FALL PREVIEW: Rebels bring back experience in 2021

SLAYTON -- Last season, the Murray County Central volleyball team saw its ups and downs, posting a 4-5 record in the pandemic-shortened schedule. This year, the Rebels will have lots of experience to rely on under coach Kate DeLong.

MCC returns roughly half of its roster from a season ago, including Emily Rohrer, Camdyn Kluis, Kiana Felber and Ciera Tutt. Jaelen Barstad and Kate Slettum will also look to make an impact on the floor.

DeLong said once her team gains momentum, she expects them to compete for the conference championship and be a top contender in the section.

"This season is kind of a wildcard for me with just not having last year to base things off of, but I expect the girls once we hit our stride I see them finishing at the top of the conference," DeLong said. "We seem to hit our stride in the middle of the season and really go with it in the postseason. I look forward to them pushing each other and being a top contender in the section."

During the first week of practice, DeLong said their main focus has been on their defense.

"Our main focus has been on defense. I know the girls have a lot of great offensive skills and those come with routine and getting used to your setter and playing together, but defense is always strong right away that first week," DeLong said. "I don't like to send the girls out not prepared for what we might face both on the serving and hitting from another team, so as long as our defense can be solid, we can make up a lot of room on the offensive end with our hitting as well as our serving. Those are things I think the girls put a lot of time and effort into on their own individually, so I think the biggest focus is defense, especially serve-receive."

DeLong added serving will be an area of strength for their team this year and knows they can rely on several players to bring some energy behind the service line.

"Definitely our serving. I think that we've always tried to make a focus on being an aggressive serving team and we've got some really good servers out there with some jump floats and deep serves as well as mixing in the short serves," DeLong said. "That's an area each individual player can say is where they can stand out so I think we're going to see a lot of good play and energy coming from our serving."

MCC will start its season on Friday at home against Canby at 7:15 p.m. Going into the season, DeLong said she's looking forward to having a lot of fun with her team and seeing how far they can go as a group.

"Just having fun," DeLong said. "I think last year there was a lot of pressure where the girls were always having to change and be flexible so this year I just want us to go out and have fun and get back into what volleyball has always been for them and success on top of that just makes it that much better."