Brianna Lewis and St. James Academy have risen to volleyball greatness in a short time period, thanks to coach Nancy Dorsey.
Photo by Dean Backes
As they prepare to defend their third straight Kansas Class 4A state volleyball championship in November, the
St. James Academy (Lenexa, Kan.) Thunder has been getting down and getting defensive.
Nancy Dorsey's volleyball team does have enough offensive swagger to carry the seventh-year school to one more state title. But for good measure the Thunder is making a living out of disheartening opposing offenses.
Emily Tripp and the St. JamesAcademy defense take pride in rackingup the digs.
Photo by Dean Backes
"It's frustrating for teams when they think they've knocked a ball down and we pick it up," senior Libero
Sheridan Zarda said. "We take pride in our ability to not let anything touch the floor. It's up to the other team to find a way to knock the ball down and it's our job to keep the floor clean."
Just like it has all season, Dorsey's defense came to the forefront again last Saturday when the Thunder put an exclamation point on the 2011 season by knocking off Kansas Class 5A volleyball power Bishop Miege (Shawnee, Kan.) while swatting their way through the St. Joseph's Academy Tournament of Champions in St. Louis, Mo.
The five-match sweep secured St. James Academy's second tournament title of the season and gave the Thunder bragging rights over the Stags for the second time this season, allowing Dorsey's squad to get off to a 16-0 start and make a climb into the
MaxPreps Xcellent 25 National Volleyball Rankings at No. 8.
Dorsey, 220-17 at St. James Academy, was particularly proud of one stat that stood out during the Thunder's tournament championship run.
"The girls had over 220 digs on the weekend," Dorsey said. "We played 11 sets over the weekend so that means we averaged over 20 digs per set. It was a great defensive weekend."
By competing in St. Louis, the Thunder fortified an already strong strength of schedule with wins over unranked but talented teams like Mercy (Louisville, Ky.), Bishop Kelly (Tulsa, Okla.), Cor Jesu Academy (St. Louis, Mo.) and the tournament hosts.
The Thunder opened the season with a 25-8, 25-9 win over Class 4A three-time defending state runner-up Topeka Hayden and then went on to claim the MO-KAN Volleyball Tournament championship in Lee's Summit with a two-game sweep of the Stags.
Up next for the Thunder are visits from Missouri power St. Teresa's Academy and Nebraska Class A three-time defending state champion Papillion-LaVista South, last season's Xcellent 25 national champion.
The latter border battle will more than likely pit two teams ranked nationally in the Top 10.
"We have to play consistently," Zarda said about the Oct. 5 match against Papillion-LaVista South. "We must not do anything that's over the top. We have to stay calm and play our game to the best of our ability. And we must not do anything that's out of our comfort zone."
In order to prepare her volleyball team for the rigors of the Thunder schedule, Dorsey runs what she calls college-esque practices. Long on hours and intense, Dorsey puts her squad through efficient, fast-paced workouts.
"I love playing for her," Zarda said. "She's very intense and I love that about her. Her practices are very intense. We're always doing something – you're never standing around at practice. You're always moving. We do a lot of scrimmaging, which is fun, and we do work on drills. But we mostly scrimmage and compete."
Dorsey, who is assisted by her husband Bryan and sister Jennifer Gile as well as Lindsay Hernandez, Bob Ehler and Kira Seik, brought just one season of head coaching experience to the job when she resurrected the Thunder volleyball program in 2005.
But that didn't seem to hinder a Thunder volleyball team that took on a freshman-only schedule during its inaugural season. Since that initial season Dorsey's squad has experienced nothing but success at the varsity level.
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