Two Bayfield High School volleyball alums are working their way up in college volleyball.
A season spent waiting in the wings at Colorado State University couldn't have done any more wonders for fellow 2015 BHS alumna Kirstie Hillyer.
"We knew she would be dynamic over time," head coach Tom Hilbert said Tuesday morning. "During her redshirt year it became evident that she was going to play much sooner than we first thought."
Helping CSU place second in the Mountain West Conference in 2016 by winning seven of its final eight regular-season matches, Hillyer got her first true taste of college-volleyball postseason flavor as the Rams qualified for a 22nd straight NCAA Division I Tournament.
Unfortunately a first-round loss in Seattle to the University of Kentucky abruptly ended another outstanding fall in Fort Collins. CSU still finished 21-9 overall and 15-3 in the MWC as the 6'6" redshirt-freshman middle blocker outshone almost all stars.
"She has great physical tools and even though she has achieved a lot, I think we have just scratched the surface of what she can be," said Hilbert.
Hillyer started all 30 of CSU's matches-including against six other tournament-bound teams, seeing action in 105 total games, Hillyer smashed 262 kills (2.5 per game) at a sizzling .327 clip to rank third on Hilbert's squad in both categories. She also fired 20 aces, came up with 30 digs, and recorded ridiculous Ram-bests of 167 (18 solo, 149 assisted) total blocks and 1.59 per game.
The latter mark paced the Mountain West, ranked fourth overall nationwide, and first amongst freshmen as Hillyer led CSU in rejections 14 times (including a three-game best of 11 against University of Nevada). Her season-high in kills (18) came on .533 hitting in a five-set home win over Nevada-Las Vegas, and her first Ram double-double came with 13 kills and 10 stuffs in a five-gamer with Wyoming.
To no surprise, she earned MWC Newcomer-of-the-Year praise, as well as an Honorable Mention AVCA All-Pacific North Region Team nod-leaving Colorado State coaches and fans eagerly awaiting her 2017 return.
"She is really too young to compare to other middles in the history of the program and she is really a very different kind of middle, since there are so many variables," noted Hilbert. "I do think if she is able to stay healthy she will have a record-setting career for us."
Playing in 2015 and 2016, 2015 Bayfield graduate Jessie Roukema saw action in 97 sets and 30 matches-with six starts-in her second season at Neosho County Community College in Chanute, Kan., and made her minutes count as one of boss Asya Herron's dependable players.
As a right side/middle, she totaled 163 kills (1.68 per game), tying her for third-most on the squad, at a .164 rate (NCCC as a team hit .190) in a fourth-most 513 attacks. Roukema also booked 40 digs, 21 solo blocks and 26 assisted for a fourth-most 47 as the Panthers finished 21-12 overall (7-3 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference).
A three-game loss in District N action to Johnson County Community College of Overland Park, Kan., ended Neosho County's season in early November.
One of Neosho's 2016 highlights was going 4-0 at their own regular-season tourney-sweeping three teams after edging Ottawa University, which later won the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament for the fourth time in five seasons.
