It’s return of the volleyball Jedi in Grafton

North Shore Conference Volleyball Coach of the Year Ashley Wilson enters her second year with nearly the same Grafton High School squad that she led to a Division 2 runner-up finish in her first.

The Black Hawks have eight seniors, including three returning all-state players.

Senior outside hitter Paige Proefrock led the team with 489 kills last season, averaging 3.8 per set and a kill percentage of 38.9. She has 989 kills in her career. She served 89 aces, made 330 digs — she has 948 in her career — and had 575 serve-receives with just 40 errors.

“She’s been working super hard in practice,” Wilson said. “All of our seniors have really stepped up.”

Senior middle hitter Grace Tilley had 177 kills, 45 aces and 77 blocks.

What Tilley and her teammates didn’t block, libero Abby Barthelemy took care of. She made 355 digs, served 45 aces, had 75 assists and had 381 serve-receives with 40 errors.

Grafton returns its setters, Ava Dotson and Paige Arentz, along with sophomore hitters Brooke Vanden Berg, Addison Lempke and Jamie Libka.

Outside hitter Abi Marti and outside hitter Avery Pierce are also back.

“We’ve got a lot of strong hitters this year all the way around. We don’t have any weak spots,” Wilson said.

“We’ll have to go back to learning how to play as a team since it’s been a while.”

The Hawks lost defensive specialist and standout server Khiah King to graduation, as well as reserve Emily Sewell.

Wilson said she will likely run a 6-2 offense, but it will depend on what the situation calls for at any given time.

“We’ll have more options this year and more people who can fill spots,” she said.

Besides skill, the Hawks have height.

“You cannot coach height,” Wilson said with a laugh.

The run to the championship game last season gives the team all the more motivation this year.

“I think we know what it takes to get there and the things that we need to work on. After we play our first couple of matches, we can try to fine-tune some things,” Wilson said.

Vanden Berg is thrilled to get the season started.

“We definitely have a lot of excitement coming in. We know that we can get there now. We’re really excited to work really hard,” she said at Sunday’s Corn Roast in Grafton.

Wilson knows what she has and wants to challenge her team accordingly.

“We built a stronger schedule this year, so I’m excited about getting to play more competition to get us ready for the end of the season,” she said.

The Hawks finished 4-2 and in third in the NSC last year. Slinger was 6-0 and Cedarburg was 5-1. Wilson said those two teams will be good again.

The team went 29-11 last season.