Geneva's Wicinski raises her game to another level

When Lauren Wicinski stepped onto the court for her first practice four years ago at Geneva, volleyball coach KC Johnsen knew he had something special - as any coach would with a freshman moving right into the varsity lineup.

Only Johnsen thought he had something special in the back row, an exceptional passer and defender. He didn't know at the time, but he also had the player who would leave Geneva rewriting the school record books in kills while her leadership skills grew as much as her volleyball talent.

Then 5-foot-8, Wicinski is now over 6-1 and the most powerful hitter in Geneva history, leading the Vikings to a 35-3 season. She leaves this year as the school's all-time kill leader, a two-time Western Sun Conference player of the year, and now the 2009 Tri-Cities All-Area captain.

While Johnsen didn't see that coming four years ago, he wasn't alone.

"It's like a shock, I never knew it would end up to be like that," Wicinski said of her records. "Just really cool.

"I didn't envision this at all. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I can't believe the way I've improved with all the help I've gotten from my coaches and teammates I played with who have pushed me and helped me reach where I am."

Wicinski actually set in junior high and club volleyball before her hitting skills kept improving.

Her school record kills include a season-record 380 as a junior, then 356 more this year in a season marked by a lot of lopsided victories and not many long matches when Wicinski could pile up huge numbers. Of Geneva's 38 matches, only four went 3 games, or her senior year total would have broken last year's record. While winning another Western Sun title, Geneva won all 14 matches in two games. She leaves with 1,143 career kills.

Wicinski was just as powerful serving with 63 aces (giving her 195 in her career), the second-best single-season total in school history behind teammate Kelsey Augustine's 72 last year.

From coaches who saw Wicinski play all four years - like Batavia's Lori Trippi-Payne - to others like York's Patty Iverson who saw Wicinski in the postseason, including the final match of Wicinski's high school career earlier this month, they all raved about how hard it was to stop Wicinski, even when they sent at least two blockers and aligned their entire defense for her.

"She's amazing. She killed us," Iverson said. "We play good defense, but you can't play defense when she hits over the top of our block. She's a great hitter, unbelievable."

Trippi-Payne said Wicinski took Geneva to another level, turning a good team into one that dominated the conference.

"I do think that without Wicinski, Geneva is an above-average team, not a great team," Trippi-Payne said. "If not for her, we could have beaten them the first time around. She literally elevated and took over both games 1 and 2 to score the majority of the kills in the last 4-5 points in each of our games."

Wicinski can now touch 10 feet. When Johnsen first started, 9-feet was the magic mark Division I college coaches look for, then 9-4 and today it is still around 9-6.

Northern Illinois, where Lauren's mother Gina played volleyball and father Rob played football, is the college where Wicinski will take those hitting skills to. Wichita State, Arizona, Indiana and Wisconsin were some of the others who showed interest before Wicinski decided to stay close to home.

"When I went there I had a gut feeling this is where I want to be. I kind of grew up there, been to football games and volleyball games. Everyone was so nice there," said Wicinski, who joked her parents "probably wish I was a little further away."

Wicinski said she remembers in fifth and sixth grade watching her mom play in volleyball leagues, and then Lauren herself began playing in seventh grade.

"Huge," Wicinski said of Gina's influence. "I look up to her as a person in general. She was a great volleyball player, she's always been there and helped me out."

Far from just a hitter, Wicinski had a 2.39 serve-receive rating continuing to improve her numbers in the back row (238 digs - 803 in her career).

Johnsen said Wicinski's younger days as a setter helped her as an all-around player on the court even while she developed into such an electrifying hitter.

"I think that was beneficial, a good thing for an all-around volleyball player," Johnsen said. "And you have respect for the other person's job and difficulty of it when you have done it yourself."

Geneva teammate Katie Sommer played with Wicinski back in those days when she set and had a good view from the front row the last couple years watching Wicinski turn into an unstoppable hitter.

"Watching her go from setter to hitter was fun because she's so good at everything she does," Sommer said. "In practice she's always hitting balls like that, just amazing."

Just as impressive to Johnsen as those on-court improvements is the way Wicinski became a leader.

"We didn't expect her to step in freshman year as a leader, but you hope someone who has that opportunity to play as a freshman, sophomore, you hope by the time they are a senior they can lead the team and boy did Lauren do a great job of that," Johnsen said.

"She provides a lot of determination and a lot of intensity when you need intensity and poise when you need poise. Her leadership characteristics really came to the forefront."

How many of those leadership traits come from her father Rob, the Geneva football coach?

Plenty, said Lauren, who appreciates the perspective he brings.

"He gives you the other aspect, what a coach is thinking, and he knows the other players' point of view," Wicinski said.

Covering Lauren Wicinski as a freshman, this reporter overheard two fans of the opposing team say, "See her? Her dad is the football coach."

How times have changed. This year at a football game, the conversation turned to the Geneva football coach, and a fan said, "Have you seen his daughter play volleyball?"

Yep, in four years the introductions have gone...

Here's Lauren Wicinski, Rob Wicinski's daughter.

To...

See Rob Wicinski? That's Lauren Wicinski's father.

"She did her own thing and made her own name," Johnsen said.