Volleyball Player of the Year
By Aaron Garcia
The Charlotte Weekly
Jan. 23-29, 2009 Issue
Before the 2008 volleyball season, Liza Price must have felt a little like former NBA star Scottie Pippen in 1993, the year his Chicago Bulls teammate Michael Jordon took time off to play baseball.
Until this, her senior season, Price had been the setter while Charlotte Latin School's other talented players racked up great statistics and the Hawks lost only one match during her first three years on the team.
In 2008, however, Price was tasked with being Charlotte Latin's lynchpin, the lone returning starter who led the team in its quest for a fifth consecutive state title.
It was the perfect time for Price to show what she's made of.
Price put up some gaudy statistics of her own, totaling 495 digs, 423 kills, 89 aces and 33 blocks. More important, she led the young Hawks to their fifth consecutive N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association championship.
Price also is Charlotte Weekly's 2008 Volleyball Player of the Year.
But the 2008 season wasn't easy for Price. Hawks coach Suzie Pignetti was low on game-changing power on the outsides, so she took advantage of Price's impressive athletic skills. THe natural setter moved to outside hitter to give the team much-needed power around the net.
But lots of girls can jump and hit the ball hard. What the Hawks truly needed was someone to show her teammates how to win a championship--which proved to be Price's toughest challenge.
"Of course, I focused on the game and everything, but my job was also to keep everyone on the floor and on the bench into the game and keep them focused on the same thing and not let everyone get off in different directions," said Price, who's considering playing at Washington and Lee (Va.) University, the University of Delaware and Rollins (Fla.) College.
"It was definitely a different mental side of the game this year. It was a great challenge and I learned as the season went on what worked and what didn't."
Pignetti argued that the role was nothing new for Price, who had a 97-3 record as a starter during her career.
"Liza's been leading for four years, whether she knows it or not," said Pignetti. "Liza's a natural leader, so I wasn't really surprised she did it. It just kind of came with her territory. She did a lot of leading her whole four years she was here, but she did it as a player. This year she just had to say some things. Because of her first three years, all the players had the respect for her, so they listened to her."
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