By: Colton Steiner
BLUFFTON, Ohio – The Bluffton University volleyball team will utilize experience in the upcoming 2025 campaign as they have seven seniors back to lead the program. Coming off a 16-14 season where they finished 1-8 in the HCAC, Bluffton will look to continue its upward trend after a jump from six wins in 2023 to 16 in 2024.
Head Coach Steve Yarnell is entering his 21st season leading the Beavers, having 11 appearances in the conference semi-finals and five HCAC tournament titles on his resume. He has mentored two AVCA All-Americans, two Academic All-Americans and five Heartland Conference Players of the Year while earning HCAC Coach of the Year awards in 2009 and 2014!
Returning to Bluffton as an assistant coach is Kelly Armentrout, a 2024 graduate from Bluffton and a volleyball standout. Armentrout is returning to her alma mater following a one-year stint as an assistant coach at Ohio Northern, where she helped lead the Polar Bears to a 20-9 overall record.
Bluffton will go into the upcoming year without three seniors from the 2024 season as sisters Chloei and Kaylei Barnett along with Kennedy Parker all graduated. The Beavers will lose a team-high 335 kills from Chloei Barnett who also led the team with 3.6 points per set while contributing 100 digs last season. With Kaylei Barnett and Kennedy Parker gone, they will lose 165 digs from Barnett, along with 18 service aces, while Parker walked away with 16 aces and 11 kills in 2024.
While they will miss the front-line attack of Chloei Barnett who was a four-year starter, they return several core players, including senior Jenna Woods (DeGraff/Riverside), who hit .146 with 286 kills, 84 digs, and 15 solo blocks. Also returning is senior Paige Massie (Alvada) who is coming off a season where she added 105 kills and a team-high 17 solo blocks. Kasey Sager (Troy) returns to the court for the Beavers after leading the team with 79 total blocks while hitting .217. Senior Bekah Pack (Lexington) gives the Beavers solid experience at the net. She is coming off her junior season when she hit .199 and tallied 101 kills to go along with 38 total blocks, while racking up 42 digs.
Senior Abby Lawhorn (Cable/Mechanicsburg) comes back after a year where she tallied a team-high 412 digs and 72 assists as Bluffton's libero. Joining her is senior Emma Organ (Lambertville, Mich./St. Ursula Academy) who led the Beavers with 345 digs in 2023 before being sidelined with a knee injury for the entirety of her junior season.
Coming off a season where she netted team-highs in assists (766) and service aces (40), senior Gabby Williams (West Liberty/West Liberty-Salem) will look to make an impact and continue to build the strong chemistry she has with the hitters.
After a successful freshman campaign, sophomores Saniyah Terry (Macomb, MI/L Anse Creuse HS North) and Ashlie Nuss (St. Marys/Memorial) are ready to make an even bigger impact in the upcoming season. Terry is coming off her first year with the program where she scraped up 269 digs while smacking 32 service aces, which was second highest on the team. Nuss returns after recording 185 digs and 19 aces in 97 sets played.
Bluffton will kick off the 2025 season when it travels to St. Louis, Mo., where the Beavers will face Webster University at 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 29. The Beavers are slated to break in the newly-surfaced Copeland Court on Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 7 p.m. when they go head-to-head with Kenyon College. On Wednesday, Sept. 10, Bluffton will once again compete against the Ohio Northern Polar Bears with a start time of 7 p.m. in Ada.
Before heading into HCAC competition, the Beavers will have their annual Sommer Center Spiketacular on Friday, Sept. 26 and Saturday, Sept. 27. They will kick off the weekend against Adrian at 3 p.m. on Friday. Heartland Conference action fires up on Saturday, Oct. 5, with a trip to Franklin College for a matchup against the Grizzlies. The home finale sees Bluffton hosting HCAC-powerhouse Transylvania on Saturday, Nov. 1, before the regular season wraps with trips to Anderson and Rose-Hulman.
-BEAVERS-