New SCH head volleyball coach David Noll and senior veterans Kayla McTamney (left) and Rachel Kazlauskas are pictured at an early practice last week. The third senior on the team is Clara Domanska. …
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New SCH head volleyball coach David Noll and senior veterans Kayla McTamney (left) and Rachel Kazlauskas are pictured at an early practice last week. The third senior on the team is Clara Domanska. (Photo by Tom Utescher)by Tom Utescher
When 2016 Springside Chestnut Hill Academy volleyball coach Randy Syracuse took a new day job, the result was that Blue Devil juniors and seniors would be working with their third spike skipper in as many years.
Fortunately, new head coach David Noll is a familiar face for the SCH players, since he'd been an assistant coach with the program last fall. Prior to that Noll had been the leader of the Agnes Irwin School netters for the better part of a decade, so he's well-versed regarding Inter-Ac League volleyball. Like Syracuse, he also has outside coaching experience with a respected club organization, East Coast Power.
Jess Stokes, a full-time employee at SCH, is back for her second season as varsity assistant and JV head coach.
The Blue Devils will take the court without three of last year's players who have graduated, and without Jaia Wingard, who started as a freshman in 2016 but has moved out of the area with her family. Another athlete who saw varsity time as a freshman last year, Katie Regan, is back for the Blue Devils but is currently recovering from a minor injury.
The three seniors on this year's squad are Clara Domanska, Rachel Kazlauskas, and Kayla McTamney. McTamney is just returning from an injury she suffered late in the spring sports season, when she pitched SCH to the Inter-Ac championship.
There are also four varsity veterans entering their junior year; Adrianna Isackman, Jill McGrath, Hadley Sager, and Jenna Stapleton. In addition, Julia Hannigan returns as a sophomore. The team's profile will be raised - literally - by Maya Gerlach, a 6'2" freshman who was already playing varsity basketball for SCH last winter as an eighth-grader.
The defending Inter-Ac champion, the Academy of Notre Dame, should be a contender once more, as will another squad which usually boasts a number of club players, 2015 champ Germantown Academy. Barring upsets of those two, a number of other schools, including SCH, will be battling for the next few spots in the standings.
