Center Grove senior Katie Egenolf is the Daily Journal Player of the Year in volleyball.
SCOTT ROBERSON | DAILY JOURNAL
Katie Egenolf’s senior volleyball season at Center Grove wasn’t feeling all that Center Grove-like at first.
The Trojans were 5-3 heading into Labor Day weekend, with some uncharacteristic losses and the wins much more hard-earned than usual; each of those first five victories required five sets to finish off.
It was a young team — Egenolf and Avery Holubar the only seniors on the roster — adjusting to a new head coach in Center Grove grad Jennifer Hawk. But on that first Saturday in September, playing at a Providence tournament that had troubled even the most experienced Trojan teams in the past, Egenolf sensed a corner being turned.
“It finally felt like everything was starting to click,” she said of that weekend. “Not all at once, but pieces were falling into place and we could tell, ‘Okay, we’re starting to get where we’re going.’”
The Trojans found their footing, winning 22 matches and claiming county and sectional championships — and Egenolf was again the team’s go-to force, delivering a county-best 401 kills and also ranking among the team leaders in digs, aces and blocks.
As a result, she is the Daily Journal’s Player of the Year.
Coming into her final high school campaign surrounded by a very inexperienced group of teammates and a new coach, it would have been easy for Egenolf to get discouraged or even to just mail the season in, especially with her collegiate future already secured through a verbal commitment to Ball State. But coming off of a junior season that saw her miss nearly a month of action, including the entire sectional, due to injury, she was hungry for success.
Hawk, she said, also made it easy to buy in.
“Honestly, I think having a new coach was the best thing that’s ever happened to me these last four years,” Egenolf said. “She pushed us in ways that we haven’t been pushed before. Chris (Due) was a great coach, and he helped me accomplish so many things in my career, but I think Jen overall helped our confidence and morale as a team.
“She was very good at making us feel confident within each other and within the program, even when we had a rocky start to the beginning of the season.”
Egenolf embraced the challenge of serving as a leader, providing a vocal presence and teaming with the more measured Holubar to occasionally take a good cop/bad cop approach with the younger players. Having been in the varsity lineup as an underclassman and being mentored by older teammates, Egenolf said, allowed her to experience how she wanted to be led and hone her own style accordingly.
Now, she’ll go back to square one as one of the rookies on a talented Ball State team that will have plenty of talent returning from this season’s version, which is currently 26-3 and riding a 16-match winning streak.
Egenolf won’t be intimidated by such a setting; she’s already familiar with Muncie, where she plays for a Munciana Samurai club team loaded with high-level Division I recruits. Besides, it’s what she’s wanted for as long as she can remember.
“Just being in that environment, playing at such a high level, is something I’ve always looked forward to,” Egenolf said. “Before I found volleyball, I wanted to do that with basketball. I’ve always had a dream to play at the collegiate level, and I think I’m most excited to get there and start training, start practicing, and just playing at Ball State.”
