Fall 2017 Preview: Central Volleyball

By Josh Hall (josh.hall@ky3.com)

Springfield Central High School senior Claire Zuch recently had a conversation with a freshman teammate on the Lady Bulldogs volleyball team. The underclassman told Zuch she plays pickup volleyball with her cousin every weekend at a local park.

“A lot of our players get really creative,” Zuch said.

Zuch was referring to the number of athletes that play club volleyball year-round, something that has become the norm in recent years.

But there is one drawback to that — not every family has the money to send their child to play at the club level. Of the 28 players on Central’s roster, only 15 play on a club team.

The passion to play is still there, but monetary restraints are why some athletes have to find other ways to try to improve their game.

“Central is not as affluent as some of these other schools, so we do have a lot of kids who simply can’t afford to pay the $4,000 from Springfield Juniors Volleyball to travel to Texas for a weekend,” said Zuch, an IB student, who previously played at the club level. “We don’t necessarily have all that club experience that we see other teams have, but we do have a lot of passion, which can be just as valuable. As far as not being one of the more affluent schools, we still have a lot of students to work their way around that.”

Despite their efforts, it still leaves non-club players a step behind.

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Central head coach Lisiane Matsdorff sees it all the time. The veteran coach hopes to change that one day to create a more equal playing field, but she knows it will take time.

Matsdorff, now in her second year at Central, coached for 20 years in Brazil before moving to the United States in 2009 to learn English.

Prior to accepting the job at Central, Matsdorff was a volunteer assistant for the Missouri State volleyball team. Before that, she was a graduate assistant at Southwest Baptist University. In her first two years in the United States, she was the junior assistant coach at Northeastern Junior College in Colorado.

All the while, she was earning her degree.

“Coach Mats and the varsity team is really working on building Central up as a program and doing something that nobody really expects of us, which is kind of exciting since Central is kind of always the underdog at sports,” Zuch said.

Central went 10-17-1 last season after falling to Lebanon in two sets in the opening round of the Class 4 District 10 tournament.

The Lady Bulldogs lose six seniors to graduation from that team, but they return seven in 2017. Those numbers are encouraging.

“I saw good improvement, and I can see right now when we participated in summer leagues, we had better results than last season,” Matsdorff said. “I really want Central to have good results in the future. What I want is to improve our results every single year.

“They have potential. I have a team that has really good potential.”

Returning from last season are seniors Farmer (OH), Zoe Hancock (OH), Zuch (RSH), Bailey Carmichael (MH), Lindsey Gaddy (MH), Sami Lick (L). The veteran group is joined by fellow returners Mariah Oke (junior MH/RSH) and Jaley Rice (sophomore S).

“We have a really good team this year,” Farmer said. “I think it’s going to be a good season this year.”