By Anthony Fontana
Senior Sarah Redoute finishes her stellar career being named an honorable mention All-American to go along with First Team ALL-GLIAC. Head Coach Will Stanton wins a post-season award after the Cardinals finish the most successful season in school history.
SVSU senior volleyball player Sarah Redoute can now say that she has come full circle in terms of her volleyball career.
In her seventh grade volleyball tryouts, Redoute was within two picks of not making the team. After recently completing her senior season at SVSU, she was named an honorable mention All-American. Some would consider that a monumental accomplishment for a girl who almost didn’t make her junior high team.
“I find it quite funny when I look back at the time when I first picked up volleyball at seventh grade tryouts and was the 13th pick out of 15 girls trying out. I almost didn’t make the team. After that, I excelled and only wanted to get better. I played AAU volleyball in the off-season every year after that and started my freshmen year on varsity in ninth grade,” Redoute said.
Redoute, who will graduate in May with a degree in marketing, helped the Cards volleyball team have the most successful season in their history. They advanced all the way to the Regional Finals before falling to Grand Valley. Looking back on the season, she is satisfied at how well the team played although she wishes they could have advanced further.
“Our inexperience in the NCAA tournament showed through when we fell to the Lakers yet again. We were crushed that our season ended but we couldn’t help but stand proud knowing that we advanced our team as far as it has ever gone.” Redoute said.
Not only did Redoute have an outstanding senior season, her individual success on the court is something that she has maintained throughout her time at SVSU. She is number one in school history with 1,281 career kills and total attacks with 3,942. She places fifth in SVSU history with 1,188 career digs. She attributes her individual success to the help from her coaches and teammates.
“Tracy Moran was our new assistant coach this season. She helped immensely with the middle attackers, an area that we knew we would need to perfect if we were going to be successful this season. We worked hard with her every practice and it showed in our success.” Redoute said.
Redoute said she is happy to say that she accomplished all the goals that she set out for herself.
“One of my goals this season was to be named First Team All-GLIAC, so I was extremely happy to have accomplished that. All the other individual awards I received were just icing on the cake because I really didn’t expect any of them,” Redoute said. “Our team goals at the beginning of the year consisted of making it to the GLIAC finals and making it past the first round of the NCAA tournament. It’s a satisfying feeling to accomplish goals that were set at the start of the season.”
One might say that the success Redoute has experienced during her volleyball career isn’t all that surprising considering the work that she has put into the game.
“I never stopped trying to be the best that I could be. I will never start things unless I am going to put 110 percent effort into it, and in the end it all paid off.” Redoute said.
Stanton receives post-season Coach of the Year award
Also reaping the benefits of a successful campaign was head coach Will Stanton, who was named Midwest Region Coach of the Year.
Stanton, who is in his fifth season as head coach, guided the Cards to 25 victories, which tied the school record.
Stanton has turned the team into annual conference championship contenders. He was named GLIAC Coach of the Year in 2007, after completing a 20-12 season. In 2006, he coached the Cards to their first above .500 record in eight years. Redoute credited Stanton with helping the team come together to complete the successful season.
“I feel that over the second half of the season he really connected with the team and inspired us to succeed even more,” she said. “After we lost the last match, he shared with us how proud he was of us for accomplishing everything we did. He lets it be known that being named Coach of the Year is a team accomplishment, which is very humble.”
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