By Bill Bray
FREMONT — Coach Lindi Cahill begins her fifth season at the helm of the Fremont Ross Volleyball Program. Her culture that she brought to the program in 2019 has taken it from a flailing one to the school’s brightest in it’s Volleyball history.
Volleyball began in 1976. Since that time, the sport has had its ups and downs. It’s had three winning coaches. Beth Muffler (1993-1997) coached her teams to 92 wins and 22 losses. Karrie Gardner (1998-2001) guided her teams to a 46-26 record. Steve Barr, coach for just two seasons was 23-20. Now Cahill, since the 2019 season, stands at 44-41. The 2022 Little Giants reached the district tournament for the first time in a dozen years.
Last season was Cahill’s best season as she and her troops finished the 2022 campaign with a 20-5 record. It was the best season record since 2001 at 20-3.
Abigail Cahill
Jocelyn Hines
Leading the 2023 charge are a pair of seniors in Abigail Cahill and Jocelyn Hines, who each finished second team and honorable mention respectively last season in the old TRAC return as admirable leaders for this year’s team. “Abigail and Jocelyn have really helped define the program’s culture over the last three years and have helped set a strong, positive, growth mindset tone this summer.
Junior Lyndi Wolf returns. At 6’2” she is one of if not the tallest player Ross has ever had on the court. Wolf was a first team All-TRAC selection in 2022 and her coach knows what she brings to the court. “We look for Lyndi to continue to be an efficient and effective terminator for us,” Cahill said. “She attacks a lot of balls in our offense and can put away many of them while limiting her errors. Her hitting and kill percentages are impressive numbers.”
The last of the “FAB FOUR” is junior Sydney Weickert. Weickert will be the in charge of the offense for Cahill’s team. “Sydney stepped into that role last year and had a stellar sophomore season,” Cahill said. “She currently ranks 2nd in career assists for the Little Giants and has the ability to completely rewrite the record books.”
“We look for Kilee Kidd, Brook Baacke, Mia Durnwald and Rylann Fox to keep expanding their roles,” Cahill said of her other
players. “They all have had great summers and will be big contributors this season. They are high character kids; fantastic teammates and they are going to surprise some people with how well they are doing their jobs.”
Joining the varsity this season four more players that Cahill is enthused about. “We’re excited about freshman Tierra Parker, sophomore Brey Biller, junior Reese Smith and freshman Rahnia Ruiz and their gutty, aggressive styles of play.”
Cahill sees the 2023 schedule even more challenging than the 2022 line up of games.
We’re playing on the road more than we are at home which can be tiring because we play so many matches each week,” Cahill said. “We do, however, feel like we have the opportunity to have a good season and we’re going to do our best to make the most of it.”
The Little Giants begin their 2023 campaign Tuesday evening with a match against North Lakes League opponent, Sylvania Northview at Ross High School.