Wilson Hall's Norris dishes out assists in Lady Barons' playoff run

One of the engines that makes a volleyball team run is the setter.

Without someone to keep the ball moving and expertly set up hitters, offenses tend to fall flat. Over at Wilson Hall, they've got a high-powered engine in Maggie Norris.

The junior set the Lady Barons up for success, as Wilson Hall played their way to a SCISA 4A state semifinal appearance, their deepest run under head coach Rip Ripley. Norris' performance was noticed by her peers, as she was also voted the Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week.

"I definitely appreciate the Wilson Hall family; they're super supportive," Norris said of the community that rallied behind her to win the vote. "I wouldn't have been able to do it without them."

Ripley said Norris' impressive junior season was built on hard work in the offseason.

"This offseason, she took a year off club and really focused on Wilson Hall volleyball, which as the Wilson Hall coach is awesome to see," Ripley said. "A lot of girls play club, and there's a lot of benefits of that, but to have her step up and say, 'We want this season to be special' was great.

"I challenged her over the summer and said she needs to come to double or triple the workouts other members of the team did because whenever a hitter wants to work, them hitting off me is not the same as hitting off her. She really took that challenge and ran with it. She was calling hitters to get workouts in; she was the catalyst in getting that done."

Norris knew she needed that work in the offseason because the Lady Baron offense wouldn't work if she wasn't on the same page with her hitters.

"I know that my job is to give the hitters the best chance to get a kill and do their thing," Norris said. "Our whole team did a great job of taking advantage of all of our practice opportunities to be successful as an offense."

The junior setter made the offense move throughout the week. She finished with 71 assists, while also playing well defensively with 30 digs. She added six aces as Wilson Hall's leadoff server. Wilson Hall has a number of strong hitters with Sarah Sonntag, Campbell Bauman and Aubrey Payne leading the way. Ripley has been impressed by Norris' ability to spread the ball around.

"We don't have that D1, All-American-type hitter that the ball is going to every single time," Ripley said. "We've got a pretty diverse group of hitters, and that's one of our strengths, I think, because we can mix it up on who is going to attack. That relies a lot on her as the setter to make sure we're running that offense smoothly."

The Lady Barons had a first-round bye in the playoffs and won their first game against First Baptist 25-14, 25-21 to advance to Saturday. Wilson Hall faced a tough matchup immediately with Porter-Gaud. After dropping the first set 25-14, Wilson Hall built a 20-18 lead in the second as they looked to even the match. Porter-Gaud closed strong for a 25-22 win, sending the Lady Barons to the brink of elimination.

"We definitely knew that we had to fight back after that game because we had no time to sit back and think about what just happened; you have to go to the next game," Norris said. "Our mindset was to focus on what's next, and I think we were able to handle business after that."

With their season on the line, Wilson Hall faced Hammond in their second game of the day. The Lady Barons had been in this position before, and it hadn't gone their way.

"It can be emotionally draining when you're in a game like that, like we were in that second set, and you weren't able to finish it," Ripley said. "It's easy to drop, and then you're in trouble. Being able to rally, we really put an emphasis on that bounceback game, and they did a great job of recovering."

Wilson Hall beat Hammond in straight sets 25-18, 25-22 to advance to the state semifinals for the first time. While they fell short of their ultimate goal of a state title, Wilson Hall had an incredible season. They set a program record with 33 wins as they reached new heights this fall.

"It was a crazy experience," Norris said of the season. "I knew this group was capable of a lot, but to see that number and put a fantastic end on the season and show all of the accomplishments that we had, it really shows off all of the hard work we put in."