BRAINERD DISPATCH | THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2022
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COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL
Raiders poised for another title hunt By Jeremy Millsop Brainerd Dispatch BRAINERD — No. 3. That’s where the Central Lakes College Raiders are ranked in the NJCAA Division III preseason volleyball rankings. Not a single set has been made. No serve has crossed over the net, but the Raiders are still perceived as the third-best team in the nation behind Owens Community College at No. 1 and Minnesota State at No. 2. The Raiders will get a chance to show just how good they are when they face Owens Saturday in Rockford, Illinois. On that same day, the Raiders will face the No. 4 ranked team in DuPage. CLC’s season starts a bit earlier than usual as they’ll enjoy a four-game tournament before jumping right into the Minnesota College Athletic Conference Northern Division which will host a new program in Alexandria this season. “We added a team so there’s less time to play non-conference games,” Raiders head coach Jane Peterson said. “For Alexandria, this is the first year they’ve had a program. They hired a new coach a year ago and they’ve been recruiting. There’s good volleyball in that area so you never know.” The Raiders return eight players from last year’s squad that finished fifth in the NJCAA National Tournament and concluded the year with a 23-10 overall record. One of those players returning will be sophomore setter Grace Peabody whose 1,124 set assists last year made up 87% of the team’s total. “I’ll say this as a whole, but our returners are just better and this happens all the time,” Peterson said. “They just come in with a different mindset and are calmer because they know what’s going to happen. They can be better learners and more focused on the volleyball and not so wound up if they’re good enough or not. All of them are like that. “Another thing that’s going to help Grace is we have another setter who is a true setter. We had someone else who could set in Jacey, but we wanted her as a hitter so Allison Dornseif is a true setter who has experience and is really knowledgeable about the game. Having more than one person who can run a team is helpful in a lot of ways. She’s pushing Grace and competing in practice and it helps in scrimmage situations. We’re going to rely on Grace for a lot of things, but we won’t have to just rely on her and I hope that makes her even better so she’s not worn out.” Peabody added 36 kills, 49 ace serves, 285 digs and 10 blocks. Her top returning targets will be sophomore middle hitter Megan Rinicker and sophomore outside hitter Jamie Johnson. Rinicker finished with 290 kills or 2.69 per set. She added 14 set assists, 19 ace serves, 162 digs and a team-high 67 blocks. “When people come to watch us play it will take them
CENTRAL LAKES COLLEGE RAIDERS Ź Head coach: Jane Peterson, 32nd season Ź Career record: 705-295 (.705 winning percentage) Ź Assistant coach: Ken Peterson Miller, Heather Trosdahl, Krystal Brodeen Ź 2021 record: 23-10 overall, fifth in NJCAA Division III national tournament, 11-0 North Division, North Division champion, Region 13B Champion Ź Returning players: Ellie Sutton, Kaitlyn Hines, Gabbie Enneking, Grace Peabody, Megan Rinicker, Tori Plemel, Jaime Johnson, Jacey Rydberg
one second to recognize that Megan is a super competitive and aggressive player,” Peterson said. “You can see how much she wants to win every point. She’s got the mental game where she is able to be there every time. She makes it look easy. I don’t know if it’s easy, but we will rely on her toughness that’s for sure.” Johnson totaled 304 kills or 2.98 per set. She added five set assists, 55 ace serves, 202 digs and 24 blocks. Jacey Rydberg played everywhere last season, but came on fire during the postseason. She finished the year with 164 kills, 54 set assists, 31 ace serves, 71 digs and 30 blocks. “Jacey will be able to focus more on hitting and Jaime is one more year mature,” Peterson said. “We talked all of last year about overcoming mistakes. She’s clearly athletic and strong enough so she is working on a variety of shots and not just the power game. The team around her is going to make her better.” Gabbie Enneking collected 273 digs to go with 46 ace serves and 12 set assists from her defensive specialist position. “Gabbie is a really good defensive player and a really good teammate,” Peterson said. “She’s a leader. She won our first teammate of the day award. We really need Gabbie’s attitude and communication and effort.” Sophomores Ellie Sutton, Tori Plemel and Kaitlyn Hines also saw action last season. Sutton finished with 31 kills and 48 digs, Plemel posted 97 kills, 43 digs and 24 blocks and Hines added 12 kills. “Tori maybe had some struggles a little bit last year, but she’s a really good front row player and she’ll handle the middle where she can do awkward things. She might not look the most graceful doing things, but she’s going to get the job done. Ellie and Kaitlyn have really good supporting roles. They want to be on the court and I hope they can. “I can’t remember, but there might have been one other time where I had close to eight returners. I put out a lineup the other day in practice and I just said to myself, ‘Look. There are three good hitters in the front row. It’s not obvious where the ball is going to go. If our hitters
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Photos by Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch
Central Lakes College’s Megan Rinicker serves the ball on Saturday during an alumni scrimmage at CLC in Brainerd.
RAIDER ROSTER
RAIDERS SCHEDULE
S Ź ophomores: Ellie Sutton (St. Anthony, defensive specialist), Kaitlyn Hines (Albany, outside hitter), Gabbie Enneking (Royalton, defensive specialist), Grace Peabody (Brainerd, setter), Megan Rinicker (Henning, middle hitter), Tori Plemel (Lake Region, middle hitter), Jaime Johnson (Pine RiverBackus, outside hitter), Jacey Rydberg (Crosby-Ironton, setter-hitter) Ź Freshmen: Kalli Papenfuss (Crosby-Ironton, hitter), Allison Dornself (Buffalo LakeHector-Stewart, setter-hitter), Jenna Pelnis (Howard LakeWaverly, defensive specialist), Morgan Majerus (Milaca, hitter), Emerson Miller (Milaca, hitter), Natalie Pedersen (New York Mills, hitter), Nana Lopez (Moorhead, hitter)
Rockford Tournament Aug. 19: vs. Harper College 10 a.m. Aug. 19: vs. Moraine Valley Community College. 2 p.m. Aug. 20: vs. Owens Community College 11 a.m. Aug. 20: vs. College of DuPage 3 p.m. Aug. 31: at Northland 6:30 p.m. Sept. 7: vs. Mesabi Range 6:30 p.m. Sept. 9: at Hibbing 6:30 p.m. Sept. 10: at Rainy River noon Sept. 14: vs. Itasca 6:30 p.m. Wahpeton Tournament Sept. 16: vs. Jamestown JV 3 p.m. Sept. 16: vs. North Dakota State College of Science 6:30 p.m. Sept. 17: vs. Southeastern Community College 11 a.m. Sept. 17: vs. Bismarck State College 2:30 p.m.
can enjoy not having to carry the whole load and can enjoy celebrating each other we’ll be good.” Adding to the mix of returning talent will be Dornseif who comes from Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart. The setter was coached by her mother, who was coached by Peterson around the Monticello area before Peterson came to CLC. “Her demeanor is a confident calm,” Peterson said. “She’s a real good learner.” Jenna Pelnis will be a defensive specialist. She’s from Howard Lake-Waverly. “She is one of the most experienced players I’ve ever coached,” Peterson said. “She played on a high-level club team since she was 14. You can’t teach experience in a couple of weeks and she just has a lot of good game experience.” Kaili Papenfuss is an outside hitter from Crosby-Ironton who has been playing on club teams in the CLC gym for a number of seasons, Peterson said. Emerson Miller is an outside hitter from Milaca. She may be asked to play right side this season, but Peterson said she knows what to do with the ball. Her high school teammate Morgan Majerus is another hitter. Peterson said she’s been pleased with her allaround game as not just a
Sept. 21: at Alexandria Technical and Community College 6:30 p.m. Sept. 23: vs. Vermilion 5 p.m. Sept. 24: vs. Fond du Lac Tribal noon Sept. 24: vs. Lake Region State College 3 p.m. Sept. 28: vs. Northland 6:30 p.m. Sept. 30: vs. Hibbing 6:30 p.m. Oct. 1: vs. Rainy River noon Oct. 5: vs. Mesabi Range 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7: at St. Cloud Technical 6:30 p.m. Oct. 8: vs. Riverland at Century 2 p.m. Oct. 8: at Century College 4 p.m. Oct. 12: at Itasca 6:30 p.m. Oct. 14: at Vermilion 6:30 p.m. Oct. 15: at Fond du Lac noon Oct. 19: vs. Alexandria 6:30 p.m. Oct. 29: Region 13B Tournament TBA Oct. 30: Region 13B Tournament TBA
Central Lakes College’s Ellie Sutton hits the ball on Saturday during an alumni scrimmage at CLC in Brainerd. hitter, but blocker, passer and server. Natalie Pedersen is an outside hitter from New York Mills who, like Papenfuss, has played club volleyball in CLC’s gym. She understands the system and Peterson said she’s not afraid to ask questions and learn. Nana Lopez is another hitter from Moorhead who Peterson said has a variety of shots and has shown the most improvement in a short period of time. “I am a wide-open thinker,” Peterson said. “I’m very adaptable and willing to
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change so I’m not stuck in one lineup with this team. We have that type of versatility. We have choices everywhere. “What I know I do have is 15 18- to 19-year-old young women working hard and being athletic and learning to compete and getting along. If anyone is interested in good team chemistry with high expectations of themselves this would be a good team to watch. Offensively and defensively we’re going to be good.” JEREMY MILLSOP may be reached at 8555856 or jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch. com. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter. com/jeremymillsop.
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