John Raffel
Sports Scene
In her third year with the Crossroads Charter Academy varsity volleyball team, Brooklyn Carroll is getting the job done in an impressive way.
Carroll, a senior, is averaging 6.5 assists per game, with 150 total for the year as of early September. She led her team with 22 aces in 23 games. Her serving accuracy is more than 90 percent.
“The big thing is that she’s a great leader,” said Crossroads coach Mike Shaver. “She knows our serve receive inside and out probably as well as I do. Those are things that makes things easy on me.”
“The first two years, we won districts both years,” Carroll said. “I’ve been very happy with my team. My sophomore year we lost seven seniors. My junior year we lost one senior. It’s been very different but I’ve loved both coaches I’ve had, and they’ve been successful coaches, taking us to district titles.”
In the years Shaver has worked with Carroll, “she’s become a technically better setter,” he noted. “She plays with a lot of confidence all the time. I think that makes everyone around her confident.”
Carroll started playing volleyball as a setter in the second grade in Colorado.
“I’ve hit sometimes, but I’ve always been the setter,” she said. “The coach wanted to make me a setter.
“I try to give my hitters the best set possible. I try to learn new ways to hit so I have a variety. I always try to set with my hands and not go to a bump set.”
Carroll has been determined to have hand sets only.
“I’m doing pretty good, but I know I can do better,” she said. “I’m going to keep working and hopefully everyone on the team will keep working, and we’ll just get better as the year goes on.”
Serving is also a Carroll strength.
“I jump served all of last year and this year,” she said. “I’ve definitely been stronger this year than last year.”
She added that she’s been working at “moving it around and have a short serve. I’m working on a different variety of my jump serve.”
Crossroads hopes to go after the West Michigan D title and also go to the district finals again.
“We want to go as far as we can,” Carroll said. “We’ve won three districts in a row.”
Carroll also plays basketball
“I think I’m better at volleyball, so I’m more confident with my game in volleyball,” Carroll said.