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ALL-AREA VOLLEYBALL TEAM
PLAYER OF THE YEAR ALEX LILLIQUIST
All-Area First Team
Madi Bell
Kendall Bradley
Morgan Carter
Meghan Conway
Jenna Daniel
Ali Denney
Sierra Forchheimer
Brett Harper
Treasure Ingram
Dani Skelly
Coach of the Year
MIKE SAWTELLE
CHRISTOPHER ARNOLD/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS
Vero Beach High School’s Alex Lilliquist is the 2013 All-Area Volleyball Player of the Year.
Unstoppable
Vero Beach’s Alex Lilliquist was an offensive force with 314 kills and 76 aces this season
MADI BELL
Jensen Beach sophomore middle hitter Stats: 248 kills, 128 blocks, 190 service points, 48 aces, 81 digs
KENDALL BRADLEY
Jensen Beach junior setter Stats: 665 assists, 121 kills, 42 blocks, 228 service points, 52 aces, 101 digs
MORGAN CARTER
South Fork senior libero Stats: 315 digs, helped South Fork to 20-6 finish
MEGHAN CONWAY
Jensen Beach senior outside hitter Stats: 269 kills, 31 blocks, 137 digs, 107 service points, 27 aces
JENNA DANIEL
Martin County senior middle hitter Stats: 165 kills, 49 blocks, 18 aces
ALI DENNEY
Pine School sophomore outside hitter Stats: 240 kills, 44 aces, 29 blocks, 124 digs
SIERRA FORCHHEIMER
Vero Beach senior rightside hitter/setter Stats: 22 aces, 134 kills, 18 blocks, 59 digs, 193 assists
By Laurel Pfahler
VERO BEACH — Alex Lilliquist began playing volleyball by chance. The Vero Beach High School senior outside hitter went to a friend’s house in seventh grade, and after the two of them began passing around a volleyball, Lilliquist immediately decided to try out for a team. Five years later, she is virtually unstoppable. Lilliquist amassed an area-best 314 kills, 76 aces and 135 digs, while leading a young Vero Beach team to a regional semifinal and 21-8 finish. She is the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers All-Area Volleyball Player of the Year. “I knew it was my last year playing (high school), so I had a mindset of playing with nothing to lose,” Lilliquist said. “I didn’t have expectations really of going as far as or further than last year because we were so young this year. But I always want to try as hard as I can, so there was a lot of effort and individually the practice and hard work paid off in the end and I think for the team. “It was a pretty good year.” Lilliquist credited some of her success this season to the work she put in while playing beach volleyball with Jensen Beach senior Meghan Conway. At one point, she was training to try out for the Team Florida
BRETT HARPER
St. Edward’s junior outside hitter Stats: 279 kills, 30 aces, 30 blocks, 290 digs
TREASURE INGRAM
John Carroll senior outside hitter Stats: 102 kills, 52 blocks
DANI SKELLY
Pine School senior setter Stats: 73 kills, 316 assists, 54 aces
Player of the Year
laurel.pfahler@scripps.com 772-978-2282
ALEX LILLIQUIST
Vero Beach senior outside hitter Statistics: 314 kills, 76 aces, 135 digs, 12 blocks, 9 assists Coach Sarah Eckert: “Lilli is an intelligent and aggressive player. Her intelligence is reflected in her shot selection and her ability to see the court and read her opponents. This ability has enabled her to make many game-winning points and crucial plays to shift the momentum of the game. Lilli never buckles under pressure and always wants the ball when the game is on the line. She is truly a clutch player and has made her teams stronger with her desire to win.”
HP beach volleyball squad while also preparing for Junior Olympics indoor volleyball. She would practice each sport two hours a day — one right after the other. Playing beach volleyball, she said, made her a better indoor player. And though she has been playing beach volleyball just two years, she can’t imagine only playing one of them. “When you go from the soft sand to hard, squeaky floor, you feel faster and in better shape, and jumping, you feel like you can touch the roof, plus there’s the fact the sun, wind and temperature doesn’t come into
play,” Lilliquist said. “I feel I’m an allaround better player because I play both, which is crazy because they are two completely different sports.” Vero Beach needed her to be at her best this season, as it had only four seniors on the roster and returned just three starters from the 2012 team that finished 22-4. Lilliquist was one of the returning starters and a captain who felt “like a big sister” to the other players — but added she felt no added stress because of that. “I’m normally confident and calm, and I don’t normally feel pressure so I tried to put that aside,” Lilliquist said. “But at the same time, I’m always pushing myself to be the best I can, and I think it helps me in the long run to try to be perfect.” Fighting Indians coach Sarah Eckert said Lilliquist always was a player she could always count on, especially in big games. Her intelligence and aggressiveness on the court, Eckert said, enabled Lilliquist to make a lot of key shots, and her strong serving ability helped Vero Beach go on a lot of long runs to build big leads or mount comebacks. “Lilli never buckles under pressure and always wants the ball when the game is on the line,” Eckert said. “She is truly a clutch player and has made her teams stronger with her desire to win. “She is just such a great player and a big reason for our success.”
Jensen Beach, 10th year This season: Guided the Falcons to a third straight Final Four and second consecutive state final, where they ended their season at 24-7 with a three-game loss to defending Class 6A champion Vanguard. Jensen Beach was undefeated against area competition and prepared for a postseason run because of matches against high-level competition teams such as Cardinal Gibbons, Boca Raton, Wellington and Oviedo. The Falcons split matches with Gibbons and beat Boca Raton and Oviedo. Quotable: “The best part was we made it to the championship game and having been able to do that for the second year in a row was one of our goals. With the group we had back, we knew we had a lot of talent, but didn’t know how far we could take it with all the teams coming into 6A, like Venice moving down from 7A and teams like us moving from 5A — we knew it would be tough. We had a tough schedule, and the fact we made it back to the championship, we were proud of that. We knew we didn’t play well in the championship, but we were satisfied with our season as a whole.”
Lilli never buckles under pressure and always wants the ball when the game is on the line. She is truly a clutch player and has made her teams stronger with her desire to win. She is just such a great player and a big reason for our success.”
Sarah Eckert, Vero Beach volleyball coach
Honorable Mention MARY BETH BOUDRIAS John Carroll junior outside hitter JAIME CHAMBERLIN Jensen Beach senior outside hitter NIKKI CLERI SLW Centennial sophomore setter ANNA DEMETER Vero Beach sophomore middle blocker BRYLEE FRANK Martin County sophomore setter KALIN GABBERT Sebastian River senior outside hitter KALEY GAGE Master’s senior outside/rightside hitter ERIN GERLICA Lincoln Park senior libero SARAH GILLEN Fort Pierce Central junior setter/ rightside hitter
KELLY HAGEN Jensen Beach senior middle hitter MELANIE HESS Fort Pierce Westwood senior middle hitter NICOLE HOWARD Martin County junior outside hitter CONNIE LAMOS St. Edward’s junior outside hitter TAYLOR LEANDER John Carroll freshman setter SUMMER LEWIS SLW Centennial senior libero PAIGE MCGUIRE St. Edward’s junior setter MARIAH MENKE John Carroll junior rightside hitter CASSIE PFEIFFER Pine School junior middle hitter
KARA ROBINSON Sebastian River senior outside hitter SAMANTHA RING Vero Beach senior setter LAUREN RUBY Pine School junior setter KIANA SAWTELLE Jensen Beach sophomore rightside hitter AMANDA SEGNELLO SLW Centennial junior rightside/middle HAYLEY TURNER Martin County sophomore outside hitter BROOKE USREY Fort Pierce Central freshman outside hitter MICAELA WEBB Master’s senior outside/rightside hitter
The Team
The 2013 All-Area Volleyball team was compiled by Laurel Pfahler.
All-Area Teams
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All-Area Schedule DEC. 16
DEC. 17
DEC. 18
DEC. 19
DEC. 20
DEC. 21
DEC. 22
DEC. 23
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