I’m telling ya, we’re good. I think we’re better (than last season’s team). I think we’re more consistent.”

Veteran Head Coach Amy Johnson

Maxwell shares team goals

We want to beat East Ridge this year, and to win the conference.”

Hannah Maxwell, Junior setter

Game Day

Park plays at New Life Academy in Woodbury on Thursday, Aug. 31.

With three starters and several top reserves returning off last season’s 15-12 Park High team, veteran head coach Amy Johnson is bullish on the Wolfpack’s chances in the volleyball wars this fall.

“I’m telling ya, we’re good,” said Johnson. “I think we’re better (than last season’s team). I think we’re more consistent. We had a lot of errors last season still, so hitting a lot of balls out of bounds or into the net. We just have better ball control. We have better volleyball IQ.  Like this one we can swing away, this one we need to take something off. We need to hit a corner. The IQ of where to place the ball is much higher so we don’t make as many errors. SO that alone is going to increase our chances of winning.”

Park went 15-12 a year ago and finished 3-6 in the rugged Suburban East Conference, tying for sixth. Johnson is looking for a significant bump up in both of those win-loss records this season.

“It’s kind of a weird dynamic because we have three solid starters back, plus Hannah setting, she sometimes set for us sometimes on varsity, sometimes on JV last year,” said Johnson. “So, she got some good experience coming in, which is good. And we have some new ones, some DSs (defensive specialists) and right side hitters which is new.”

Returning for the Wolfpack this season are junior hitters Sonja Lind, Carly Slusser, eighth grader Mesa Jameson and junior setter Hannah Maxwell.

Slusser led the team in kills last season with 231. Lind had 169 kills and Mesa Jameson 50. Maxwell backed up the departed Addy Glude with 80 assists. Slusser also led the Wolfpack with 63 service aces. Lind was second on the team with 198 defensive stops while Slusser had 131.

“A goal, I’d say overall, just play our hearts out every game,” said Lind. “And just out it all out on the court. And grow as a team every day.”

The losses from last year’s team were significant, however, in hitters Camden Kemmetmueller, Juliana Field, Skyler Croker and Kendall Lewis, setter Glide and libero Megan Husaby.

Defensive specialists Johnson is high on include juniors Jenna Katlack and Paige LeVake. Sophomore Ameenah Alowonle is another likely starter on the varsity as a right side hitter.

Improvement on defense may be the key to Park reaching its goals this season.

“I think it’s more just on our defense, players working together, communicating, trying not to let any balls drop,” said Slusser. “Offensively I think we’re really good. Like Sonja said we have a really good front row. It’s just our back row that I think we have to work on.”

Depth shouldn’t be a problem with several players ready to step up, Johnson said.

While the offense is likely to be high powered, Johnson admits she has some concerns defensively.

“We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to set up around,” Johnson said. “We have a big block, which is great. But then you have to make sure that you’re truly in the right spots around that block and ready to go off the block because we’re going to have a big, tall block. We’ve got to make sure we’re ready to play defense with that. And serve receive a little bit. Now it’s just getting used to each other in serve receive.”

A top three finish in the conference is a goal.

“We’re reaching high,” Johnson said. “Getting a home game, first round, first two rounds of sections. We’ll see what happens after that. We’ll have Eagan and East Ridge, which is always tough to get by, but it’s not out of the question. We need to be disciplined. Sometimes when you’re good you get a little lackadaisical with some of the drills. We just can’t do that.  We need to be focused and disciplined to the end."

Park has a regular season-ending Oct. 16 home date with East Ridge, fourth-ranked in the preseason poll, circled.

“We want to beat East Ridge this year, and to win the conference” said Maxwell when asked what a good goal for the team would be.

The Raptors dropped Park 3-1 in the regular season last fall, then ended the season with a 3-0 win in the section tournament semifinals.

Park plays at New Life Academy in Woodbury on Thursday, Aug. 31.