Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Cassidy Hartman picked up plenty during her first season of varsity volleyball last fall.

Hartman improved her shot selection and expanded her overall offensive arsenal while leading Liberty High in kills as a freshman while helping the Lightning to a 34-3 record and the first state tournament berth in program history.

What Hartman learned most during her impressive debut season was what it meant to be a leader.

“I learned to be more vocal on the court, last year I was pretty quiet and I learned I had to be more aggressive,” Hartman said. “I feel like more of a leader this year than last year for sure and I know that lots of people look up to me so I just want to be there for all my teammates.”

A more confident and aggressive Hartman has blossomed into one of the most dangerous hitters in the state this season.

The 6-foot sophomore leads fifth-ranked Liberty High (20-2) with 241 kills on the season, one fewer than she accumulated in 37 matches a year ago.

Hartman ranks fourth in Class 5A in kills per set at 4.2 and also leads the Lightning with 25 ace serves.

“I think she’s to the point where she is a better shot maker,” Liberty High coach Randy Dolson said. “You can’t just pound the ball all the time. You love to have kids that want to go up there and be a monster but that’s one thing we’ve been able to work on is different shots. We know she can pound it, we’ve seen that if she gets a hole she can hammer it, but she can do more than that now.”

As a freshman on last year’s magical state tournament run Hartman admits she left most of the leadership duties to the upperclassmen on the roster.

Hartman and Dolson knew that would have to change slightly this season with Hartman such an integral part of the Lightning attack.

While both coach and player admit Hartman isn’t the most vocal player on the court the sophomore has let her play doing the talking this season, finding her niche as a leader by example.

“We have two senior captains this year so we are looking to the future and we’ve talked to her about there are two different kinds of leaders both vocal and by example,” Dolson said. “She isn’t real vocal right now but she leads by example. You need somebody that can say give me the ball and then perform. Anybody can say give me the ball and they whiff it out of bounds. You have to have people like that and I think she’s getting better that way.”

Hartman has certainly performed this season.

In fact, the sophomore hitter has a resume that compares with the best around.

After Liberty High was forced to go without competition for three weeks after starting the school year all online Hartman averaged 4.1 kills per set in her first action back as Liberty High went 4-0 at its own tournament.

Neither Liberty High or Hartman have slowed down since.

Liberty High has won 19 of 20 matches in a span of 22 since returning to action capped by back-to-back wins over defending 5A state champion Cedar Falls and 4A top-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier to end the regular season.

“We have a lot of endurance and we have stayed strong no matter what,” Hartman said. “That was a long stretch but we have been able to push through no matter what.”
Hartman was a big reason for the strong finish, posting double digit kills in five consecutive matches to end the regular season.

She had a season-high 25 kills in the road win over sixth-ranked Cedar Falls on Thursday.

“I looked at her one time and said Cassidy how are you feeling and she said ‘good’,” Dolson said of the Cedar Falls match. “We just said, ‘o.k. feed her’.” She got hot and she could do no wrong.”

Hartman closed the season with a 13-kill outing in a sweep of Cedar Rapids Xavier two days later.

“It was crazy, everything was clicking,” Hartman said. “We were playing really well as a team and we didn’t get down. We had a lot of energy.”

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