Led by the emotionally-charged play of middle blocker Kelly Biermann, the St. Thomas volleyball team dominated Macalester 3-0 Saturday at Schoenecker Arena in its final match of the 2015 season.
The Tommies (9-17 overall, 4-7 MIAC) started out aggressively, taking the first set 25-16. The team kept rolling, taking the next two 25-19 and 25-20. Coach Thanh Pham was pleased with his team’s performance.
“I was extremely proud of the way we ended our season,” Pham said. “I thought the girls put out a lot of effort … We’re working on little things, and they definitely showed tonight. I’m really proud of them.”
Outside hitter Taylor Lewis, who led the team in kills this season, said the game had many highlights.
“We had lots of mature moments for the younger players, which was really cool to see, and the things we were supposed to do all season that we have yet to do we did tonight,” Lewis said.
Biermann, a senior, was overcome with emotion and said she was not sure how she felt after her career came to a close.
“There’s really not words,” Biermann said. “It’s a major part of my life, and I’m going to miss it a lot … I love the girls, and it’s really fun, so (I’m feeling) happy, sad, lost and confused. I don’t know.”
Pham acknowledged all that Biermann and fellow senior Kayla Walton have gone through at their time at St. Thomas.
“Kelly and Kayla have seen so much in their four years, from a national championship to a season like this,” Pham said. “They’ve gone up and down all the way through, and the best thing is that they never wavered in who they were, and they believed in our program. I couldn’t be more proud of both of them.”
After winning an astounding eight straight MIAC titles, this is the first time in Pham’s tenure at St. Thomas that the Tommies haven’t made the conference playoffs. He was disappointed in, yet optimistic, about Tommie volleyball.
“Obviously, it is (frustrating),” Pham said. “But if this springboards us to bigger and better things next year, then we’ll take it. Every team is new, and it took us a long time to learn what we needed to … the good news is that we learned it.”
St. Thomas will return all of its starters but Biermann next season, something that has Pham excited.
“We have a lot of new pieces coming in too, so it’s going to be (a) dogfight in our gym,” Pham said. “And you know, that’s what we want, to be competitive again and get where we’re used to being.”
Jack Burke can be reached at jtburke@stthomas.edu.