How the Gilbert high school volleyball program started turning the corner in 2022

The Gilbert volleyball team is headed in the right direction.

After a rough 2021 season saw the Tigers go 6-28 and winless in the Raccoon River Conference, they managed to hit double-digit wins and post three conference victories in 2022. Gilbert went 10-16 overall and 3-5 in the conference to take a step toward getting back to being the top program it was two years ago when they reached the Class 4A state semifinals.

"We made some good growth after last season," said Gilbert coach Stacy Johnson. "Returning most of our lineup helped and the girls were much more comfortable and confident with each other."

Gilbert found more success thanks to a senior-dominated roster. The Tigers played nine seniors during the season, but also had four juniors step up and contribute.

That enabled them to take on a competitive schedule that featured three 5A schools and six other teams from Classes 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A that finished the season ranked.

"We played some tough competition at tournaments, getting early wins over big teams," Johnson said. "We also fell short on some of those good teams, but I think overall the confidence and teamwork was much improved."

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Outside of the RRC, Gilbert downed Newton in five sets (20-25, 25-14, 13-25, 25-16, 15-8) and Red Oak in three (14-21, 21-19, 15-8). The Tigers also swept Des Moines Roosevelt (21-14, 21-18), Woodward-Granger (21-18, 21-19), Roland-Story (25-23, 23-21), Marshalltown (25-22, 25-19, 25-11) and Chariton (21-11, 21-18).

In conference play, Gilbert defeated Caroll in four sets (20-25, 25-17, 25-14, 25-18), bested Ballard in five (26-28, 25-22, 25-10, 20-25, 15-11) and swept Winterset (25-23, 25-19, 25-22).

Gilbert also lost close 2-1 matches to Burlington-Notre Dame, Ames, North Polk, Atlantic and Adel-Desoto-Minburn during in-season tournaments.

"We beat Red Oak early in the season and for a couple of our players this was the first time beating them in their careers — we've fallen short with them in the past. Other highlights would be the Bondurant Skip Anderson tournament (where) we finished a close second in pool play behind ranked Burlington-Notre Dame, whom we lost to in three sets. We also beat Des Moines Roosevelt in pool play that day, which was another highlight."

For the season, Gilbert totaled 651 kills on 8.5% efficiency after only having 581 kills on 3.1% efficiency in 2021.

"Offense and hitting efficiency in particular has been a struggle the last couple of years for us," Johnson said. "We have not been able to stay consistent and allow for other teams to make the errors rather than ourselves. We will have to continue building our hitters up throughout the offseason in order to stay competitive in the Raccoon River Conference."

The Tigers totaled 1,351 digs and 137 blocks and they were strong serving the ball, connecting on 93.4% of their serves with 104 aces.

"Serving was probably our biggest strength," Johnson said. "In combination, I felt our defense held strong all season long. We got into some long rallies at times and were able to stop some big hitters with our block."

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First-team all-RRC libero Abby Greder was the heart and soul of the Gilbert lineup.

The only returning starter from the 2020 state tournament team, Greder finished her senior year with 398 digs. She also handed out 40 assists and served at a 93.7% clip with 15 aces.

Senior Juliann Lundvall gave Gilbert one of the most versatile setters in the RRC. She dished out 263 assists and also had 171 digs, 135 kills, 33 blocks and 12 aces on 98.6% serving.

Nicky Cory turned in a strong senior year at middle hitter for the Tigers. Cory led the team in kills with 167 on 20% efficiency and she also had 59 digs, 27 blocks and 25 aces.

More:How Gilbert's Nicky Cory went from a shy role player to an outgoing star on the volleyball court

Seniors Grace Barragy and Johnna Rotto finished with 75 and 72 kills, respectively. Barragy also had 83 digs and Rotto finished with a team-high 51 blocks.

Junior Olivia Blumhagen had 48 kills, Taylor Puck and Mya Hamer 39 apiece, junior Kylie Zeigler 28 and senior Ava Henningsen 23. Blumhagen added 33 digs, Puck 49 digs and 97.3% serving accuracy, Hamer 26 digs, Zeigler nine digs and Henningsen 14 digs.

Haley Loonan shared the setting duties with Lundvall during the season. Loonan recorded 264 assists and she also had 98 digs and 16 aces during her junior year.

Seniors Meredith Moody and Amelia Winfrey provided quality defensive support for Gilbert in the back row. Moody had 231 digs and 16 aces and Winfrey finished with 171 digs and 13 aces.

Next season Johnson will have the tough task of trying to replace such a large group of senior contributors. But she's confident younger players will step in to keep the program moving forward as the Tigers contend for a winning season in 2023.

"We return some good juniors and have a strong sophomore and freshman class," Johnson said. "There will be many positions open next year, making the challenge to compete even greater. The Raccoon River Conference will remain tough, but I feel we will find ourselves in the top half."

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: How the Gilbert volleyball program showed growth in 2022