Brooke Gennerman looks right at home on the outside.
The Lewis-Palmer senior has been outstanding for the Rangers in the early stretch of the season and a big piece of that is that is her move from a middle hitter/blocker – a position where she was needed – to an outside hitter – a position where she’s dominant.
Despite a slow start to the season where the Rangers lost to two Class 5A powers and last year’s 4A runner-up, she’s been a big part of the course correction that has them looking more like the dominant volleyball team from just a handful of years ago.
“She makes all the difference in the world,” L-P coach Don Lash said. “We’ve known it, but it hasn’t shown because she’s been playing middle the last two years. Now that she’s on the outside, you see more of what she can do.”
Following Lewis-Palmer’s 25-16, 25-10, 25-14 win over Rampart on Tuesday, Gennerman is totaling 127 kills on the season. That number is tops in the state for a Class 4A player and third in the state regardless of classification. The two players ahead of her each played 11 more sets than her. She leads the state in kills per set at 5.3 and she had 19 in the win on Tuesday. It’s been a stretch worth of a Whataburger Athlete of the Week.
It’s only the tip of the iceberg as the Rangers look strong in all six positions on the floor and it has shown over the last week.
“We became closer and we’ve started to understand each other better,” Gennerman said. “We’ve also learned to push. We don’t want to drop to anyone’s level, we want to play our game.”
This is a process that started a couple of years ago. The Rangers had won six out of seven 4A state championships dating back to 2013. After beating Palmer Ridge in five sets in 2019, things got a little tougher for the Rangers.
Palmer Ridge and Thompson Valley had upped their games and have been the only two teams to win a 4A title since 2020. But after falling back to Earth for a couple of seasons, the Rangers returned to the Denver Coliseum in 2022 and looked more like a team capable of competing at that environment. Just a sophomore at the time, Gennerman was able to use that experience to help L-P start rebuilding its volleyball foundation up to the school standard. And she figured out that the work isn’t done during the matches, but the time in between.
“It shows that what we do in practice can help us in games,” she said. “It’s all about team. We’re a tight group of girls and we know and love each other so much.”
The Rangers have one more non-league match against 5A Pine Creek before taking on the gauntlet of the PPAC, which will include two matches with district rival and defending state champion Palmer Ridge.
