, where they lost in the first round to state-ranked Northwestern.
Among the returning letterwinners are senior Maci Maher, the club’s all-around stat leader last year, along with juniors Shay Kraft and Carlie Lawrence. Kraft led the Lady Panthers in kill spikes while Lawrence posted team-high numbers for service aces and assists.
They are joined by senior Rachel Toviah and juniors Abby Linderman and Kenna Webb, who all saw extensive action last season. Among the newcomers to the varsity squad will be freshman Jasmine Nash, who Bickel thinks is an up-and-coming player to watch.
“We’ve got a lot of young faces on our JV team which shows great growth potential for the program in the coming years,” she said. “Right now, we’re still evaluating players and moving them around to try and get the right fit, but they all bring some attribute to make us great.”
And while the line-up is young, it’s loaded with power and talent. Add some confidence to the mix and the Lady Panthers have huge potential to go far this season.
“If the girls come out right away knowing and believing in that potential, they will be unstoppable,” Bickel said, reciting the team’s goals for the season: confidence, unity and consistency.
She pegs Faith as one of the top contenders in the conference and region and expects her club to be in position to battle for the LMC Tournament title and the region crown.
“We want to keep up with Faith but we also want to make sure we’re setting ourselves up for when we have to play tough East River teams in the playoffs.”