With a large number of returning players, Oxford High School’s varsity volleyball team is looking forward to a year of building upon their established talents.
Senior McKenzie Miller, returning libero and captain, is turning out to be one of this season’s strongest players, according to Head Coach Brian Kim. He says his attackers junior Sydney Richter and sophmore Catherine Dobies, as well as junior setter Madelyn Weiss will lead the team’s offensive efforts this season while Miller focuses on the defense.
Kim is confident his returners will perform well as the majority of them earned starting spots last season.
“We have a lot of returning starters on the team this year,” he said.
With so much returning senior and junior talent, Kim says he and the girls plan to build on the skills they’ve worked on in the past. He can tell the girls put in hard work during the off season, which helped them land a gold bracket placement in a Lake Orion tournament last week.
“We’re just looking to build on the program,” he said. “We improved throughout last season and, this season, it looks like the players put in a lot of time in the off season. So the team looks a lot stronger starting out this year.”
Since his team is off to a strong start fundamentally, Kim plans on building up the team’s offense to be more aggressive.
“We plan to run a faster offense,” he said. “We’ll have a new setter this year (Weiss), and she’s learning a new position this year, but so far she’s been doing a great job at leading our offense.”
After a few tournaments and scrimmages, the team plans on keeping up the competitive reputation they’ve built so far. The Wildcats will take the court next on Sept. 5 away against the Clarkston Wolves.