Shenandoah volleyball leaning on last year’s experience in making WIC debut
It’s a new season for the Shenandoah volleyball team, and while you can say that every year, it’s especially true this season with the Shenandoah girls now known as the Mustangs and conference matches take place in the Western Iowa Conference for the first time.
At the same time, this is a Shenandoah team that returns quite a bit from last year’s team that entered with very little varsity experience. It showed at times with the Fillies winning just five matches last season, none in the Hawkeye 10 Conference.
Shenandoah juniors Lyndie Green (left) and Kalyn Scamman (right) are the leading returners for Shenandoah volleyball as they venture into the Western Iowa Conference.
“I think our IQ has gotten a little better,” junior Kalyn Scamman said. “There are still areas we need to work on, but I think the main thing we have improved on is being a team together. We’re all close in age and we’re still young, but I think we have improved our team culture the most.”
Lyndie Green also returns for Shenandoah. She was easily Shenandoah’s top offensive option last season, putting away 220 kills with a .219 hitting efficiency as a sophomore. She is coming off what she says was her best club season and likes what she has seen from her team so far.
“We have more team chemistry than we did last year,” Green said, “and we’re working better together. We look a lot better than last year.”
While the Mustangs may be a lot better, the question is how that translates into new opponents. Shenandoah saw just two teams last year that are now conference foes and one of them is Red Oak, who joined Shenandoah in making the move from the Hawkeye 10 to the WIC.
“The main thing in our conference is that the players we’re going against are new,” Shenandoah head coach Toni Comstock said. “We don’t know a lot about the WIC because we only typically played them in postseason play. We haven’t had a lot of competition so it’s kind of back to the drawing board for me. I have to watch these players and figure out who their go-to’s are, and names and numbers and figure these things out.”
While Green will play all the way around and star at both the middle and outside of the front row for the Mustangs, Scamman is one of the team’s setters again this season and brings back Shenandoah’s second most kills from last season. While there are a few seniors on this year’s team, Scamman and Green will be counted on to be leaders as well.
“I’m bringing the energy every day,” Scamman said, “and trying to help everyone understand the little things because sometimes not everyone understands everything.”
While providing consistent energy was brought up quite a bit by Scamman, Green said a lot of her leadership will come from simply playing at a high level and showing that to her teammates.
“I just want to win every game that we can,” Green said, “and never get down on ourselves.”
The Mustangs scrimmaged multiple teams on Aug. 15, at St. Albert and Comstock said she liked what she saw.
“I’m hoping to build off that,” Comstock said. “It was very fun to see them play and show smart decision making. They have shown a lot of progress from the first open gym to the beginning of actual practice and shown so much growth.”
The Mustangs open the season Tuesday, Aug. 25, with a quad at Stanton, featuring the host Viqueens, Lenox and Mount Ayr. After that, they’ll have two weeks off before hosting Clarinda Tuesday, Sept. 8. Shenandoah’s Western Iowa Conference debut is two nights later at home against Treynor.
Besides Treynor, the Mustangs welcome conference foes Missouri Valley, Logan-Magnolia and Underwood to town while making trips to Tri-Center, AHSTW, Riverside and Red Oak. The regular season ends with the Western Iowa Conference Tournament Oct. 12-15.
