Here were the challenges facing Emporia State freshman Katelyn Schmidtberger in late September:
Learn a new position she’d never played before, get thrown into the starting lineup in that new position, blend into a lineup full of upperclassmen veterans and do all this with opponents trying to take advantage of her inexperience.
“We tell her you’ll be a target no matter what, because you’re a freshman and everybody is just going to go after you,” coach Bing Xu said. “But as a coach, we trust and have confidence in her.”
Xu must have trusted Schmidtberger to put that much pressure on a freshman. The move was certainly bold, but it’s worked out better than the coach could have imagined.
Since the move, the Hornets have won nine of 10 matches, sweeping seven of those matches. The other two wins came against 16th-ranked Nebraska-Omaha and a win against No. 9 Washburn on Friday.
Schmidtberger was a setter and middle hitter during her high school career at Salina Sacred Heart High School, where she was a three-time All-State player. Xu recruited her to play setter and right-side hitter, but he needed more height on the outside and decided to start Schmidtberger in place of Megan Lueger against Nebraska-Omaha.
Xu had been searching for someone to be a consistent force to replace Megan Koster, who was exactly that last season.
Schmidtberger has been consistent, finishing with seven-plus kills in seven of her 10 starts. She had eight kills against both Washburn and Fort Hays State this weekend.
“I’m getting more comfortable as the season goes along, because I’d never played outside in my life and that was a new position totally,” she said. “It’s a new part of the game, because in high school I set and hit, so it was totally different now to play defense, too.”
Schmidtberger not only didn’t expect to have to learn a new position this year, she didn’t really think she would play.
“Coming in as a freshman, I was going to be content not to play, because I had three more years ahead of me to get my shot,” she said. “But if I got in, that would be great. I wasn’t expecting to play this much.”
Xu has had to use freshmen Caitlyn Murray and Nicole Gingery as middle hitters this year because of injuries to Brianne Boner and Katelyn Kaiser. But with both Boner and Kaiser back in the lineup, Schmidtberger will most likely be the only freshman to see consistent time the rest of the season.
As far as her older teammates are concerned, they hardly notice her age anymore.
“She has a lot of confidence right now,” ESU senior Arica Shepard said. “Being a freshman, it’s hard to find someone who does have confidence and doesn’t get as nervous. She’s pretty consistent, which is something we need out there on the court.”
Shepard, Liu sweep weekly awards
Senior outside hitter Arica Shepard was named the MIAA hitter of the week for the fourth time, and setter Ting Liu picked up her third MIAA specialist of the week on Monday. It is the eighth weekly award for the Hornets this season, and the third time they have swept the awards.
Shepard averaged a double-double for the week with 4.18 kills per set and 4.09 digs per set, finishing with 46 kills and 45 digs in three ESU victories.
Shepard also continued her ascent in the MIAA record books. She passed Pittsburg State’s Sammi Williams and Missouri Western’s Barb Bell to move into sixth all-time in the MIAA with 1,847 career kills. Shepard is already the ESU career record holder in kills, double-figure kill matches and 20-plus kill matches.
Liu had 126 assists on the week, averaging 11.45 per. She also had 27 digs, nine kills and eight blocks.
ESU moves up one spot in poll
With three wins last week including a win against then-No. 6 Washburn on Friday, Emporia State moved up one spot to No. 7 in the AVCA Top 25 on Monday.
The Hornets and four other MIAA squads are in the Top 25. Central Missouri is No. 4, Washburn dropped to ninth, Nebraska-Omaha is No. 16 and Truman State is No. 19. The MIAA and Northern Sun Intercollegiate Athletic Conferece both have five teams in, but the MIAA is the only conference with three schools in the top 10.