By Chris Parker
Aurora volleyball enters its second season with Krishna Cullers as the head coach coming off an eight-win season. The Houn Dawgs were a young team last year, which means an experienced group is returning.
“The biggest difference between last year and this upcoming year for us will be a lot more maturity and experience on our end,” Cullers said. “A large majority of our varsity team last year was made up of sophomores. Now that they’re juniors, they’ve got a lot more confidence and experience. To add to that, we have amazing leadership in our lone senior.”
That lone senior is defensive specialist Mya Lara.
“She’s a defensive specialist and her leadership is everything this team needs,” Cullers said. “She sets the tone by working hard at every practice, holds everyone accountable, has great energy, and is just everything you could want out of a team leader. She’ll be a huge go-to player for us this year.”
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Seven juniors in Kymaran Darnall, Jacey Willcock, Jacey Lee, Janie Barnes, Alexa Cline, Kaylee Van-Voorst Wilson and Sydney Clifford.
Cullers on Darnall: “She’ll be our key hitter this year as a very strong outside. She missed a good deal of season last year due to an injury, so it’s really exciting to have her back and see how great her impact will be on the team this year.”
Cullers on Willcock: “She is our setter this year and the growth from last year to this year is tremendous. She did a great job on junior varsity last year and now will do amazing leading our varsity offense this year.”
Cullers on Lee: “She’ll be our starting middle and is an insanely smart player. She is really smart with her ball placement and will be such a key piece in our offense.”
Cullers on Barnes: “Janie our libero and has really stepped up in a huge way for our defense, while also providing such positive energy and excitement for our team.”
Cullers on Cline: “Alexa is our right side hitter with a very powerful swing. She’s a huge benefit to our offense and really helps us balance the floor and be able to spread out our offense.”
Cullers on Van-Voorst Wilson: “She is a middle hitter who is getting so much better every single day. It’s incredibly exciting to see her grow into the strong potential that she has.”
Cullers on Clifford: “Sydney is a defensive specialist who has is very versatile. Sydney can easily play front row or back row or all the way around. She has an amazing work ethic and her energy is just an added bonus for our team.”
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Sophomore Kena Hall (outside) rounds out the returning players.
“Kena is an outside who is just really a spectacular athlete with a lot of fire and she really brings out a competitive edge to our team,” Cullers said. “She has an insane amount of potential and it’s exciting to see her future on the team.”
Experience will go from a weakness last year to a strength this season.
“One of our biggest strengths this year will be the level of experience these girls have. For a lot of our juniors, they already have a ton of varsity experience and a ton of experience playing together. Being comfortable playing with each other and with the leadership of Mya Lara, it will be a really exciting year for our team,” Cullers said. “Something our team can focus on improving for this year is leaning into the confidence that is starting to show through. Now that the majority of varsity is upperclassmen instead of underclassmen, they really need to learn to play with the confidence that I see in practice every day.”
Aurora will travel to Carthage for a jamboree on Aug. 23 with the host Tigers, Nevada and Joplin. Aurora opens the regular season on Aug. 30 at Lamar.
“I have very high expectations this year and I think that the team does too,” Cullers said. “We’re all very excited for this year and very excited to compete in our conference and in districts this year.”
