‘Scrappy’ Agates look for wins

• Celebration

The girls celebrate a point. Jill Innis
• Defense

Krista Keranen, Casey Cross and Claire Hoffert defend against a Grand Rapids spike. Jill Innis
• Nelson

Lynea Nelson tips one over the net. Jill Innis

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Beth Innis, a 2008 Two Harbors High School graduate, played volleyball in high school. Now in her first year of coaching at her alma mater, she said directing the team is a totally different ball game.

“It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been awesome and I love it,” she said.

She has four returning seniors this year, but the team lost seven to graduation last year. Captain and junior Claire Hoffert called this a “rebuilding” year, but Innis said the girls’ teamwork indicates otherwise.

“They act like they’ve played together for years,” she said.

Hoffert really holds the team together, she said, during a season that hasn’t always been easy. They’ve only tallied one win so far. Innis said their toughest matches were in the first half of the season and they should be more competitive in the coming games.

The team has worked a lot on passing, but their focus has shifted to hitting. They’ve gotten good at setting up plays and are working hard to improve finishing—criticizing the ball over the net to score points.

After their game in Carlton on Sept. 25, Innis said the girls really came together as a team. She was frustrated after the match but on the ride home, the girls called her to the back of the bus to show her a list they’d made. It showed over 20 things they wanted to improve.

“They just bounce back from tough games and do things without me even asking them to,” she said while the girls ran self-directed laps on the bleachers behind her.

Hoffert works hard to maintain that positive, can-do attitude among her team members. She said that, as a captain, she tries to let her teammates know “we’re not going to give up,” even if the game seems impossible.

“We’re going to do a lot better than when we started out,” Hoffert predicted for the rest of the season.

Innis thinks so too—her “scrappy group of girls” is ready to show off the skills they’ve been working on all season, she said.

Tags: two harbors, sports, volleyball