Our main focus right now is getting the incoming freshmen up to speed and teaching them our defense so we can hit the ground running when we start league play in July.”

Molly Sly

ROCHELLE — Serving and receiving are two areas of emphasis for the Rochelle Lady Hub varsity volleyball team as the program begins its summer schedule this offseason. With a large incoming freshman class and several core varsity players coming back, head coach Molly Sly and her staff have been encouraged with the early turnout and the competitive atmosphere.

The Lady Hubs are holding open gyms every Monday evening from 7-8 p.m. at RTHS from June 3 through July 1. Rochelle will begin summer league action in Rockford next month, when the Lady Hubs are scheduled to host their annual high school and youth volleyball camps. The high school camp runs July 8-11 from 12:30-2:30 p.m. and the youth camp runs from 11-12:30 p.m.

“Our main focus right now is getting the incoming freshmen up to speed and teaching them our defense so we can hit the ground running when we start league play in July,” Sly said. “We had 28 girls at our first open gym on Monday, which was fantastic because we have a lot of girls playing club volleyball right now. We have a great senior class. We have two girls who’ve played three years at the varsity level and another who has played two years at the varsity level.”

Among the skills that will be covered during open gyms and during the high school and youth camps next month are blocking, setting, serving, hitting, passing and digging along with offensive and defensive strategies. The Lady Hubs, who are looking to build on a 17-16 record from the 2023 season, will seek to replace a small group of graduating seniors including three-year varsity middle blocker Kennedy Adamski and two-year varsity hitter Alivia Henkel.

“I thought we struggled with service errors last year and we’re hoping to have stronger serves and not as many service errors this year,” Sly said. “Our serve receive is always an area where we either serve receive well and win the game or we don’t serve receive well and we lose.”

Rochelle will welcome back a handful of multi-year varsity starters including rising senior Dempsey Atkinson and rising senior outside hitter Taelynn Rodeghero, who are both entering their fourth varsity seasons. Rising senior setter Ali Ohlinger has earned All-Conference honors in each of the last two seasons and will continue to steer the Rochelle offense in 2024. 

But Rochelle’s success this coming fall could hinge on more contributions from its rising junior class, which includes Jaydin Dickey and Meredith Bruns, who each earned varsity playing time as sophomores last season. The Lady Hubs have three rising juniors at middle blocker, Audyn Kemp, Kyrie Cragin and Ava Horner, who Sly said have shown flashes of potential this summer.

“I’m really excited to see Dempsey’s presence in the back row,” Sly said. “Taelynn went all the way around last season and we’ll be counting on her for another year of serve receiving this season. Jaydin and Meredith have great setting hands as well, so I’m excited to see what we can do with possibly moving Ali back to serve receive and maybe letting her have some swings."

"We are in need of a middle to step up this summer and I thought both Kyrie and Ava showed some fire during our first open gym. Audyn’s improvement from the first day of summer league last year to the last match of the season was like night and day. She worked really hard during the season and she looked fantastic on Monday. I think she’s going to be a great leader.”