DISTRICT NEWS & PR |
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL: Wethers becomes a top hitter for Kahoks
October 29, 2009
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Greg Uptain
Collinsville Herald
October 28, 2009 |
Collinsville will play at this week's Edwardsville Regional
If you enter a girls volleyball match that features Collinsville as one of the teams, you may wonder who to watch for on the Kahoks. By the time you leave, you will know exactly who to look forward to seeing again next time.
That's because Lauren Wethers has turned a lot of heads with her solid hitting this fall.
"I think my hitting is really good right now," the junior outside hitter said. "I'm learning a lot more, so I know what to do if the setter's farther out and I know what to do if the blockers are there. I'm learning to read a little more. We've been working on that."
At 5-foot-8, Wethers doesn't stand as tall as some of the big 6-foot-plus hitters that dot the area prep volleyball scene. But don't let her smaller size fool you or you'll get thwacked in the nose by one of the hard hits she puts down.
"Her contact point is really high, so she's learning that sometimes the best place is to cut the ball or push the ball to the outside versus just cranking it to the middle," Collinsville coach Tracy Plagemann said. "For her, the more she does that, the more complete player she's gonna become. With Lauren, she has all the athleticism in the world. She's really trying to work on becoming a smarter hitter. When she was younger, she would just get up and whack the ball as hard as she could. Now, she's starting to look and see holes and see openings."
As the season has progressed, Wethers has stepped to the forefront as the go-to hitter, making a living at the left side of the net.
"She's got a real quick arm and we look for her at big times," Plagemann said. "She's really athletic and quick, so it's nice when you have that option where you can run some plays. It's good when we can utilize her like that."
Serving is another area where Wethers can be a weapon for the purple and white.
"Defense and serving are my weaker points. They're not bad, but they could be worked on," she said. "My defense has come a long way, but I think I still need to work on it some."
Plagemann doesn't see much of a weakness in her standout's serving game.
"She has a nice, slow serve that has a lot of movement. As long as she keeps her tops up, she's really had a lot of success with it and we've been able to score a lot of points with that," the coach said. "That's another part of her game she's worked on. She's really trying to work on all the different facets of her game to make herself a more complete player."
With the regular season in the books, Wethers and the Kahoks turn their attention toward the postseason. Collinsville is the No. 2 seed at the IHSA Class 4A Edwardsville Regional and will take on third-seeded Alton at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Kahoks beat the Redbirds 2-1 in their Southwestern Conference meeting on Sept. 22.
"They're a pretty scrappy team. That's the one thing I remember," Plagemann said. "They didn't let a lot of balls fall and that can sometimes frustrate hitters. We just need to keep swinging away and doing those little things to keep putting that pressure on them."
A win in that match would send Collinsville to the regional title match at 3 p.m. Saturday against the winner of top-seeded Edwardsville and fourth-seeded Granite City. If the seeds hold true, the Kahoks would play the Tigers, a team they did not play well against in a 2-0 loss on Oct. 1.
"They're always good, always solid. And usually it's a pretty good rivalry game between us," Plagemann said. "I know we didn't give them too much of a fight earlier in the year and I'm hoping that the girls will come out at regionals and show the team that I've seen all year."
Wethers, for one, has confidence in her team.
"I know we can beat Alton and I'm pretty sure we can beat Edwardsville," she said. "We have lost to them, but we're a better team than we were then. I think we have a pretty good shot. I think we've come a really long way since the beginning of the season."
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