Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – As one of the top back row players in the state last week was a fairly typical week for Regina junior Addison Bollier.

On Saturday Bollier collected 69 digs in five matches as the Caroline Found Tournament at West High averaging 5.8 digs per set.

A few days later Bollier had a team-high 24 digs and three ace serves to help Class 2A No. 10 Regina to a four-set win over River Valley Conference rival West Branch.

A pretty characteristic six-day span for Bollier on the volleyball court.

It was what Bollier did between her appearances on the court that made last week special.

Between her time as one of the state’s dig leaders Bollier qualified for the Class 2A state tennis tournament on Wednesday with a runner-up finish at the 2A, Region 4 meet at Linn-Mar.

“I went into regionals not expecting anything but thinking I had nothing to lose,” Bollier said. “I don’t know how but I played the games of my life and made it to state.”

Before Bollier was one of the best liberos in the state and a division 1 volleyball recruit she was focused on tennis.

Growing up Bollier believed her future was on the tennis court but by the time she reached high school she had fallen in love with volleyball.

After racking up an impressive 1,063 digs in her first two seasons of varsity volleyball Bollier elected to return to the tennis court last spring.

Playing the first high school tennis of her career Bollier went 7-4 as a sophomore last spring for Liberty High.

With the high school tennis season shifting from the spring to the fall for this season Bollier faced a decision.

Originally, Bollier says she wasn’t going to play tennis this fall, instead focusing solely on volleyball where she is committed to play at Samford.

A conversation over the summer with first-year Liberty High tennis coach Jake Binggeli convinced Bollier to give tennis a try.

“I wasn’t going to play and Jake came up to me and a baseball game and asked what he could do to get me to play,” Bollier said. “I decided to try to make it work. I wanted to spend time with the girls. I decided to give it a try and it worked out.”

Bollier was 4-0 this season for Liberty High playing number two singles before volleyball began to take up most of her time.

Balancing the sports with a challenge but Bollier credits both Binggeli and Regina volleyball coach Lauren Hansen with supporting her decision to play both sports.

“Jake is amazing, he is so great and I really could not have done this without him especially balancing volleyball,” Bollier said. “I am so lucky to have tennis and volleyball both have great team chemistry and super supportive coaches. I got lucky with balancing the sports.”

Last week the two sports came together as Bollier returned to the tennis court for the first time in several weeks to finish runner-up to teammate Vivian Kahler at the Region 4 meet.

Kahler is 12-4 at number one singles for the Lightning this season spent time hitting with Bollier when her volleyball schedule kept her away from tennis.

Bollier credits that practice along with the support and advice she received from Kahler as a major reason she was able to reach the state tournament.

“She is amazing, she is a great teammate,” Bollier said of Kahler. “We really pushed each other and we both knew we could make it. She is a big reason why I believed I could make it.”

Next week will be another big week for Bollier.

Both she and Kahler will compete at the 2A state meet on October 1 and 2 at Byrnes Park Tennis Center in Waterloo.

Even with her time at the tennis court Bollier has continued to blossom into one of the best back row players in Iowa.

The 5-foot-4 Bollier ranks second in the state 357 digs and averages 4.5 digs per set this season helping Regina to a 12-9 record.

“She is very vocal back there and it’s so cool to see her form into this leader and to command the floor and the court, I think it’s been awesome to see,” Hansen said. “We are using two-person serve receive on four of the six rotations and she is taking up three fourths of the court on serve receive. She reads well, she can adapt to any kind of serve and she just takes over.”

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