Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009

Forces at the net: Junior duo has played key role in getting Mater Dei back to state

BREESE -- Kaley Boeckmann doesn't show much emotion except when she forgets to Tivo her favorite soap opera.

"I never miss an episode of 'The Young and the Restless,'" said Boeckmann, a junior right-side hitter for the Mater Dei Knights. "I'll get upset if I miss it. Other than that, nothing really bothers me."

Good luck evoking much of a response out of Ali Mueller, either. The junior outside hitter also rolls with the punches. She's played three different positions in three years, including two (right side and now, left side) this season.

"Whatever," said Mueller with a shrug and a smile. "Whatever is best for the team is where I'll play. I just like to play."

Boeckmann and Mueller aren't the flashiest players for the 34-6 Knights, who will take on Sycamore (34-6) at 4:30 p.m. Friday in the semifinals of the Class 3A state tournament in Normal.

However, a case can be made that they are the steadiest and most effective for the Knights, which is why the duo is among veteran coach Fred Rakers' favorites.

He craves players that aren't demonstrative, don't create a lot of waves and do the task they're assigned with little fanfare. Boeckmann and Mueller fit that mold.

"They're quiet; they just do their job and they don't make any noise," Rakers said. "You can't always tell that they are there, but when you need them, you sure know you can count on them.

"They're just steady players, more blue-collar than anything else. In that respect, maybe you can almost say they're like clones of one another."

Boeckmann and Mueller do have remarkably similar statistics and physical characteristics. They are both 16 years old, stand 5-foot-10 and carry themselves with a confident yet unassuming air.

Boeckmann is second on the team in kills with 141 to go along with 83 blocks and 166 digs. Mueller is third in kills with 136, has 65 blocks and 118 digs.

They are among Mater Dei's most effective servers -- Boeckmann has gotten 93 percent (196-of-210) of her serves in; Mueller 92 percent (361-of-391) -- and also share a similar personality.

"We're both really, really laid back and just do what we think we're supposed to do," Boeckmann said. "That's just the way we are. Me and Ali are a lot alike. We're both just kind of goofy and out there. We're both kind of blond and ditzy."

How ditzy? A few minutes before Wednesday's practice, Mater Dei's trainer, Jamie Wagner, asked Boeckmann to fetch her lunch box from a locked office. Boeckmann couldn't figure out how to get the key in the lock.

"See, I can't even open a door," she said with a laugh.

Boeckmann may not be able to operate a lock, but she can usually find an open spot in the opposition's defense. Even though she plays middle for Southwest Illinois, her club team, Boeckmann has been a force on the right side for the Knights.

Her emergence has taken some of the defensive pressure off sophomore outside hitter Brooke Schulte, who leads the team with 289 kills.

"Most teams don't use their right-side hitters as much as we do, so it helps Brooke because she gets a split to hit more, because people worry about us," Boeckmann said. "Hitting-wise, it's easier to hit the lines for me."

Boeckmann also was a middle in grade school at Germantown. One of her biggest rivals was Mueller, who played the middle for Bartelso.

"In grade school, you really don't have a lot of competition with blocking, so I was just a big, tall middle hitter wailing away," Mueller said. "With Kaley, though, I'd have to watch out for her."

Mueller played middle as a freshman at Mater Dei, then moved to right side as a sophomore on the varsity, collecting 112 kills as the Knights (36-6) took third at the Class 3A state tournament.

This year, she's played on both the right and left side.

"In my eyes the biggest difference is the right side, there's more blocking, and the left side is more hitting," Mueller said. "A lot of girls like to play the left side because you can just hit."

Mueller -- who's the president of her junior class as well as the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and the St. Vincent de Paul Society at Mater Dei -- said playing all the hitting positions is not a big deal.

"I've always been taught to just do what you know," Mueller said. "You don't have to show off or anything. You just do your job and do your best."

Save for when she misses her daily dose of Jack Abbott and Victor Newmann on "The Young and the Restless," Boeckmann doesn't get too high or two low.

Neither does Mueller, and that's the way Rakers likes it.

"It's that steadiness that I always talk about," Rakers said. "When you need them to block, they're there. When you need them to hit, they're there. When you need them to serve, they're there. They're always doing the right thing for the team no matter where we put them."