Southeast Missourian Volleyball Player of the Year: Abbie McAlister

In the 16 years since joining the school's coaching staff in 1999, Notre Dame volleyball coach Tara Stroup believes Abbie McAlister stands out among the best.

And the Bulldogs have had their share of talent walk through the doors.

Ashley Nenninger set a single-season school record her senior season at Notre Dame when she hammered 415 kills in 2006. She guided the Bulldogs to a 20-10-4 record that included a district championship before taking her talents to Murray State where she started three seasons, amassing 1,020 career kills.

Nenninger's kills record at Notre Dame was one Stroup deemed unbreakable. But then came McAlister.

The 6-foot-1 middle blocker started two seasons with the Bulldogs, the latter of which she shattered Notre Dame's single-season kills record, finishing with 493. She also helped guide the Bulldogs to a 30-3-2 record and a district title.

Now she is the Southeast Missourian Volleyball Player of the Year.

"I feel like she's as good of a hitter as anybody I've coached," Stroup said. "... I thought that record was going to stand for a long time, but Abbie not only broke it but broke it by almost 100 kills or something like that."

McAlister, a Scott City native, said she first began playing volleyball in the fourth grade at St. Joseph School. Her mother, Jill, was a middle blocker who played at Scott City in the early '90s. McAlister credits her mother for providing her initial interest in the sport.

"She taught me a lot about volleyball, just teaching me how to pass and stuff like that," McAlister said. "I just thought it looked fun, and then when I first learned how to get the ball to the ground by hitting it, I was like, 'OK, yeah. I like this sport. This is fun.'"

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2015 All-Missourian Volleyball - Abbie McAlister - Notre Dame Regional High SchoolFred Lynch

Stroup said she first recognized McAlister's potential while coaching at middle school camps. McAlister started her high school career at Scott City before transferring to Notre Dame after a semester.

"I thought that she was headed to Notre Dame. And then we had our freshmen come in that year, and she didn't come to anything," Stroup said. "We went to shootout that summer, and she was on Scott City's varsity. So I knew who she was at that point.

"I knew she was a talented player."

McAlister also caught the attention of fellow teammate Sam Feeney, who attended those same middle school camps and watched McAlister blossom.

"I was always so jealous, and I knew she was going to be good coming up," said Feeney, a fellow member of this year's All-Southeast Missourian Volleyball Team. "When I heard she was going to Scott City, I was kind of sad about it because I assumed I wasn't going to get to play with her."

She competed at the JV level for the Bulldogs as a sophomore, during which Stroup said she made an immediate impact.

"When she first came to Notre Dame, she had to play JV for a year because she had to sit out that year of eligibility for varsity because she had already played on a varsity team," Stroup said. "Her JV season, I worked with them some in the summer before that. Our JV team went undefeated that year. We didn't lose a game. Abbie was definitely good enough to play varsity that year."

She joined the varsity team as a junior and once again made an immediate impact. She led the team in kills (325) and had a .608 hitting percentage en route to earning all-district and all-region honors.

Notre Dame finished the season with a 22-7-1 mark but was unable to reach the district title game, dropping a 2-0 (25-12, 25-19) decision against Perryville in the semifinals.

The Bulldogs' .733 winning percentage was marred by winning only one of six combined matches against district rivals Perryville and Dexter, as Notre Dame was swept in four of those losses.

Overcoming that obstacle was what fueled McAlister, who took action by working hard in the offseason to prepare for a big senior year.

"That was one of the biggest challenges we faced as a team, just getting over that mindset that we had a history of losing to them," McAlister said. "We only won one game against them, so we knew we wanted to beat Dexter and Perryville. We just came into practice and worked on everything we needed to."

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Notre Dame's Abbie McAlister (12) and Sam Brennan (10) celebrate with their teammates after winning the first set against Dexter during the Class 3 District 1 championship Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015 at Notre Dame Regional High School.Glenn Landberg

In 2015 the Bulldogs increased their winning percentage to an impressive .857 and won four of six combined matches against Perryville and Dexter. They won the SEMO Spike Tournament and SEMO Conference Tournament before clinching the Class 3 District 1 title with a 2-0 (25-23, 25-14) win over Dexter in the championship.

"It felt great because before the game even started, coach Stroup had this big speech with us," McAlister said about the district final. "She told us, 'Down the road, you're going to be a normal person. You won't be playing volleyball anymore. Just go out and win it.'

"We just went out there with the attitude that we were going to win that thing. We just cheered for every single point that we got."

The Bulldogs were poised to make a run at a state title but were upended in the Class 3 sectionals. St. Pius X edged out a 2-0 (25-19, 26-24) victory over Notre Dame and went on to advance to the state championship, where it dropped a 2-0 decision against Villa Duchesne.

McAlister wrapped up her season with a number of awards, including being named the SEMO Conference Player of the Year. She was named Class 3 second team all-state and had a .451 hitting percentage to go along with 52 aces and 183 digs.

Outside of winning the district title, her favorite memory from the season was the night she broke the school's single-season kills record.

McAlister needed 60 kills going into the tournament, notching 61 throughout pool play to break the record. Word began spreading across the Notre Dame fans that McAlister was about to break the record, and it appeared everyone knew except for McAlister.

With two kills left, Stroup informed her that she was two kills away from the record.

"It got in my head, and I missed it," McAlister said with a laugh. "So I was like, 'Feeney, set me in the back row.' She set me, and I got it."

Stroup said McAlister has always been confident but believes she added a mental edge to her game as a senior that separated her from the rest.

"She came out, and I can honestly say I can't think of one game her senior year where she was not focused or ready to play or wanting to win," Stroup said. "She also kind of worked through a lot of frustrations. I think when she was a junior, she had moments where we'd play a really good team and she'd get blocked a couple times or make a hitting error and it would kind of get in her head.

"I feel like in her senior season, she got over a lot of that stuff. She had a lot more focus, a lot more poise."

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2015 All-Missourian Volleyball - Abbie McAlister - Notre Dame Regional High SchoolFred Lynch

McAlister said she venerates former Scott City standouts Katie Hogan and Micah Simpson, as well as former Notre Dame middle blocker Miranda Fowler, whose taller, blond physique mirrors her own. She also credits Stroup for helping develop a more competitive mindset.

"She's brought out my attitude. She's brought out my drive to want to win," McAlister said. "I felt like I had a close connection with her, so I could talk to her whenever I felt like I needed to. And I always felt like I could get back what I needed to hear even if I didn't want to hear it. She was very honest with me."

Feeney, a senior setter who wrapped up her high school career by setting the single-season school record in assists (744), said she's also seen McAlister's growth firsthand.

"This year she just came in with a new attitude and made it more of a team thing instead of just about individuals," Feeney said. "She came out and just made everyone feel together on the court, which was really big. ... Getting to play these last three years with her, it's really been a big thing for me. I'm like, 'Wow, I've gotten to play with one of the best hitters in Missouri.' It's a really amazing experience, and I probably wouldn't trade it for anything."

McAlister has received interest from a number of Division I schools from around the country, including Tennessee State, but said she is leaning toward staying close to home. She wants to begin her college career at either Jefferson County Community College or Mineral Area College, with hopes of concluding it at Southeast Missouri State.

"I think that if she has her mind on it or her heart set on it, she'll be able to play where she wants to," Stroup said. "She's a real talent. I think that she is tall enough and athletic enough to be a good college hitter. They may hit her outside. I know she's played some outside on her club team, but I liked her in the middle because she was one of our taller blockers. ... It just depends on if she can find that place where she fits."

Stroup hopes McAlister has helped set a new standard at Notre Dame, one that will give her younger players something to aspire.

"We got by a lot of teams because they couldn't stop her this year," Strop said. "I was pretty convinced that when she was in the front row, we had to go to her. We'd be able to get a kill, and she was a dominant hitter for our class and the teams we played against. The mental game really came along this year, which made her pretty unstoppable against a lot of teams.

"It's so nice as a coach to have that person who can just put it away. You can make great defensive plays all day long, but if you don't have that person you can rely on to put the ball down, you can only go so far. Luckily for us, we had the luxury of having her this year. It was pretty much that if we had a good set to her, it was going down. I think that's had a really positive impact on the program."