Bell City's Abner selected Southeast Missourian Volleyball Player of the Year

Bell City senior Jessica Abner made one simple change that helped her play better volleyball this fall than her first three high school seasons.

She improved her attitude -- period.

"I know in the past years I hadn't tried as hard as I could, and during preseason, I worked a lot harder because I wanted to be the best," Abner said. "I don't know really what I did. I just know every time I got on the court, I would try to do my best.

"I definitely put a lot more effort into practices."

Abner's effort paid off as she was presented with first-team all-state honors in Class 1 after posting 253 kills, 55 ace serves and 185 digs. She also had a .355 hitting percentage and was successful on 95 percent of her serves and 84 percent of her dig attempts.

Bell City senior Jessica Abner spiked a shot during a match during the regular season. (Kit Doyle)

Abner, who earned the state honor for the first time in her career, is the Southeast Missourian Player of the Year.

Bell City coach Erin Hoffman said she saw numerous changes in Abner's game at the beginning of the season, from work ethic, to being a more vocal leader on the court, to improving her form. The coach said that she saw Abner was using her arms more, which helped her jump higher and gave her better timing.

"It was just her time to step up, and she did," Hoffman said. "We had a camp this summer, and when she came in for preseason, she had completely changed her approach and made it the perfect approach, which is one of the hardest things for a girl to do. And she did it all on her own. That told me she just wanted to be much better."

Tough left hook

Abner's nickname is "Lefty." That's not surprising since the right-side hitter's left-handed smash was difficult for many defenders to handle this season.

"You have to strategize differently to block her," St. Vincent player Brooke Brown said.

Abner put together strong individual performances all season long and into the playoffs. She led the Cubs with a team-high 10 kills and eight digs in a district win against Advance, and she recorded eight kills in the Cubs' district championship victory against Bernie.

The Cubs' season ended with a loss to Leopold in sectionals.

"She was pretty much just amazing, and she came out and took a big leadership, and she really stood out a lot because she was killing it all the time," teammate Rachel Spears said. "She might say she had a bad game, but I don't remember her ever having a bad game, ever."

The next level

Abner has signed to play at Shawnee Community College, which gave her an athletic scholarship. Abner also will be joined by teammate Jenny Lathum, who also signed.

Abner said she has already started preparing for her college career. She takes part in open gym practices at Shawnee and recently tried out for a winter league. She said she even occasionally hits the volleyball around with her old Cubs teammates.

"My defense is going to have to be a lot better, and I need to work on jumping a lot more because it's going to be a lot harder to block than it is in high school," she said.

Hoffman said overall Abner is ready for college, but she could improve the way she plays in the back row.

"I think she will do well because of all the experience she has had over the past four years," Hoffman said. "She had to grow to be the leader and player she is today. She does have to work on her back row quite a bit. But one thing good about college is that it's so specialized that she might not play back row. But she would like to and she needs a lot of work on that."

Even though Abner will be off to a new team, she said she will remember the good times she enjoyed playing for Bell City.

"I am going to miss the girls a lot," she said. "I think we have the greatest team and it's going to be really hard not playing with them next year. We'd always sing and dance in the locker room, and I'm going to miss that a whole bunch."

Here is the entire all-Southeast Missourian volleyball team roster:

Hitter -- Brooke Brown, St. Vincent

Hitter -- Casey Bucher, Leopold

Hitter -- Wendi Zickfield, Central

Hitter -- Rachel Spears, Bell City

Hitter -- Jessica Abner, Bell City

Hitter -- Lauren Johnson, Woodland

Hitter -- Maddy Hutchings, Leopold

Hitter/Setter -- Kelsey Cissell, St. Vincent

Setter -- Cassie Seiler, Leopold

Setter -- Codie Lancaster, Bell City

Libero -- Desiree Arnzen, Leopold