Girls volleyball: Hersey's Korba following the family tradition

With two aunts who were setters for Division I women's volleyball programs and a mother who was a Division I women's soccer player, Alli Korba certainly had the bloodlines to be a standout high school athlete.

Suffice it to say, she has not let anyone down in her family.

Following in the footsteps of her aunt Shana (Eastern Illinois) and Sadie (University of Delaware), Allie has become one of the Northwest suburbs' top setters while helping Hersey to a Mid-Suburban East title just four months ago.

Making her rise to the top even more significant is the fact that she came into high school having never played the setting position.

"From the time I started playing until I got on the varsity I was a right side hitter and played almost every other position except setter," she said. "They were telling me to become a setter but I just wanted to hit because they got most of the recognition. That's what I thought when I was younger."

But one of her coaches at Rolling Thunder thought Korba could handle setting and she began her new career.

Hersey hall of fame girls volleyball coach Nancy Lill thought it was a no-brainer moving Korba into the quarterback slot of her varsity offense.

"Seeing her as a freshman we knew her potential and that her future was real bright," Lill said. "She's in the weight room all the time and works on all kinds of speed transitions. She takes it so seriously.

"She has worked so hard to achieve this and I know the sky is the limit. I think she can play Division I but with all the college kids getting an extra year of eligibility due to COVID, it's been harder right now. "Whoever gets Allie is going to be really lucky. What a great volleyball package. She has great team leadership and great hands."

Korba is being patient in deciding on college, and just focusing on her final prep season this fall.

The straight-A student wants to play volleyball in college and enter the prelaw field.

"Corporate law," she said. "I took some law courses at Hersey and it kind of sparked my interest. I've always been interested in getting a business degree because that helps with everything,"

Korba loves helping her teammates put down their kills.

"I really like watching my teammates succeed and knowing I was there to help them," she said. "That is very rewarding for me."

Korba reaped the rewards of all her hard work last spring when she was named the Mid-Suburban East Player of the Year.

"I didn't even have to nominate her," Lill said. "The majority of coaches said to me they're nominating her. They just all realized what a great athlete she was, what a great setter and leader and how she makes the team run."

She can't wait to run the Hersey offense this fall, just like her aunts did at Rockford Boylan High School. Allie's mother Sudi also starred in soccer at Boylan and went on to play in Iowa.

"It's a very athletic family," said Allie, whose father Mark played football in Chicago and whose brother Austin is on the defensive line as a sophomore for Butler University. Allie also has a younger brother, AJ, and a sister, Addison.

"It's definitely an athletic family," said Allie, who also plays beach volleyball and her doubles partner is Barrington standout libero Amanda Cleary. "I can talk about them all day long.

"My aunts have always been there to help me and my grandpa Steve (Bjornstad, two-way football player at Illinois State) has always been super-involved. He has taken me to a bunch of camps and he is one of the other people who pushed me to get involved in volleyball as well."