<p>Even by Brooke Phillips’ high standards, this past summer was a pretty good one on the club volleyball circuit.</p><p>Now, she’s trying to carry that mojo through her final high school season.</p><p>Phillips, a senior setter at Franklin, helped lead her club team, Circle City 17 Purple, to a fifth-place finish at the Girls Junior National Championships. She was named to the all-tournament team, capping her second All-American summer in three years.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>“I think I got a lot better in club season,” Phillips said. “I think my hands have always been improving. That’s the main thing as a setter, is always keeping your hands fresh, and I think my hands have gotten a lot better since last year.”</p><p>The rest of the volleyball world took notice. PrepVolleyball.com named Phillips to its annual Senior Aces list, an honor reserved for the top 150 senior players in the country.</p><p>In the past, Phillips might have felt compelled to shoulder a little bit more of the offensive workload — especially when surrounded with a younger supporting cast, as she was last season. But she’s settled in to more of a distributor role so far this year; she’s down about half a kill per set from the 1.9 she averaged in 2016 and 2017.</p><p>“She’s relied a lot on her hitters,” Franklin coach Roxanne Chapman said. “Last year (against Center Grove) she would have had 20 kills. I think she’s really trusting some of her hitters right now and she’s setting a good ball. She’s pulling the block; now I’ve just got to figure out some of my players to finish the play.”</p><p>Phillips says that trusting her teammates is a lot easier now, especially with sophomores such as Kabria Chapman and Cami Kelsay having a year of varsity experience under their belts.</p><p>“It’s been a lot different,” Phillips said. “Obviously Kabria and Cami have both improved so much, and so that helps me out as a setter, to mix the ball up with them. And my outside hitters are doing great stepping in, stepping up, like Brooklyn Peddycord. It’s a process; we’re working hard.”</p><p>Never one to rest on her laurels, Phillips is continuing to push herself in pursuit of dual goals.</p><p>First, she wants to help lead the Grizzly Cubs to county and sectional championships — which would mean getting past the Center Grove team that has stood in their way for Phillips’ entire career, including in a narrow five-set defeat last week.</p><p>“Obviously, it’s in our heads,” Phillips said. “They’re Center Grove; it’s a rival.”</p><p>Upon graduation, she’ll be taking her talents to Nashville, Tennessee, to continue her playing career at Lipscomb. The Bison were 16-13 last season and lost in the semifinals of the Atlantic Sun tournament.</p><p>Phillips hopes to have herself in a position to help them move upward beginning next fall.</p><p>“Just working hard and getting better is really what I’m trying to do and focus on,” she said.</p>
