Two matches into her life as a libero, Kayla Kreimann is already being served like one.
South Hills sent the ball to Alta Loma's No. 4 13 times Tuesday, matching the season-high volume she took at Colony six days earlier, and the freshman answered with nine perfect passes — the most she has produced in any match this season. HUDL graded her serve receive a 2.15, with 69 percent of her passes landing on the setter's hands.
The rest of the libero job came with it again: six digs in two sets, four first-ball receptions, and two assists on three second-ball touches when the first contact pulled the setter off the net. South Hills took the match in two sets; the Lions' freshman libero was one of the reasons it took them the full two.
The number, and the number next to it
Nine perfect passes on thirteen is the kind of line a coach reads twice. On the same sheet are three receive errors — the most she has been charged with in a single match since a targeted float caught her three straight times in August. There were no in-between balls: nine were perfect, one was a usable one-pass, three were lost. That is what a team serving aggressively at a first-year libero looks like, and the response was to keep taking the ball and keep putting it on target. Two thirds of everything South Hills served at her came back perfect.
From the service line it was a quieter night — eight serves, seven in play, one error, no aces — on an evening the Lions' serving as a whole was solid rather than spectacular.
What two libero matches say so far
Before September 23, Kreimann averaged fewer than five receive attempts a match from right back. In her two full matches at libero she has taken 26 serves and passed a 2.08 on them, with 15 perfect passes — more than half. The volume question that hung over her file all summer is being answered one match at a time, and the per-ball quality has held: her season passer rating actually rose Tuesday, from 2.02 to 2.04, on the highest-volume night of her year.
The season, through 17 matches
Through 17 matches and 34 sets, Kreimann is passing a 2.04 on 98 attempts — 49 percent perfect, 67 percent in system, 12 errors. She has 22 aces on 115 serves (91 percent in play), 63 digs at 1.85 per set, and 25 out-of-system setting attempts without an error.
STAT LINE — K. KREIMANN (Fr., L) · vs South Hills · Sept. 29 · L 0–2
- Serve receive: 13 attempts · 2.15 · 9 perfect · 0 good · 1 one · 3 errors
- Digs: 6 in 2 sets
- Serving: 8 attempts · 7 in · 1 error · 0 aces
- Setting: 3 attempts · 2 assists · 0 errors
- Season through 17: 2.04 passing (98 att) · 49% perfect · 22 aces · 91% serves in · 63 digs
WHAT'S NEXT: Alta Loma JV continues league play. Full match film and HUDL exports are available to coaches on request through kaylakreimann.com.