Photo courtesy of Katie Furth The 2023 Murray County Central Rebels volleyball team includes front row (L to R): Emmi Peltola, Celena Riley, Kate Slettum, Morgan Winter, Kelli Miller, Kate Blankenship, Atalie Rosenbrook. Back row (L to R): Jessa Gillette, Elyse Paulzine, Thea Schneider, Abby Loosbrock, Abby Overman, Suttyn Schryvers, Sofia Cristina.

SLAYTON — The Murray County Central Rebels volleyball team went 9-15 last season under their first-year head coach Katie Furth. Becky Reinsma was a co-head coach on the team, helping the team improve from its 8-17 record the year prior.

“So I went in as a co-coach with Becky Reinsma who has a ton of experience,” Furth said. “It was my first year coaching in the school system. We finished 9-15 but we considered that a win with how they did the previous year. We learned a lot. We have been working hard in the summer. Learning the stat system was a challenge because I’m not a tech savvy person as well.”

The Rebels graduated nine seniors last season but have many returners coming back for this season including Abby Loosbrock and Morgan Winter. The Rebels have been working hard all summer and Furth talked about the strengths and areas of improvement for the team.

“We know we have the hitting and pretty solid blocking on the team,” Furth said. “That is definitely our strength. What we need to work on is our ability to pass. Over the summer we have worked on a lot of serve/receive and defense because we implemented a new defensive strategy when we took over. It has taken some time to grasp that so we are continuing to work on that.”

MCC volleyball highlights of last year included a win on the road versus the Southwest Minnesota Christian Eagles on their senior night.

“We were finally coming into our own,” Furth said. “We were at SWC on senior night. They had only lost in the conference on their court and we were able to take them out in four sets, which was really fun.”

The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights are a new member to the conference and also the section runner-up last season. The Rebels are looking forward to matching up with them after playing a scrimmage versus them in the summertime. Another matchup that MCC is looking forward to is going up against the Westbrook-Walnut Grove Chargers.

“I’m looking forward to matching up against WWG,” Furth said. “Last year, I felt that should have been a closer game than it was but their setter tipped all over us. So we’re looking to redoing that one a little bit more and hoping that it is a closer game. Also, RTR that is our last regular season game, so we are looking forward to playing that game too.”

Furth believes that she has the talent now to be at the top of the subsection. She also feels that being a double-digit wins team is a reachable goal as she further explained her expectations of the season. 

“I would say we’re looking to be in the top of our subsection for sure,” Furth said. “We would like to not be in the play-in game and be able to have one of those top two spots. You want to win as many games as possible but when you’re playing bigger schools, you just want to compete.”