By Rubin E. Grant
Spain Park volleyball coach Kellye Bowen doesn’t put much stock in rankings.
When the AL.com preseason volleyball poll came out with the Jaguars perched at No. 1 in Class 7A, Bowen greeted it with a shrug.
“What matters is how you play in October,” she said, referring to the postseason. “The main question is, are we just an August or September team? It boils down to how we play in October.”
The Jags were a pretty good October team in 2020, reaching the Class 7A finals before losing to cross-town rival Hoover and finishing with a 27-11 record.
They have started this season in dominating fashion. Spain Park won the 39th Juanita Boddie Invitational last weekend at the Finley Center in Hoover. The Jags were 8-0 in the tournament and didn’t drop a set, sweeping Bayside Academy in two sets (25-18, 25-21) in the finals to win the Boddie for the first time in school history.
“I think it was a tremendous effort by our group,” Bowen said. “I thought all 13 players played their role and did their job really well. They played to their potential and then some.
“We were down in a couple matches and came back. When you play that many matches in two days, you get tired and you’re going to make mistakes, but when they made a mistake, they did a good job of bouncing back. I think the best word to describe it is resilient.”
The Jags (10-0) opened the season last Thursday at home with two-set sweeps of James Clemens and Buckhorn.
Spain Park has the bulk of its 2020 team returning this season, including five seniors and eight juniors. “They are seasoned, let’s call them that,” Bowen said.
At the head of the class, figuratively and literally, is versatile 6-foot-4 senior outside hitter Audrey Rothman, who Bowen considers the top player in the state ahead of Hoover’s Rya McKinnon, who was the 2020 Alabama Gatorade Volleyball Player of the Year.
Rothman is committed to Florida State for indoor and beach volleyball. She recorded 512 kills, 244 assists, 185 digs, 64 aces and 50 blocks last season.
“Audrey has been with me for five years, a long time,” Bowen said. “I think she is the best player in the state. When we needed another setter last year, she stepped into that role. She has the best hands of any player in the state. She can play any position. She can play libero and of course she shoulders the role as our outside hitter. I’m not taking anything away from Rya, but I am a little biased.”
Rothman, junior outside hitter Emily Breazeale, senior right side hitter Bella Halyard, senior middle blocker Olivia Myers and junior middle blocker McKinney Shea, who also will play right side depending on the situation and opponent, give the Jags a formidable front row.
Paige Ingersoll, another senior outside hitter, shows a great deal of leadership, Bowen said. The other senior is outside hitter Brooke Gober.
Two other key players for the Jags are junior libero Brooklyn Allison, one of the best defensive specialists in the state, and junior setter Lilly Johnson.
“Last year’s success doesn’t roll over into this year and this group has to find its own identity,” Bowen said. “You can’t overlook the other teams in central Alabama. There are a lot of good teams around here.
“The expectations are the same as they have been for the last eight years. We have a standard and a culture that we hold them to every day. I feel like they do a good job of having accountability.
“We’ve got to play to our standards and we have to move forward and learn from our failures. We have a lot to prove to each other and everyone.”
