{"id":105672,"date":"2018-08-10T04:22:27","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T09:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=105672"},"modified":"2018-08-10T04:22:27","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T09:22:27","slug":"preview-van-wert-hs-volleyball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/08\/10\/preview-van-wert-hs-volleyball\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Van Wert HS volleyball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no way around it \u2013 last season was a rough one for the Van Wert Lady Cougars volleyball team.<\/p>\n<p>The Lady Cougars went just 4-19 (2-7 WBL), but head coach Jeff Marbaugh\u2019s squad has enough talent to make a substantial jump in the standings this year.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-96499\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/VW-Cougars_stacked-copy.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" \/>Six letter winners return for Van Wert, led by seniors Adrianna Grothause (libero), Lainy Werts (outside hitter), Noelle Heffner (setter), Reagen Priest (outside hitter), and juniors Jamison Clouse (middle hitter) and Katie Coplin (setter).<\/p>\n<p>Head coach Jeff Marbaugh believes the experience of the letter winners will pay dividends this season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAdrianna will be a three year varsity starter,\u201d Marbaugh said. \u201cThe other five girls that lettered last year were counted on to make plays, so they have their feet wet as to how to handle varsity play and be productive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would also say our team speed will be an asset for us this year,\u201d Marbaugh added.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The returning letter winners will be joined by several others, including senior Avery Cowan, juniors Cassie Priest, Grace Spoor and McKenzie Berry, along with sophomores Jaylyn Rickard and Izzy Carr.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe we have a good group of players, and I think we are starting to get that hunger and passion to be a better team,\u201d Marbaugh said. \u201cWe just have to continue to work on consistency in ball control.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a great summer of work and have shown a great attitude about working to be better,\u201d the coach added.<\/p>\n<p>Ottawa-Glandorf is the returning WBL champion, followed by runner-up Shawnee. Celina, St. Marys and Defiance tied for third place last season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m not one to pick a few teams to be at the top, but the league will be very competitive,\u201d Marbaugh explained. \u201cOn any given night if you don&#8217;t play well, your opponent has a pretty good shot at beating you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Van Wert\u2019s volleyball season will begin August 21 at Lincolnview, and the Western Buckeye League opener will be August 30 against Wapakoneta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor There\u2019s no way around it \u2013 last season was a rough one for the Van Wert Lady Cougars volleyball team. The Lady Cougars went just 4-19 (2-7 WBL), but head coach Jeff Marbaugh\u2019s squad has enough talent to make a substantial jump in the standings this year. Six letter winners return [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 11:50:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}