Metea Valley’s Addison Torain knew switching from outside hitter to libero would take a lot more guts and result in much less personal glory.
Yet she did it anyway. You might even say she’s digging it.
“When I got the news, I started playing libero during club season,” Torain said. “It was kind of cool.”
Torain, a 5-foot-7 junior, made her high school debut at libero Tuesday night, when she helped the host Mustangs beat Glenbard East 25-21, 25-12.
It was a dramatic difference from last season, when Torain racked up 198 kills, 184 digs, 24 aces and 18 blocks as Metea Valley’s No. 2 outside hitter. Much of that production was accumulated after Kira Hutson, now a Florida freshman, suffered a season-ending shoulder injury, which required coach Dave Macdonald to move a lot of players around.
As good as Torain was on the outside, Macdonald already had an eye on asking her to switch to the back row.
“Once the season was done, we were kind of looking ahead at what we had,” Macdonald said. “It was an option for her to go to libero because I didn’t know how our younger kids were going to develop over the offseason. She played pretty well.”
Macdonald had another reason to request the switch to libero. It will help not only the Mustangs but Torain as well.
“Libero is her future,” Macdonald said. “That’s where she’ll play when she goes to college. With her spring, she’s athletic and quick and can get to a lot of balls. It’s great to have her back there.”
Torain initially felt uncomfortable in the back row, but a season of club helped her shake that off.
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“My coaches at Sports Performance, they pushed me and influenced me to go and get extra work in serve-receive and passing,” Torain said. “They’ve really made my work ethic better because I realized a lot of people have been playing that position since they were really young.
“I just love libero, even though in the beginning I was scared. Now I feel really comfortable.”
Junior setter Katie Schuele has seen that firsthand. She plays club volleyball with Torain and is also in a new position, of a sort, having transferred from St. Francis.
“She’s totally stepped up being a vocal leader on the court,” Schuele said. “She’s done an amazing job. Her work ethic and hustle has been beyond anyone I’ve ever met before. She’s putting her body on the line for almost every ball, and she’s a great teammate overall.”
As the conduit between the defense and offense, Schuele knows better than most players what different positions entail. Is it harder to play libero than outside hitter?
“Yes and no,” Schuele said. “As an outside hitter, you are a back-row player, so you are passing, but when you switch to libero you’re constantly doing that in all six rotations. So I definitely think it can be a little bit more difficult.”
The most difficult part of the transition for Torain was not physical.
“I would say it is the mindset because your stats (at outside) go from how you end the point,” Torain said. “You always want to hit 1.000, get a kill on every swing.
“But now (at libero) the passing can always have a big impact on everyone else’s stats like assists and kill percentage. So it’s really made me turn my perspective from ‘how do I look to everyone around me’ to ‘how do I help everyone around me.'”
Torain did an admirable job of that Tuesday, leading the Mustangs in digs with 11 and getting accurate passes to the setters.
Schuele dished 13 assists, many of them to senior star Camille Morrison, who had eight kills. Junior Maddie Hopkins, who replaced Torain as the No. 2 outside hitter, added five kills.
“I feel like I played my best,” Torain said. “That’s all I can really give. I have an amazing team. My best friends are on the team, and they make me play better for them. I always want to do my best to make their jobs easier, and I feel like I put everything I have on the court, and it paid off.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
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