Even after reaching the Elite Eight last season, the Wayne State College volleyball team is striving for better results in 2024.
Their 2023 season was full of massive expectations, and the season did not disappoint. WSC won their first regional title since 2015 and earned it over the Central Region’s powerhouse program in Concordia-St. Paul. Now, entering 2024, this Wildcat program not only has aims to get back to the Elite Eight, but hopes a National Championship is well within reach.
Starting with the attacking lines, WSC returns a bunch of outside hitters from last season. However, arguably the most important attacker Kelsie Cada has graduated. Her running mate and American Volleyball Coaches’ Association first team All-American selection Taya Beller returns for her final season of eligibility. She averaged 3.53 kills per set and hit a wildly impressive .381 last season.
Maggie Brahmer, also collecting first team AVCA All-American honors, returns for her senior season. She averaged 3.37 kills per set with an even more impressive .401 attack percentage. Sophomore Channatee Robles was a young star for the Wildcats last season, averaging 2.11 kills per set, hitting .213, and she is looking to step into a bigger role and improve those numbers from last season.
Taylor Bunjer and Laney Kathol will also see bigger roles this year, and new to the WSC program is a transfer from Southwest Minnesota State, Brooklyn Kusler. She averaged 2.3 kills per set while hitting .245, and she also led the Mustangs in service aces with 35.
Much like the offensive side, the defense loses some valuable pieces to last year’s team. Last year’s libero Jordan McCormick led the Wildcats with over 500 digs and averaged 4.24 digs per set. Havyn Heinz is a defensive specialist that graduated from last year’s squad. The rest of the defensive group sticks together.
Allie Petry and Jordie Nekl return, and with the new rule changes allowing for more than one libero, both of them have the potential to suit up in 2024. Senior Brooke Peltz and sophomore Kaelyn Anderson may also see increased defensive roles. For defense at the net, Brahmer and Beller provide excellent value as blockers, and Bunjer will surely enter the rotation to give this Wildcat brick wall some more fortitude, as she did last season.
No position is in bigger limbo than the setter position entering 2024. Last year’s setter Rachel Walker has since graduated but will remain on the sidelines as a graduate assistant, a huge boost to this Wildcat team.
In competition to take over the setter role is graduate transfer Rhianna Wilhelm and freshman Molly Romano. Wilhelm is a transfer from the University of Nebraska-Kearney, and while she didn’t see major playing time last season, she played over 100 sets for the Lopers in 2022. Romano is a graduate of Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and played beach volleyball with the Wildcats last spring.
The program brings in some very talented freshmen to add to the loaded roster they already possess. Obviously, Romano has the potential to start in the setter position. Ava Spies and JoLee Ryan both enter as outside hitters, with Spies being that attacking freshman with huge potential to break out, just as Robles did last season. Anna Borner is a freshman defensive specialist and Chloe Hanel gives the middle hitter position some depth.
The Wildcat’s court season begins with some beginning of the year tournaments. The team will travel to St. Petersburg, Florida, to take part in the Eckard College Tournament from Thursday, Sept. 5 to Saturday, Sept.7 before traveling to the always exciting Colorado Premier Challenge in Denver, Colorado from Friday, Sept. 13 to Saturday Sept. 14.
All information was gathered from wscwildcats.com
