Lady Cats see improvement after team, KU camp

By Andy Brown
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Updated: July 31, 2017

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

Louisburg High School sophomore Riley Kallevig works on a passing drill during the Lady Cat team camp on July 13. The Lady Cats completed a busy summer that included a trip to the University of Kansas team camp.

The Louisburg High School volleyball team was just a match away from earning a spot at another state tournament last season.

The Lady Cats, which had won four straight substate championships before their loss to rival Paola in the substate title game last year, have been busy at work all summer in hopes of making sure they don’t fall short this time around. Whether it was at their team camp, summer workouts or in the weight room, they are ready to make another run at the state tournament.

It all started in June with open gyms and summer league action, followed up with its three-day camp that ended on July 12. Louisburg had approximately 38 girls out during the camp and 35 more during the middle school session earlier in the day.

“Overall camp week went well,” Louisburg coach Jessica Compliment said. “We are able to work on skills throughout the summer at open gym, but the three day camp gave us a chance to consolidate and concentrate on more specific skills and aspects of the game that we wanted to focus on. Because we have three groups playing weekly during the summer, we were able to focus on game scenarios that showed up during our matches.”

Despite the strong workouts, Compliment wasn’t able to get her full team together much throughout the summer, but it all changed when the Lady Cats traveled to the University of Kansas team camp that began on July 13.

Compliment took 22 players to the KU camp for three days and she got a chance to see her team all together for the first time and she liked what she saw.

“Summers can be very busy so the KU camp was the first time we had consistency among players, so I was able to work through a few potential rotations,” Compliment said. “By the end of the camp, the players were playing really well together and pulled off some big wins during the tournament. Hopefully the momentum and confidence from the KU camp will carry through to the season.”

Louisburg head coach Jessica Compliment gives some instruction during the Lady Cats’ team camp on July 13.

Each player got instruction from the Jayhawk coaches during their time in Lawrence and she saw her team take a big leap forward.

“They focused on team ‘practices’ and scrimmaged each evening giving the athletes a lot of court time and touches on the ball,” Compliment said. “It also gave them a chance to work with the KU coaching staff and practice with a variety of teams. Both of the ‘teams’ that traveled to KU saw big improvements from day 1 to day 3. It was a long week for those athletes, but they saw improvements and had a chance to bond. Between the three ‘teams’ for summer league, we had 36 participants and each ‘team’ saw improvement from the first match of the summer to the last match.”

The Lady Cats return most of their varsity roster from a season ago from a team that finished with a 23-17 record and featured a difficult schedule against a number of bigger schools.

Louisburg returns its top two hitters in Anna Dixon (Kansas State commit) and Sophie McMullen (Northwest Missouri State commit), along with setter Carson Buffington, hitters Haley Cain, Mikayla Quinn and libero Riley Kallevig as a good foundation to build on after all six players saw varsity time last season.

The Lady Cats are anxious to see what this coming year brings when they start practice on Aug. 14.