When the Hampton-Dumont-CAL volleyball team bowed out of the regional postseason last week, it was the end of a kind of season that hadn’t been experienced by the program in more than a decade. At 17-12, the Bulldogs completed their first winning season since 2011.
Head Coach Sarah Miller says two seniors who were four-year starters, outside hitter Aubryee Showalter and libero Abby Drier, were crucial in turning the program around.
“Aubryee definitely has worked her tail off,” Miller says. ” Since she was little, she played club ball. She just knows the game of volleyball very, very well. She’s able to execute. I know that when it’s going to her, we’re going to score a point and we’re going to be putting it in into a great place for us. Abby is just running that defense for us all over the place. The balls that she gets are absolutely amazing. Those two definitely have led us throughout our season. They’ve been able to play since they were freshmen on the varsity level. So very proud of just their growth and all of their skills. They’ve given our underclassmen, our middle schoolers, our elementary girls something to look up to, something to work towards.”
Those two were part of a team that went just 3-25 in 2021.
Showalter ended the season with 238 kills and Drier recorded 353 digs; both marks were the third-best in the North Central Conference.
This year’s team included nine seniors.
