The 2021 Tri-Rivers East All-Conference Volleyball Teams have been announced, and the Lisbon Lions featured five players on the list.
Head coach Lance Kamaus was voted Coach of the Year, while All-Conference Team member Peyton Robinson was unanimously selected as Player of the Year.
This was Kamaus’ fifth straight year receiving the honor, while it was Robinson’s second consecutive year as Player of the Year.
Robinson was joined by fellow junior Kali Nelson on the First Team, while junior Ella Clark and sophomore Ava Czarnecki made the Second Team. Honorable Mention went to sophomore Addy Happel.
Lisbon’s five additions to the team is tied for the most in the conference.
The voting is done by the coaches in the conference, who meet on the Sunday after the conference tournament, to make and vote on their selections of the most deserving players.
The honors are based on stats in the individual duels teams play against other conference teams. Regular season stats are not considered.
“Basically, it’s a snippet of just six matches,” said Kamaus.
“You can have a kid who’s out for a week due to injury, and they miss two matches, and they could both be conference matches, so if you miss two of the six, it becomes tough to make All-Conference.
However, Kamaus said, “We’re happy we got five kids selected. You go into those things always hoping for more. But we’re super happy they made it.”
As for Clark and Czarnecki being on the Second Team, Kamaus was happy, even if he thought they had been underestimated.
“I don’t think you’ll find eight players in the conference better than those two,” he said.
Kamaus downplayed his Coach of the Year honor, noting he’d never been on an All-Conference team as an athlete, and that he’d had a lot of help.
“To me, it’s reflective of the kids, and the other people that I have on staff,” he said. “I think this is the fifth year in a row I’ve been the All-Conference volleyball coach. But that’s because we’ve had five really good volleyball teams in a row. That, to me, is more of a reflection of the kids,” he said.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway, Kamaus indicated, was the prospect of a strong team yet again next season.
Of the five athletes from Lisbon on the All-Conference team, “all five of them are coming back.”
The team loses two seniors in Jenna Woodward and Sophie Jennett, with the rest of the team expected to return.
“The numbers should be very, very strong next year,” said Kamaus.
Five Lisbon volleyball players named to All-Conference Team
Trent Bowman
November 11, 2021