Firelands seeks another LC8 title

There has been a lot of success for Firelands volleyball the past couple of years.

The Falcons are the two-time defending LC8 champions, and they lost a combined one match during that reign. But it will be a different team on the court this year that’s vying for a three-peat.

“The biggest thing that I’ve been telling them is that it’s a new season and we to start over again,” Firelands coach Mason Cooley said. “This is a brand new season, and you have to work hard if you want to do anything.”

After winning 20 games last season and going undefeated in the LC8, Firelands loses a couple of impact seniors. Lexi Mack will be a huge loss as she averaged 4.4 kills per set and finished with over 42% of the Falcons’ kills in 2022. Lauren Valerius was also heavily relied on with 2.3 kills per set, so the attack in 2023 will have some new pieces.

As good as those two players were, Firelands does have some key pieces returning. Ally Stewart, Kalley Leimbach and Hailey Urban had the next three best kill totals on the team last year, and they’re all back. Setter Grace Tansey averaged 8.6 assists per set last season, and having her back will help the returning hitters fill into their different roles.

“We’re really excited, especially since we won the conference championship the past two years,” Stewart said. “I think going out on a third one would feel really good, especially for us four seniors.”

Now in the second year of Cooley’s tenure, there’s more familiarity on this year’s team despite some newcomers. More athletes showed up this summer, and the girls have good attitudes towards each other right now, he said.

A big part of that has been the leadership this offseason from the seniors. Winning is contagious, and the success has had an impact on the younger players in the program. At one time, those younger players who are now veterans players were looking up to

the girls before them.

“I just see it as playing for inspiration for the younger girls because we have two freshmen with us this year,” Stewart said. “They’re both pretty excited to be on varsity this year, and we’ve had girls in the past who were on the varsity as freshmen. It’s cool because knowing I was once a younger player starting in volleyball, and it’s crazy now to think that there’s middle schoolers looking up to me as a high schooler now.”

Firelands has dominated the conference as of late, but now the playing field appears to be balanced this year. The LC8 as a whole was balanced other than the Falcons, but other teams such as Columbia return a lot of players.

It will take some help from those younger players for Firelands as Stella Fredrick and Josi Kirby are the two freshmen that are on the varsity this season. Libero Lexi Schrader is the only sophomore on this team. The Falcons also have a strong junior class of three led by returning dig leader Andie Eberhardt.

More than anything, consistent is what Firelands has been. This season, however, it’s going to continually serve as a reminder of what this team needs to be.

“We have a good group, but there’s a couple of teams in our conference that loaded up this year,” Cooley said. “We have our work cut out for us if want to repeat again. I don’t think it’s about being spectacular, it’s about being consistent.”