Wolves open season with five victories

As a longtime assistant for the Worthington Kilbourne High School boys volleyball team, Dickson Lao expected to jump in where his predecessor left off.

In 18 seasons, Glynda Rice helped establish the Wolves as one of the better programs in the state by winning eight regional titles and an equal number of OCC championships.

"Going into my first season last year, I think I was a little aggressive in scheduling matches," Lao said. "We played the top dogs in the state in teams like Cincinnati Elder, Hilliard Darby and Mount Vernon."

What resulted was a 7-18 season, only the third time in 19 years that Kilbourne finished with a losing record. In addition, the Wolves were eliminated in the first round of the East Region tournament with a 31-29, 18-25, 28-30, 25-23, 15-11 loss to Gahanna.

This season is looking different. The Wolves started 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the OCC-Ohio Division before playing at Hilliard Davidson on April 5.

Kilbourne opened March 26 with non-league wins over Whetstone (25-17, 25-10, 25-15), Delaware (25-15, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19) and Dublin Scioto (25-16, 25-14, 25-21). The Wolves then earned league wins over Thomas Worthington 25-15, 25-9, 25-13 on March 29 and 25-16, 25-20, 25-12 over Upper Arlington on March 31.

An experienced senior class expects to put the Wolves back in the running for a league title and make them a contender for a spot in the state tournament.

"With us, it's going to be about consistency," Lao said. "We have decent size this year, but we're not giants by any means. I know that blocking will be a big concern, especially when we go up against bigger teams."

Kilbourne's starting lineup looks similar to last season minus 2010 graduate Colin Hackworth, a first-team all-region selection who set the school record for kills (409).

Also gone is 2010 graduate Tim Wilson, who Lao considered to be the best ball-control player on the team.

Seniors Conner Peck (6-foot-3, middle blocker), Hasan Ali (6-0, swing hitter), Jake Wood (6-2, setter), Alex Miller (6-2, swing hitter) and Andy Wickizer (6-4, middle blocker) are among the Wolves' top returnees.

In the league, Hilliard Darby and Hilliard Davidson should be the teams to beat, Lao said.

A year ago, Darby, which reached a Division I state semifinal, finished 10-0, ahead of Davidson (8-2), Dublin Coffman (6-4), UA (3-7), Kilbourne (3-7) and Thomas (0-10).

• Thomas coach Todd Ebright, whose team opened the season with league losses to Kilbourne and Davidson (25-6, 22-25, 25-11, 25-11 on March 31), will rely on a number of juniors and sophomores to shake off last year's winless finish.

Ebright, in his second season, has eight returning players from last year's squad that went 0-22. The Cardinals lost to Pickerington North 25-11, 25-8, 25-4 in the first round of the East Region tournament.

"It's nice the guys have that year under their belt because we don't have to work on fundamentals so much this year," Ebright said. "We're starting to look like a varsity team, but we're still young."

The Cardinals will be counting on co-captains Ben Metersky (5-10, junior setter) and Jake Anderson (6-2, sophomore outside hitter) as the top returnees from last season.

Tyler Buckley (6-2, sophomore middle hitter) and Eli Rousculp (6-2, junior middle hitter) also earned plenty of varsity playing time last season.

"We're really more comfortable in knowing who can do what this year," Ebright said. "Last year, we started with only four guys who had ever played before.

"Jake and Tyler played club this summer and it was great having them wanting to put in the extra work."