Emporia State middle hitter Brianne Boner made a decision to take her game to another level on Saturday when fellow middle hitter Katelyn Kaiser went down with a knee injury.
“After Kate got hurt, I felt like, ‘Oh, I really need to step it up now,’” Boner said.
Kaiser had an MRI on her knee on Tuesday and has a knee strain. Coach Bing Xu said she will be out two to three weeks.
Boner, a junior, rolled her ankle on Tuesday at practice and is questionable for tonight’s match at Newman.
The Hornets need Boner back quickly, especially considering the way she played over the weekend at the Midwestern State Invite.
Boner responded to Kaiser’s departure by putting up the best numbers of her career and was named the MIAA hitter of the week. She led the Hornets with nine kills in the match against Northwood when Kaiser got hurt.
Then against Central Oklahoma in the tournament finale without Kaiser, Boner had a season-high 16 kills and a season-high seven blocks.
“I wasn’t planning on doing as much statistically for the team,” Boner said, “but I was trying to be a consistent player for my teammates.”
Boner has been one of the most consistent players during the third-ranked Hornets 8-0 start, and she will be counted on even more with Kaiser out of the lineup.
Boner leads the team in blocks with 28, and she’s averaging 3.08 kills per set — second on the team to Arica Shepard and up from 2.66 last season. She’s also increased her role as a leader.
Last season, Boner was the first middle hitter off the bench and the second option behind Hannah Carter. With Carter graduating, Boner stepped into her starter’s role and Kaiser, also a junior, took over as the first middle hitter off the bench.
Both players have provided guidance to freshman Caitlyn Murray, who was waiting in the wings and will now fill Kaiser’s role.
“We like to push her a lot,” Boner said. “Sometimes in drills we’ll try to — maybe not gang up on her — but we’ll block her a couple times and say try to go this way.”
Boner’s guidance was a big reason why Murray was able to step in on Saturday without the Hornets missing a beat. Murray tied for the team lead with three blocks against Northwood and had three kills and two blocks against Central Oklahoma, a performance her mentor was proud of.
“I don’t try to boss her around by any means, but I do hope that she can be as good or better than me some day,” Boner said.
Murray definitely has a role model to look after. Coach Xu says that Boner is a player who puts a lot of work into any suggestions that he makes concerning her game.
During the middle of last season, Xu decided that Boner should change her swing to a quicker motion and to jump straight up instead of floating toward the net. Boner said individual work during the spring with Xu and developing better chemistry with setter Ting Liu during the spring has helped her gain confidence in her new swing.
“My swing has gotten a lot more consistent,” she said, “which has allowed me to be there for Ting a lot and be ready to hit.”
Another reason for Boner’s improved play was the work she put in over the summer. An Omaha, Neb., native, Boner spent the summer practicing with the Creighton volleyball team.
“When you play with the higher-level player, you learn from them, and you can see their game’s different,” Xu said. “I think it’s also helped for her to be more mature and more consistent.”
With Boner becoming more of a presence, Xu decided to adjust his quick-hitting offense to involve the middle hitters more this season.
The Hornets have more than capable hitters on the outside with Shepard and junior Brittney Miller, but the middles make the ESU offense more diversified and more difficult to defend.
“I think it’s helping a lot, because we can use the middles a lot and that way the defense will focus on the middles and that frees up our outsides,” Boner said.
Shepard appreciates the help.
“It’ll help put a little more pressure off of me,” she said. “For me personally, it would be awesome. They always focus on her too, but if she’s putting up higher numbers than me, it takes a lot of pressure off my back.”
With Shepard struggling this weekend, Boner helped pick up the slack and helped cover up Shepard’s mistakes, according to the senior. That’s a role Boner is more than comfortable playing.
“If we need a point, and everyone else is having a tough time,” Boner said, “being able to get the point for the team, get the momentum back or getting a block, that’s what I want to be able to do.”