Over the weekend, Marist’s Haven Enselman hit a huge milestone by blowing past the 1,000-assist mark for her high school career.
That’s not too bad for a setter who is just six matches into her sophomore season.
“It’s definitely a big accomplishment,” Enselman said. “It’s definitely been a dream of mine to hit 1,000, but it makes you want to work and go for 2,000 or 3,000.”
By the end of Saturday, that number stood at 1,034.
Enselman tallied 25 assists to go with eight digs and four kills as the RedHawks overwhelmed Lockport 25-8, 25-11 in the 32-team Mizuno Crimson Classic hosted by Plainfield North at the Great Lakes Volleyball Center in Aurora.
Michigan recruit Maggie Kurpeikis and Western Michigan commit Taylor Berg added eight kills apiece for Marist (6-0), the two-time defending Class 4A champion. Kurpeikis and Berg were named co-MVPs of the tournament and joined Enselman on the all-tournament team.
Natalie Bochantin led Lockport (5-2) with seven assists and made the all-tournament team with Hutsyn Timosciek and Kyla Mitchell. The Porters reached the finals with a 21-15, 25-13, 19-17 semifinal win over Benet, while Marist downed Lincoln-Way East 25-13, 25-16.
Enselman’s run to 1,000 assists, meanwhile, has gone so swiftly that it just about went unnoticed. There was no ceremony and no balloons to celebrate. But when Marist coach Jordan Vidovic was told about the accomplishment, he was pretty impressed.
“That is fast,” Vidovic said of Enselman’s feat.
The 6-foot Enselman also runs a fast offense on the court for the RedHawks.
“The way she is getting the ball to hitters may not be obvious to see,” Vidovic said. “But the speed in which she’s getting the ball out of her hands is great.
“She’s doing a lot of work for the hitters because she’s getting the ball out so fast.”
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And the hitters appreciate it.
“She means a lot to the team,” Berg said of Enselman. “If we didn’t have her, we probably wouldn’t have gotten as far as we have. She keeps the tempo going. I like that.
“She has very good energy and she keeps the intensity up.”
Looking ahead, Sandburg’s Sarah Kwasigroch owns the Illinois High School Association record for career assists with 3,659 from 2001 to 2004. Molly Murrihy owns the program record at Marist with 3,075, established from 2015 through 2017.
Enselman finished with 938 assists as a freshman. If she keeps up that pace over the next three seasons, she would close her career with 3,752.
Another fun setter to take aim at is Vidovic, whose 3,704 assists at Brother Rice from 2002 to 2005 ranks second all-time in the state for boys volleyball.
For now, Vidovic is working on making sure he’s getting the most out of his young setter. And he isn’t treating her with kid gloves, either.
“I am not holding back on her,” Vidovic said of Enselman. “I can challenge her in the most relentless of ways in practice and she will look like she wants more of it — like bring it on.
“She wants those challenges even more so this year. I’m holding her to a pretty insane standard for someone who doesn’t turn 16 for another 10 months.”
Enselman confirmed that she doesn’t mind Vidovic’s challenges, no matter how “pretty insane” they can be.
“For me, I like when he is hard on me,” Enselman said of Vidovic. “It just makes me better. It makes me a better player, a better teammate and a better person.”
Enselman is also trying to pattern her game as a setter after Nebraska’s Bergen Reilly, who entered her senior season this fall as a three-time All-American pick by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
“She makes things look really easy,” Enselman said of Reilly. “What she does looks really simple.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
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