BROOKINGS The Brookings volleyball team opened the 2025 season on Tuesday night and although the Bobcats lost the season opener, they feel there are reasons to be optimistic this season.
Brookings graduated seven seniors last season and although that leads to an inexperienced team, Bobcat head coach Erinn Thomas believes this makes for an exciting season as many players on her team will be playing at the varsity level for the first time.
Weve got a lot of girls that are playing or earning varsity minutes for the first time this year, Thomas said. Weve been trying to get them comfortable and confident and playing fearless, which Im excited for them to keep growing into. Also, I just want them to take over the leadership roles and become great role models for our younger players. Im excited for that and for them to step into their own roles in the program.
Brookings has six seniors on the roster this year and Thomas feels its a good group that sets the tone for the rest of the roster.
Macy Even was awesome [in the first match]. She carried a big load and had 17 kills and 23 digs for us. [Kamryn Streich] played great defense and had 29 assists. I am excited to see our other varsity players step into playing and leadership roles. Its been fun to see them step into their own, Thomas said.
The Bobcats have three juniors and three sophomores to fill out the roster. Thomas said those players have been pushing the upperclassmen in practice and its resulted in competitive practices that have made the team better.
I think our younger players have really been pushing us in practice. Weve had some scrimmages with the varsity and JV and weve had a lot of girls play varsity and JV in the same evening, so its been fun to see that competition. Theyre doing a good job of pushing us, Thomas said.
This will be Thomas third season leading the Bobcats. Brookings went 9-18 in her first season and 14-18 last season. Each season ended with a loss in the SoDak 16.
Thomas is hoping to change that this year and said the first step to winning in the SoDak 16 is hosting a playoff match. She said in order to do that the Bobcats have to play with confidence.
For us, we want to finish in the top three in the [Eastern South Dakota Conference] and host a SoDak 16 match. In order to do that we have to have consistency in our passing and compete together with confidence through the ebbs and flows of the season, Thomas said.
Brookings plays at Hamlin on Thursday at 7:15 p.m.
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