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Keough Tries To Make The Most Of Her Final Season

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By EDDIE DANIELS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 4, 2007

LAND O' LAKES - The first time Kayli Keough elevated and came down on the volleyball, essentially assaulting it, Tuesday night against River Ridge, there was a lone thought in the head of Land O' Lakes coach Michelle Griffin.

'Honestly, the first thing I said on Kayli's first kill was 'I'm going to miss her next season.' That was the first thing I said,' Griffin said. 'She brings so much energy to the team. Every time she has a kill, it just brings up everyone, and it changes the way that we're playing.'

What it does is force opponents to return volleys as far away from Keough as possible. When that doesn't deter the Land O' Lakes offense, the opposing defense must bring blockers to her side to attempt to block her shots, which come down with a brutal force.

'I always tell the girls we get real excited when we have a block or a kill, and for those hitters it's key, especially Kayli,' Griffin said. 'Pretty much the best thing we know, about every time she touches the ball, there's about a 99 percent chance it's not coming back. That's an awesome feeling.'

That feeling may not last for Keough past this season.

Keough, a senior, verbally committed to Florida State in February, accepting a basketball scholarship. That will likely cap her volleyball career when she reaches Tallahassee.

'Senior season of anything is important, especially volleyball. This has been so much fun,' Keough said. 'We have such a good group of girls on our team. It's great to be able to get out there and be loud and get all excited. Senior season, this is huge.'

The season will be a memorable one following the Gators' season-opening 25-22, 18-25, 25-22, 25-15 victory against River Ridge.

'Senior season, it was nice to finally beat them,' she said. 'We had never beat them in my time, so it was nice to finally pull it off. We still have another one, though, so we've got to stay focused.'

Keough, who has played for three coaches in four seasons at Land O' Lakes, has witnessed a positive transformation in her teammates this offseason.

There seems to be more dedication. Combine that with the team's trend the previous two seasons - Land O' Lakes went 8-15 in 2005 and 12-11 in 2006 after a 7-16 2005 - and that could bode well for the Gators.

'We had all sorts of summer stuff going on, all sorts of stuff going on at the end of last year that really helped us,' said Keough, a middle hitter. 'People wanted to come into the gym and play after school and wanted to come in during the summer before school started. We had early tryouts, so we just kind of got those in the three-hour practices. That kind of just motivates you.

'I don't know about everybody else, but I feel like, 'Yeah, I just did a three-hour practice, I sweated really hard, I burned a lot of calories.' It's great to get that motivation because you've been working all summer and it's nice because we want to make it pay off.'

As long as balls are rocketing off her hand from her aggressive spikes, that payoff may continue as the season progresses.

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