Golden Eagle girls volleyball ready for run at OCC Capital title

By GARY HENERY

News Man­ag­ing Editor

A warn­ing for Big Walnut’s 2012 oppo­nents — Ron Lehman’s Golden Eagles are expected to be stronger than they were a year ago.

Big Wal­nut, post­ing a 16–8 record, which included a run­nerup fin­ish to Hilliard Bradley (13–1) in the Ohio Cap­i­tal Con­fer­ence Cap­i­tal Divi­sion with a 12–2 record, returns eight one-year let­ter win­ners for the Golden Eagles’ highly-successful head coach.

Lead­ing the returnees are senior mid­dle hit­ter Natalie Chat­ter­ton, a First Team All-OCC and Sec­ond Team Divi­sion II All-Central Dis­trict selec­tion; junior set­ter Mor­gan Alley, a Sec­ond Team All-OCC and Hon­or­able Men­tion All-District choice; senior defender Kylee Williams, a Spe­cial Men­tion All-OCC pick; and senior Alexis New­man, an Hon­or­able Men­tion All-OCC selection.

Williams (Coaches Award), Chat­ter­ton (Rookie of the Year Åward) and New­man (Best Defen­sive Player Award) were rec­og­nized with spe­cial awards at the post­sea­son awards banquet.

Also back are senior out­side hit­ter Abby Painter, junior mid­dle hit­ter Kalynn Bow­mar, junior out­side hit­ter Kayla Walaszek and sopho­more out­side hit­ter Claire Chat­ter­ton. Walaszek was rec­og­nized with the 2011 Most Improved Player Award.

“Hav­ing Mor­gan return as our set­ter is a plus for our offense,” said Lehman who was voted the Dis­trict Coach of the Year. “And hav­ing Kalynn and Natalie back at mid­dle hit­ter will help our strength on the block as well as attack­ing. And hav­ing Alexis as our return­ing libero will anchor our pass­ing and back row defense.”

While Big Wal­nut lost only one let­ter win­ner to grad­u­a­tion, out­side hit­ter Saman­tha “Sam­mie” Ebright, her loss was huge. A four-year let­ter win­ner, Ebright. a First Team Divi­sion II All-Ohio selec­tion, earned First Team recog­ni­tion in both the Cen­tral Dis­trict and OCC as well as Player of the Year honors.

“It’s aways tough to replace a Player of the Year of Sam’s cal­i­bre,” Lehman said of Ebright who was the recip­i­ent of Big Walnut’s Most Valu­able Player and Lead­ing Scorer awards, “but with sev­eral returnees we can share the bur­den of replac­ing her offen­sive production.”

Junior out­side hit­ter Brooke Hat­field and sopho­more out­side hit­ter Krista Schmidt move up from the Big Wal­nut JV squad to add depth to the var­sity roster.

“Krista and Brooke will give us the depth we will need at the out­side hit­ter posi­tion,” Lehman said.

Lehman said the Golden Eagles’ strengths lie in their serv­ing and mid­dle attack.

“We should serve well and have a strong mid­dle attack, but our out­sides have less expe­ri­ence, so they need to improve quickly,” he said. “We have sev­eral good passers who will help make our offense successful.”

Lehman’s keys to the team’s success?

“Pass­ing well so we can use our mid­dles, serv­ing tough to get our oppo­nents out of their rhythm and play­ing good defense,” he said, adding “Stay­ing healthy in the middle.”

Big Walnut’s sea­son goals remain unchanged.

“With our return­ing expe­ri­ence we expect not only to chal­lenge for the league cham­pi­onship but for the Dis­trict crown as well,” Lehman said. The Golden Eagles, who were seeded third in the Dis­trict last sea­son, lost to fourth-seeded Jonathan Alder in the Dis­trict semifinals.

Big Wal­nut opens its 2012 sched­ule Sat­ur­day, enter­tain­ing Bishop Hart­ley at 12:15 p.m. in the Golden Eagle gym. Next Tues­day, August 25, Lehman’s troops open OCC Cap­i­tal Divi­sion play at home with rival Olen­tangy at 7 p.m.

Lehman, enter­ing his 22nd sea­son lead­ing the Golden Eagle vol­ley­ball pro­gram, brings a 422–142 (.748) record into the 2012 sea­son. The vet­eran coach has com­piled a 516–277 (.561) over is 31-year career on the vol­ley­ball sidelines.

Lehman will be assisted by Chris Podraza at the var­sity level, Matt Schoonover at the JV level and by for­mer Golden Eagle stand­out Sum­mer Hale at the fresh­man level.

Posted by Gary Henery on Aug 22 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.