Coming off of the best season in program history will be no easy task for the Pella Volleyball team when they set to return to the court in a few weeks.

Runners-up in Class 4A and graduating six of eight seniors would be quite the burden for most teams, but Head Coach Catie Brand believes they have a solid core of athletes returning and stepping up to fill the vacated roles, including two of their best outside hitters from a season ago.

“We bring back our two biggest offensive pieces, which is Emily Holterhaus and Natalie Clayberg from last season–they lead our team in kills and they were both really strong presence on the court, and they were sophomores, so they’ve come in with this junior confidence that’s we’ve seen this summer,” Brand says.

Brand says Senior Kara Wichhart is filling the role of setter to feed the ball to the heavy hitters, while a mix of juniors and seniors will fill out the rest of the Lady Dutch rotation, many that have been waiting in the wings for their chance after the class of 2017 saw most of the playing time over the past two years.

Pella starts their season on August 22nd when they travel to Ballard.