Westside senior volleyball player Madeline Lamb has officially announced her verbal commitment to further her academic and volleyball career at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Lamb is a dominant player for the Westside team and will be a great addition to the UNK volleyball team. Currently this season, Lamb has played 38 sets and has 104 kills. She is averaging 2.7 kills per set with a kill percentage of 33 with a hitting percentage of 0.144.
To get to this level, it requires a lot of time and commitment from both players and coaches. Developing your skills takes a lot of hard work and Lamb has put in the time she needs to be a great player. She continuously progresses and proves why she gets to play at the next level. Head Coach Andrew Wehrli talked about what kind of growth he has seen from Lamb and how proud he is.
“Madeline has developed into a solid serve receive passer and defense,” Wehrli said. “She is a solid offensive player, but her strength is defense and serve receive which is really awesome for a 6-foot player.”
Physically improving is very important for players but many players also improve their mental game to help them succeed. You have to be mentally tough to play volleyball and that can be hard to remember at times where things get hard. You constantly have to keep working at it and Lamb said she works on it a lot.
“I have worked on my positive self talk because volleyball is more mental than physical and I have decent physical attributes to volleyball so working on my mental aspect was the next part,” Lamb said.
Only 5-6% of high school players get to advance to the collegiate level, which truly shows how impressive of a player Lamb is. She has the athleticism and character needed to be successful throughout this next chapter of her volleyball career. That is not only special for her, but it is special for her current team as well. Coach Wehrli talks about his feelings knowing another one of his players gets to move on in their career.
“It is humbling. Madeline is special. She is a better person than volleyball player. I’m thankful for her efforts. She is a hard worker,” Wehrli said. “I’ve done this long enough to recognize that none of it could be accomplished without the athlete’s hard work and dedication. She has done a great job of using practice to improve her game.”
It is clear to see that Lamb has a lot of people rooting for her as she takes this next step. She said that she always has people to lean on because of how much support she receives from her coaches and teammates. There is no doubt that playing college volleyball is exciting but sometimes it is the team you started with that is the most memorable.
“This Westside team is so special to me and I will always remember the relationships I made and I hope to cherish them forever,” Lamb said. “It has helped me grow as a person and a player as well.”
Come watch Madeline Lamb in action at the Papillion invitational on September 26 at 5:00 at Liberty Middle School.
