Knoch contingent hoping to elevate La Roche volleyball to top of AMCC

La Roche women’s volleyball coach Nicole Bajuszik has spent a lot of time around the Knoch middle and high school girls programs. She lives in the district, so it’s a convenient place to conduct youth clinics and, perhaps, pick up a couple of recruits along the way.

And why not? Under coach Diane Geist, the Knights are a perennial playoff team and won three consecutive WPIAL Class 3A titles from 2017-19.

Judging by her roster, Bajuszik has created a nice pipeline from her hometown district.

Three Knoch grads play significant roles for the 2023 Redhawks: senior libero Mackenzie Kerkan, senior middle hitter Rory McCune and junior middle hitter Quinn Hughes. Before she graduated in the spring, Bethany Nulph, an All-Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference first-team performer, made it four Knoch products on Bajuszik’s roster.

Bajuszik has known each of them from the time they were “tweenagers.” She had the closest connection with Kerkan and McCune, who were classmates and teammates with her daughter, Torrance. The others she met through conducting camps at Knoch.

Strangely, despite those ties, Hughes was the only one Bajuszik recruited in the truest sense. With the others, she said she simply planted hints each time she would see them at a match or clinic, and they gravitated toward La Roche organically.

“It’s the coolest thing to have them,” said Bajuszik, who served as La Roche’s assistant from 2006 until her hire as head coach in 2012. “They have this connection. … They work well on the court together because they played high school together, and it just makes sense.”

Kerkan and McCune were part of all three WPIAL Class 3A title teams, and Hughes was there for two WPIAL titles. They are hoping to bring the same kind of success to La Roche before they leave.

It hasn’t happened quite yet. Though the Redhawks have been competitive, they have remained stuck in the middle of the AMCC standings. That is something the trio is hoping to change.

Kerkan and Hughes are providing the leadership, elected as team captains by Bajuszik. It was a distinction Hughes said she didn’t see coming.

“At first I was like, ‘There’s no way I could ever deserve that honor like this,’ ” Hughes said. “I can’t actually explain how grateful I am that coach thought I was a person qualified to represent our team and lead our team. That meant as lot to me, especially as an underclassman.”

Kerkan, meanwhile, seemed like a more obvious choice. A second-team all-conference libero last season, Kerkan, Bajuszik said, is a calming influence.

“Kenzie is like 5(-foot-)2, 5-3, but her presence on the court is so large and so demanding,” the coach said.

Added Hughes: “I’ve always looked up to Kenzie since I was in middle school. … Undeniably so, she deserved to be a captain this year. My freshman year, whenever I came to La Roche, it was so comforting to have her here and knowing that I had such a good friend from high school that could lead me through everything.”

While Hughes shares captain duties with Kerkan, she shares the middle hitter position with McCune. Both were instrumental in helping the Redhawks (4-2) enter the week of Sept. 11 on a four-match winning streak.

Through six matches, the pair had combined for 36 total blocks and 46 total kills.

“They both protect me in the back row,” Kerkan said. “They’re really good at blocking. Quinn is very intense, high energy, always cheering, picking everyone up. Rory is more laid back, but that doesn’t take anything away from her game. … She’s really focused.”

Hughes said her partnership with McCune in the middle has helped her identify parts of the game she needs to improve, such as communicating more with her teammates.

In terms of their playing style, Hughes said their blocking techniques are pretty similar. Their hitting preferences is where they diverge.

“Our sets are pretty different,” she said. “I like mine higher. I have quite a bit of hang time, as coach likes to say. Rory, she just gets up there and smacks it. She doesn’t even need a high set. She just goes up there and hits the ball down super hard.”

Getting more kills to go down, Kerkan said, is something the team needs to execute more efficiently if it is to challenge for the top of the AMCC. Terminating points when it really matters, Kerkan said, will be a huge step in the right direction.

So, too, will be mastering the new, faster pace Bajuszik and assistant Vicky Danko are trying to institute. The team spent the offseason trying to get physically stronger and working to perfect the skills to make the offense run at a snappier pace.

“I think it’s definitely an adjustment,” Kerkan said. “We played Chatham (in the season opener, a 3-0 loss), and we saw how fast their game was, and we can look at that and take it as a learning experience.

“We’re kind of focusing on passing lower, which means you have to set lower and our transition speed has to be faster. So every practice we’re getting better at that. It will take a little bit of time, but everyone is working super hard to get better at that.”

When they aren’t working together on the court, McCune, Kerkan and Hughes often can be found together off it. They will do typical “college girl” things, Hughes said: hang out, listen to music, eat together, watch movies. Kerkan said being part of the team with fellow Knights makes it feel like home.

They hope that level of camaraderie and comfort can manifest itself on the court and be a catalyst for success.

“I think we’re going to do really well (in the AMCC), actually,” Kerkan said. “Everyone is focused, and we have one goal in mind. We have this work we need to put in. We need to get this done. Have fun while you’re doing it, but there’s times to be serious.”