Seniors Lead Miners Forward Wallace Out To Defend Volleyball Title

Joy Sperry and Dana Streeter will leave a piece of history at Wallace High School when they graduate this spring.

The seniors were members of the 1994 State A-3 championship volleyball team.

Sperry, a 6-foot-1 middle blocker, is working toward an NCAA Division I volleyball scholarship. Streeter, a 5-8 outside hitter, meanwhile, will see what collegiate offers the spring track season brings.

As they have all season, Sperry and Streeter will lead the Miners’ state volleyball title defense this weekend in Twin Falls. They just hope the younger players show up.

“Everybody has to be here and ready to play,” Sperry said. “Everybody has to give 110 percent. It’s a team; if one person slacks it could cost us.”

That’s a message the two Miners co-captains have tried to deliver to their younger teammates.

Being a senior is “a different kind of role,” Streeter acknowledged. “You have to be a lot meaner than you want to. That’s the hardest thing for me, knowing how much the seniors yelled at us as sophomores. I feel bad and apologize to them.”

But the majority of the Miners haven’t experienced state competition before. And none has the elite national club team volleyball experience Sperry does.

Sperry averages 20 kills a match. A 13-kill, seven-block performance isn’t unusual for Streeter either.

Sperry postponed a recruiting visit to Illinois State in Chicago this weekend after Wallace (20-6) won its state playoff.

“(Sperry) hits quite a bit harder than she did,” Miners coach Dick Schreiber said. “Any time you’re playing that much volleyball, you’ve got to show improvement.

“Then again, it also causes some problems. You have a team with Joy, from one end who is a superb player and she’s used to playing at a high level, coming back to work in with a team that’s a bunch of high school girls.”

Streeter is an exceptionally gifted athlete. She plays opposite Sperry, and one of the two is always in the front row.

“(Streeter) can get above the net,” Schreiber said. “She has an extremely good vertical (jump). She can get up and block. When she’s got her mind set, she can hit, too.”

Both have adjusted to a new setter, sophomore Toya Bailey.

“They can’t hit if the set is not there,” Schreiber said. “(Bailey) can’t set if the pass is not there. The girls had to take the talent that Dana and Joy have, and still fit into a team concept. Joy and Dana can’t go out there and win if they don’t have a team.”

Sperry and Streeter know that, but “sometimes when we’re in a game situation and we want to win, you’ll find Dana and me everywhere,” Sperry added.

They hope they don’t have to be everywhere this weekend.

“I don’t think the girls realize what (state) means; how much mental preparation there is,” Sperry said. “When we went to district, I could see the girls under pressure fall apart. At state there is a lot more pressure.”