Sleepy Hollow Volleyball: Preview

Sleepy Hollow enters this season with a trio of returning players that coach Leana Peltier, who is in her ninth year coaching the Lady Horsemen, will be able to rely on to lead the team this fall.

Those three players are junior outside hitter/setter Sara Rennert, senior outside/middle hitter Lisa Schwab and sophomore outside hitter Breanne Tuohy.

"I like everything about Sara's game," Peltier said. "She is a player that could play every position and play it the best out of everyone I have. Whatever she does she can be the best at it."

Besides Rennert's skill, what also makes her the player that she is, is her work ethic and leadership ability.

"She plays year-round, that adds to her strength and she, last year, as a sophomore, was one of my vocal leaders," Peltier said. "So she stepped up in a leadership role last year above returning seniors and juniors."

Schwab is a late bloomer according to Peltier, because she didn't start playing volleyball until last year, her junior year.

"We put her on JV last year just because she didn't have the volleyball skills yet," Peltier said. "But she is a super athlete and very competitive. So that is what she is bringing to the table this year, after having a year of instruction, she can take what she has learned and grow from it. She brings that competitive edge that we need."

Last year Tuohy, who as a freshman, showed a lot of athleticism and was one of the easiest, most coachable players that Peltier said she has ever had.

"When you tell her to do something, she right away tries to do it," Peltier said. "She will keep working on it until she gets it. She works really hard, like the rest of my girls do."

This trio leads a team that is very enthusiastic about the start of the 2010 campaign.

"As a group, they are one of the most positive groups I have had in a long time," Peltier said. "They are very supportive of each other. As things have gone in the past there have always been a handful of girls who were very supportive and a handful of girls that are very ambitious and competitive. As a group, this is my strongest group early in the season as I have seen it. All of them are very focused and determined and at the same time very supportive of each other."

Peltier further elaborated on why her squad has been very supportive of one another in addition to being very determined.

"I think they learned from experiences in the past," Peltier said. "They know what they want on the team and what they don't want on the team. I would say growth, experience and maturity is part of that, definitely."

Sleepy Hollow's top newcomers are sophomore libero Marissa Barbera and sophomore middle hitter Abbey Titcomb.

"Marissa was a good JV player last year, she played club in the offseason, so she played for another six, seven months," Peltier said. "As for Abbey, varsity is very fast paced game compared to JV, all the girls are much faster than she is used to but Abbey has adjusted very quickly."