By Josh Hall
The Rogersville High School volleyball team isn’t taking anything for granted.
Sure, the Lady Wildcats want to make it back to the Final Four after finishing fourth in Class 3 last year. But they know it’s a process.
“We want to be playing really good at the end of the year,” coach Tammy Miller said in late June. “Everybody wants to win their conference and you want to win districts and go to the Final Four. Our goal right now is just to be playing really, really well at the end of the year.”
Rogersville loses several key pieces from last year’s team that went 33-8.
The Lady Wildcats will be without Hanna Hendrickson, now playing at Western Colorado after tallying 246 and 167 kills. Ashley Pierson, now at Georgian Court in New Jersey, is also gone after leading the team with 338 receptions, to go along with 205 digs and 36 aces. Rogersville also loses middle hitter Bay Ivie (82 blocks and 126 kills).
“We’re definitely working on filling those spots,” said senior libero Ashley Pitts, who had 250 digs last season. “We’re getting there. We’re just trying to take it one step at a time. We’re not pushing our luck or anything.”
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While the Lady Wildcats will have to fill some voids, they also have several returners that put up impressive numbers in 2016.
Rogersville will be led by first-team all-state selection Birdie Hendrickson. As a freshman, the 6-foot-2 outside hitter had a team-leading 368 kills, 47 aces and a 2.36 passing percentage. She was second on the team in kill percentage (33 percent) and digs (255), while also tallying a third-best 29 blocks.
“You watch her and you’re kind of in awe of her,” Miller said. “She can set, she can pass, she can hit, she can play defense, she can serve. She can do it all. I look for big things out of her.”
While Hendrickson is already recognized on a national level, Rogersville knows it must put it all together for her to be a dominating factor.
“Everybody knows who she is, but if we don’t do our job, she can’t be as good as she can be,” Miller said. “If she is not as good as she can be, then we can’t be as good as we can be.”
McKenna Miller is back after tallying 631 assists to go along with184 digs, 34 aces and 20 kill blocks during her junior year.
The second-team all-state setter has high expectations for the season.
“We’re very scrappy,” McKenna Miller said. “We pick up stuff that I wouldn’t expect us to pick up.”
Patrolling the middle will be 5-foot-10 junior Gabby Massengale. The second-team all-district and all-region selection was first in hitting percentage (34 percent), second in kill blocks (31) and had 146 kills last year.
Five-foot-nine junior Maci Mc Henry (75 kills) will be a factor in the middle and the outside. Allie Gipson, a 5-foot-10 junior, will also play the outside.
Sydney Dunavant (junior defensive specialist), Libby Kish (junior outside-middle hitter), Nora Humble (sophomore defensive specialist) and Shayley Dunavant (sophomore outside hitter-defensive specialist) will contribute as well this season.
“I feel pretty confident, but we lost three of our starters,” Hendrickson said. “That will be hard to replace, but we can still work hard and go to state again. That’s the goal, to go to state again.”
