Yearbook Volleyball Recap

The Ichabod Volleyball team had a fantastic season. In fact, they made it all the way to the MIAA Championship. Unfortunately, they fell to the University of Nebraska at Kearney in the title match. Their season up to that point was one for the ages, though. For the season overall, they went 28-6. At home, they won all fifteen games they played there. Within the conference, the Ichabods won sixteen games and only lost two games. Their season started out hot, with victory coming in their first four games. September would finish out with some wins and some losses, with more of the former. Then, Washburn would go on to only lose once for the rest of the season, until the championship anyway. Overall, the volleyball team had a great season that unfortunately fell just one game short. Somehow, they did not make the NCAA Torunament this season, despite being the 11th-ranked team in the nation.

This season was a big year for three seniors putting their names in the history books. Alyssa Carney became fourth all time in digs, with 1,784. Sarah Victory became fourth in blocks with 466 and third in attack percentage with a figure of .354. Leanna Willer etched her name on quite a few pages of the record book. She became fifth in points per set, at 4.07 points per set. She became third in total points and kills per set, with 1,870.5 points and 3.62 kills per set, respectively. In kills, her 1,666 puts her at second all-time. And finally, she set the all-time mark in attack attempts, with a whopping 4,980 attempts in her career at Washburn.

Coach Herron’s thoughts on the season reflect his disappointment with the NCAA tournament selection process, but he also finds joy in the positive aspects of the year. “It was a great season,” said Herron. “Anytime you finish in the top 15 in the country, and you have three All-Americans, two academic All-Americans 17 out of your 18 players have a 3.0 GPA or higher, you gotta feel good about it. The thing I’m disappointed about is that we didn’t go to the NCAA tournament. Because the Division II process in which teams are chosen is so vastly flawed, you had five teams ranked top 25 in the country not go to the NCAA tournament. You’re supposed to have the top 64 teams in it. So at the time, we’re ranked 11th and we don’t go to the tournament, which is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Other than that, the year was amazing, we had great kids, unbelievable people. I enjoyed all of it, nothing but positive things except for [missing the NCAA tournament].”