Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Time to read
2 minutes
Read so far

Kathol starts her final season of high school volleyball on a strong note

Posted in:

— Alan Dale Cedar County News HARTINGTON — Everything is coming up big for Laney Kathol these days.

The Cedar Catholic senior has made quite the name for herself as an athlete for the Lady Trojans sports program and soon she will begin to attempt to do the same at Wayne State College.

Of course, the future volleyball player for the NCAA Division II program still has plenty of work to do in Hartington, and if her performance on Aug. 30 is any indication, she will have one huge farewell tour.

Kathol broke the school record for kills in a match, pounding out 27 terminations against Lutheran High Northeast in Cedar Catholic’s home opener on a night where everything went right — well, almost everything. Her team lost the match in four sets.

It happened only a week or so after declaring she would sign with Wayne State and make it official in November.

“Laney has really been a big part of our offense her entire high school career and has really worked hard on improving all aspects of her game,” Cedar Catholic head volleyball coach Denae Buss said. “She has an outstanding hit and has really grown into mixing up her hits. She is a very steady blocker and has a deadly serve.”

Kathol has always been a solid player, but this year she has become a strong six-rotation player, as well.

“Laney is such a dynamic player, and this year, is evolving into a six-rotation player for us, which is very nice to see,” Buss said. “She is so exciting to watch play and she cares about growing and her teammates deeply.”

Kathol said the record doesn’t happen without her teammates doing their jobs.

“Our setter (Meredith McGregor) had a super night and she was doing really well,” Kathol said.

“It was a first home game, so everyone was pretty excited, and we wanted to show them what we’ve got. They didn’t have a huge block on the right side, so that kind of helped. We mixed it up a lot – I ran some middle hits and then would go out on the outside and run different things. That confused their block a little bit. Meredith did a really good job of switching things ups.”

Kathol is getting used to the six-rotation role, but admitted, “it’s getting easier every game.”

Kathol verbally committed to Wayne State just a few weeks earlier and this was after getting a NCAA Division I scholarship offer to run track at South Dakota State University.

“It is nice knowing that I have made that decision and I can go out and play,” Kathol said. “I still feel the same pressure to do well every time, but it’s nice to have that over with. I want to go into an animal degree and SDSU is a really good school for that.

“Then I went to the Wayne State volleyball game this summer and it felt really special when I was there. I scrimmaged with the team, and they were really nice and welcoming. It just felt like I was supposed to be there.”

Wayne State will also offer studies that fall under Kathol’s radar with a pre-veterinary degree.

She left her time scrimmaging with the Wayne State women and has confidence about playing there and in one of the elite Division II conferences in the country.

“It went a lot better than I thought – I was scared to go up against their middles, but I got up some blocks,” Kathol said. “My blocking has always been my strongest part, but (the coach) told me that I might start out on the right side or somewhere else and then work toward the middle. The ability to do the different positions and do those the best I can, I feel that will kind of be a bonus coming in.”

Wayne State started this season 8-0 through Sunday and finished 22-8 overall and 14-6 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference last year.