NTL VOLLEYBALL: CANTON HAS SITES SET HIGH IN 2025 (2025-08-20)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
Last season was the year of adversity, this year Canton volleyball hopes will be a year of success. After battling through the death of a teammate the Warriors were able to reach the district final - now they want to win it.

“We’re really excited,” Cailyn VanNoy said about the season. “Northeast was one of our biggest competitors last year, and we know they lost a few, so we’re really excited to get that opportunity and hopefully win the NTL this year.”

Thought they only sport one senior, they have a large junior class that has seen a lot of court time.

“It’s awesome,” coach Jackie Thompson said about the experience they bring back. “These guys are having a completely different mindset this year. They’re not looking to play from behind, they already know the basics - we’re building on that. And its just really awesome to be coaching that kind of volleyball.”

While they lost their libero and leading setter they do return MaKenna Seachrist, who led the team in kills (150) and blocks (31) last season.

They also bring back Tara Gilbert (140 kills, 132 digs), VanNoy (107 kills, 185 digs), Nevaeh Vroman (52 digs, 107 assists), and Danah Wesneski (66 digs).

“I think we’re going to stick with our six-two,” said Seachrist. “We have two setters that are really working hard so we can get better on offense.”

Thompson is excited to see how well her hitters can do with last season under their belts.

“They have a bit of confidence to them this year that I haven’t seen yet out of them,” she said. “So to be able to come in in the first week and know that they have that confidence already, that’s a big game changer.”

They’re also trying to expand their repertoire at the net to keep teams guessing.

“We’re running a lot of new stuff, and trying to play with our options because we have hitters, and know what they’re doing already,” explained VanNoy.

Defense is where they need to fill the most holes as Kendall Kitchen and Addie Pepper combined for nearly 600 digs, Kitchen with 432 on her own to finish with over 1,000 for her career.

However, Canton volleyball is defensive volleyball - they’ve always been known to be scrappy and don’t expect that to change in 2025.

“We’re really working for our defense to find our liberos,” said Seachrist.

And it’s not just the digs, they’ll to replace the leadership Kitchen brought.

“She was very chatty on the court, she took a lot of balls, she played a lot of balls,” said Thompson. “She knew where everybody was supposed to be, so it’s hard getting someone to step into that role.”

On the leadership side VanNoy and Seachrist know they have to step up to fill that void.

“It’s a big difference,” said VanNoy. “The leadership role definitely needs to be filled, so that’s what we’re looking to do because we only have one senior this year.”

As for expectations Canton expects to be battling it out for the Small School title with Williamson and Wyalusing also looking to dethrone NEB.

“They have a good opportunity here to do good things in the NTL,” Thompson said. “The NTL is going to be very competitive this year. We’re really looking forward to that, and really looking forward to get back on top at districts, and going back to states.”

ROSTER (Grade)
Tara Gilbert (12)
Alyssa May (11)
Makenna Seachrist (11)
Ashley Valera (11)
Cailyn VanNoy (11)
Nevaeh Vroman (11)
Danah Wesneski (11)
Adelynn Cardona (10)
Danika Burgess (10)
Lydia Mead (10)
Emilie Pepper (10)
Jericka Strozyk (10)
Kaybree Kendall (9)
Lexi McMurray (9)
Amelia Pepper (9)
Raya Preston (9)
Lindley Sechrist (9)
Naleigh Strozyk (9)
Brenna VanNoy (9)
Emily Walker (9)
Hannah Walters (9)

SCHEDULE
Oct. 26 vs Wellsboro, 7 p.m.
Oct. 28 at NEB, 7 p.m.
Sep. 4 at CV, 7 p.m.
Sep. 6 at Williamson Tournament
Sep. 8 vs Athens, 7 p.m.
Sep. 9 vs Williamson, 7 p.m.
Sep. 11 at Troy, 7 p.m.
Sep. 15 at S. Williamsport, 7 p.m.
Sep. 16 vs NEB, 7 p.m.
Sep. 18 vs Sayre, 7 p.m.
Sep. 23 at Williamson, 7 p.m.
Sep. 25 at Wyalusing, 7 p.m.
Oct. 2 vs CV, 7 p.m.
Oct. 4 Tri-match at Loyalsock, 9:30 a.m.
Oct. 6 vs S. Williamsport, 7 p.m.
Oct. 7 at Towanda, 7 p.m.
Oct. 14 at Athens, 7 p.m.
Oct. 16 at Sayre, 7 p.m.
Oct. 21 vs Wyalusing, 7 p.m.
Oct. 23 vs NPL, 7 p.m.



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