THE LAST DANCE
Before futures diverge, Oppenhuis and Schara want to push Crown Point deep into postseason
Crown Point senior Kyla Oppenhuis loves the beach.
The Bulldogs’ 5-foot-9 outside hitter spends plenty of lazy summer days there, but her fondness for the sand also involves sports. She intends to play beach volleyball in college once she settles on a school.
“It’s like a completely different sport,” Oppenhuis said of beach volleyball. “I feel like I’m learning a lot out there. It’s really competitive and really fun.”
Classmate Kendall Schara, a 5-8 outside hitter, will be playing volleyball for Green Bay next year — but she’s opting for the more traditional indoor version of the sport.
“I’ve tried to play beach myself, and it was … fine,” Schara said, as Oppenhuis burst into laughter nearby. “It’s just not my forte,” Schara said.
Their futures in the sport might be different, but their present focus is the same. They want to help Crown Point advance deep into the postseason, which continues Saturday in a Class 4A LaPorte Regional semifinal against Munster.
Schara and Oppenhuis have been fixtures in Crown Point’s lineup this season. Schara has a team-high 348 kills, and Oppenhuis is second with 214.
They also are key defensive contributors. Schara is second on the team with 290 digs, and Oppenhuis is fifth with 197.
During their sophomore years, Schara and Oppenhuis weren’t on the court together as frequently, often subbing for each other as Schara worked on attacking skills and Oppenhuis refined her defensive game. They’re well-rounded players now.
“It’s nice that they’ve both developed into six-rotation players because that doesn’t always happen,” Crown Point coach Alison Duncan said. “And it’s great to have them on the outside because they’re able to take those huge shots and they’re effective with them, giving the other team a different look.”
Although neither player towers over opponents, Duncan said they’ve accounted for that by finding crafty, creative ways to navigate around blockers.
“They’re hitting balls all over the place,” Duncan said. “They’ll hit it across, hit it down the line, hit it high off the hands. … They make a lot of good choices.”
Each player also benefits from her leaping ability, which Oppenhuis said improved with all her time running on sand.
“Over the last year I’ve become faster and stronger and started jumping higher,” she said. “And that’s improved my game here.”
Shifting from beach to indoor did force Oppenhuis to make an adjustment.
“Sometimes I have to slow myself down because I’ll overrun balls,” she said. “It’s a challenge switching between both, but I just have to find that balance between the two.”
Schara’s emergence started in her junior season, when she led the team with 318 kills — a result of constant work in practice to improve on the things that were keeping her on the bench at times as an underclassman.
“Playing only in the back row was a challenge for me because I’d been a six-rotation player my whole life,” she said. “I had to adapt and accept my position. But in practice, I was always asking Duncan what else I needed to do, and I was focused on that.”
After a 2020 season full of uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic, Schara said the Bulldogs have been able to make the most out of their season so far.
“We’re all together a lot more this season,” she said. “Knowing that we all went through that experience of last season, we all feel so grateful that we’ve been given this season.”