Tall Tales: Ballard's 6-6 Grivna, 6-4 Liening; stepsister's take

A number of teams are fortunate to have one player standing six feet or taller.   The Ballard Bruins from the western side of Louisville will have a number of them this fall. The tallest two are juniors [player_tooltip player_id='212348' first='Ella' last='Grivna'] at 6-6 and 6-4 [player_tooltip player_id='443382' first='Ava' last='Liening']. The two helped the Bruins to a 26-10 record last year and a spot in the 7th Region Tournament. They hope to help the Bruins take even bigger steps this year. Ballard is seeking its first 28th District championship since 2020 and first region tournament win since then as well.   The Christian Academy of Louisville has won the 28th District Tournament crown the past three years. When CAL and Ballard face off, Liening finds herself on the opposite side of the net from her stepsister in CAL junior [player_tooltip player_id='261118' first='Kylee' last='Sells'].   During this past club season, however, the three found themselves on the same MidAmerica Volleyball Association 16 Select squad. That team's head coach is current Nelson County and former Assumption and University of Memphis player Anna Palmer.   Grivna and Liening spoke about life being tall and their goals for Ballard this fall. In addition, Liening and Sells shared some things about facing each other one season and playing together in another. The three have been to a number of camps this summer trying to improve.   Growth Spurts   Ella: I have always been tall my whole life but I really hit a growth spurt from freshman to sophomore year. I went from about 6-3 to 6-6 very quickly. I thought I was done growing until I hit another growth spurt.   Ava: When I was in the sixth grade, I was 5-4. Then COVID hit and we were out of school for a year. When I went back in eighth grade, I was 5-10-5-11. I was always a tall kid and taller than all my friends, but I ultimately grew during my seventh grade year when we were out of school.   Overcoming Coordination Issues   Ella: I used to struggle with coordination a lot. It takes a lot of time to just grow into your body. Getting into the gym as much as possible is very important. Once I wasn't hitting growth spurts every couple of months, it was easier to work on coordination because I wasn't constantly changing and growing!   Ava: I think something that's important if you're trying to better your coordination is to do agility work, and move your feet to get to know your body and strengthen your balance.   Getting More Power on Balls   Ella: To get more power on balls it is really important to get a good jump. Engaging your whole body like core, legs and everything is very key. Also trying to get on top of the ball at the highest point is really important as well.   Ava: Some people might think that getting power on balls is all in your arms, but it really has to do with everything, especially legs. You can't have a lot of power if you don't get low and use your legs to gain that max jump. Then it comes to arms and core. You want to emphasize good hand contact and getting on top of the ball, while using your core to rotate your body,   Working with Ballard setter [player_tooltip player_id='477200' first='Natalie' last='Sanders']   Ella: Having a good setter connection is very important. We are very lucky at Ballard to have a great setter who takes corrections well. If I tell her to get it a little higher, she always tries to adjust quickly on the very next ball. I think for taller people like us it is harder to get a good setter connection because many setters have never set people as tall as us - just knowing it won't come as fast to us as others is good to keep in mind.   Ava: I think that being taller, we have to sort of have higher sets, so our plan this summer is to get in the gym with Natalie and really get that connection back from last year so we can start off strong this season.   Growth During Club Season   Ella: I think everyone on our club team has grown tremendously throughout the season. Personally, I have been focusing a lot on getting a faster arm swing, blocking and eye sequencing, and going faster on my approach to go swing. I'm looking forward to working with Natalie to put it all into Ballard this season!   Ava: This being my first club season playing in Open Division, I feel that I've really grown to be able to compete well in it. It's a much faster pace, and now as the season is over, I can see the progress from the beginning and how I've gotten a lot faster. I can also say that I've generally just improved my skills and that I have a harder/stronger swing now.   Next Steps for Ballard   Ella: I think for us, we have the size and the skill to beat bigger and more known teams. We need to focus a lot on running a faster offense and putting up a solid block each time to slow down balls for our defenders. If we are able to slow down the other teams' offenses, that will really help us excel. Another key thing for us will have to be staying disciplined throughout the season and everyone overall wanting to achieve the same goal.   Ava: I think some things that we are going to do this season is run ore plays and sort of more complicated things other than just running one's in the middle. We can start to incorporate some slides and three's just to up our game more. I would also like to see us in the weight room more to get our strength up. All of this can help us beat our winning record of 26-10.   On Upcoming Season   Ella: I think this year a lot of people have grown a lot during club season. This will really help us achieve next level things. Last year we were really close to beating an all-time school win record. Everyone really wants to do that this season and put all our new things we have learned into games. All of us really want to get deeper in the postseason. With that, there will be a lot more grind and focus during practice. I'm really looking forward to playing one last time with this group of seniors. I think all of them are so talented and have all had really good postseason goals as well.   Ava: I am very excited about this upcoming season because I definitely think we are going to break our record and really shock some people. Last season was good, but after club, I've really grown a lot as a player and a person and I'm sure other people have as well.   <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://prepdig.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/07/KyleeSells.jpg?w=768" alt="" class="wp-image-563011" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo: [player_tooltip player_id='261118' first='Kylee' last='Sells']</figcaption></figure>   Stepsister Dynamic   Ava: Going from being teammates to being competition is kind of a weird aspect of it all. You go from being together and practicing together all the time to not, and eventually playing against each other. Those games that we play against each other are always a little more fun because you want to beat the other and finish on top.   Kylee: During club season, it's super fun to compete and cheer each other on with celebrations. With school, nothing really changes besides the two games during the season when we play each other. When we play each other it's a bit awkward because we both know the other team well and their tendencies because we talk about volleyball at home so it's definitely a bit competitive during the those two games but besides that it's pretty chill with each other.   Next Steps for CAL   Kylee: With the next steps with the team I say just getting to know each other more on the court. We already know each other pretty well off the court but knowing each teammate's tendencies on the court will definitely help us grow into a better team.    Grivna only grew playing with some of her teammates during club season with MAVA in addition to some other talented players in the area. She extends her arms well allowing her to control the net deflecting balls in the air for her teammates to pass if they do not go down on the other size. She'll have other teammates with size this fall to help form solid double blocks. Grivna has a nice quick step before balls reach the setter's hands giving her an advantage in the middle and on slides to the pins for powerful attacks. Grivna puts every part of her body into those attacks. She'll throw in jam shots to confuse opponents and pounds down overpassed balls hard. Grivna had 197 kills, 41 solo blocks and 73 assisted blocks helping Ballard to a 26-10 record and spot in the 7th Region Tournament this past fall.     Liening came into her own last season as a force at the net for the Bruins and only hopes to expand her game this fall. Liening has an excellent slide step placing balls a number of different spots on the court and solid timing on her blocks. Liening can hit balls a number of different places from the middle and the pins. Liening is not afraid to throw in some tips and take some power off balls to make sure they go through and off blockers. Liening also has a deceptive serve near the line.     Sells made the Junior Volleyball Association Watch List as a sophomore for a good reason. Sells uses her range to consistently hustle after balls leaning to the sides and diving after them when necessary to keep plays alive. Sells does not hesitate to use one arm to pop up hard hit balls. Sells does a good job keeping her eyes on balls and not hiding behind blocks. Sells is also a valuable server. Sells saw action in all 29 games for CAL this past fall digging up 70 balls and finishing third on the team with 35 aces, helping CAL to a 22-7 record, a third straight 28th District championship and spot in the 7th Region semifinals. Sells should have a bigger role for the Centurions on defense this fall with the graduation of two of the digs leaders.

A number of teams are fortunate to have one player standing six feet or taller.