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HARTINGTON — Cedar Catholic coach Denae Buss, in her 12th season at the helm of the Lady Trojan volleyball fortunes, returns plenty of firepower for another great season on the court.
Gone are the likes of Bailey Hochstein, McKinlee Lammers, Lauren Bernecker, Katelyn Arens, Lyndsey Hamilton and Melayna McGregor, but mix in some returners and some players ready to take their turn at the top of the Cedar Catholic mountain, and the Lady Trojans seem ready to make their 15th run at a trip to Lincoln later in the fall.
Basically three starters return from last year’s team that ended the season in the D1 state tournament.
Senior Addison Walter and a pair of juniors, Brynn Bernecker and Anisten Wortmann, return to try to lead their team through the normal rocky road of the Mid State Conference and the other talented teams in northeast Nebraska.
Bernecker registered over 100 kills last season as a sophomore, Walter also went over 100 winners and Wortmann had over 80.
Walter’s classmates Savannah Pick, Ava Stewart, Autumn Kathol, Reese Albers and Jocelyn Bottolfsen all lettered last season and Pick saw a lot of action while Kathol was recovering from an ACL tear, but seems ready to go for her final season at Cedar.
Kally Becker joins Bernecker and Wortmann as a returning letterwinner and a junior while Madison Eickhoff and Calley Stewart return for their second seasons after lettering as freshmen.
Pierce, Norfolk Catholic, Battle Creek and the Lady Trojans should be the cream of the Mid State crop according to Buss and many prognosticators in the sport, but the “rest” of the conference will be more than formidable, as usual.
The Lady Trojans will open the 2025 campaign on the road in a triangular hosted by Randolph which will include the Homer Lady Knights on Aug. 28.
A trip to Norfolk to take on Lutheran High Northeast followed by the Scotus Invitational in Columbus opens September on Sept. 2 and Sept. 6 respectively then a Mid State date with Crofton on the road is set for Sept. 9.
