Keystone Star Outside Hitter Leah Exley Refining Her Game as Panthers Prepare to Chase Another D9 Title

KNOX, Pa. (EYT/D9) — There were times in Leah Exley’s volleyball past when she simply hit the ball as hard as she could.

Pure brute strength. No care to where it was going. No throttling back. Just swing her right arm with as much force and malice as possible.

It was enough for the standout outside hitter on the Keystone volleyball team.

But deep down, there has always been something gnawing at Exley, a belief that simply cranking the volleyball with all her might wasn’t going to propel her to where she ultimately wants to go in the sport.

“I feel like I was just hitting the ball as hard as I can just to hit it,” Exley said. “I feel like I need to mix up my game a little bit more so people don’t know what to expect.”

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So this offseason Exley has embarked on a journey to reshape her play — just a little bit. After all, she recorded 231 kills, 136 digs and 50 aces last season as a junior and helped Keystone to its first District 9 championship in 29 years — she doesn’t exactly need a complete overhaul.

But she wanted to add nuance to her play. Some finesse. Some unpredictability.

She started by taking a little bit off her swings. Finding dead areas on the floor. Aiming at the weaker links in the defense. Even tipping — the craftiest of kills.

What has come out of this fine tuning for Exley is an even more dangerous player.

“I wouldn’t want to be standing in front of her,” said Keystone coach Bryan Mong. “I’d be expecting something strong, but if that doesn’t come, your weight is back, so it’s tough to come forward. If she has a touch game to her as well, it’s gonna be tough on them.”

Exley didn’t have very much time or the luxury to work on that part of her play last season.

It was her first campaign back at outside hitter after spending several years in the middle. She hadn’t played on the outside since junior high.

She has definitely found a home out there by the pin.

“I think it took a bit to be able to switch and relearn things last year,” Exley said. “Now I’m back in the routine of hitting from the outside, it’s a bit easier now to focus on the little things. I can work on refining.”

There’s been no better place to test the new wrinkles to her game than in practice against her own teammates.

With excellent blockers like Sydney Bell in her own gym, Exley believes if she can beat them, she can beat anyone.

“They give me good practice trying to hit around their blocks and mix it up,” Exley said. “Having those great teammates to help push me and guide me has been great. They make me realize that I can’t just hit the ball into the block every time. I have to learn to do different things so they don’t know what to expect.”

With Exley as the anchor, Keystone expects big things again this year.

The Panthers lost two seniors — Alyssa Weaver and Jozee Weaver — from that D9 championship team, but there are also many key contributors returning for another title run.

“We lost two seniors, which is very sad and that’s hard to deal with, but we also have a lot of returning players,” Exley said. “I feel that our other players who didn’t play last year are stepping up and we’ll still be a very good team this year.”

Mong said he is also excited for the opportunity to repeat.

“We have a group of eight seniors coming back, so we have some strong senior leadership,” Mong said. “We tell them nothing is going to be given to us. It’s actually gonna be harder this year than it was last year because of the expectations for this group.”

Exley, Bell and fellow seniors Natalie Bowser, Karley Callander and Emma Plummer will be a formidable group at the net.

Senior Kennedy Kaye is back at libero.

The key, though, Exley said, is avoiding some of the problems that gripped the team for a time last season.

It was a rough year in many ways. COVID was an issue, sidelining the team for two weeks because of protocols and forcing the Panthers to make up those matches in a short period of time.

The stress threatened to fracture the team.

“We’ve definitely had our issues within the team, but I feel like every team probably goes through that,” Exley said. “I feel like sometimes we let that affect us a bit too much. I think if we just put that aside and be like, ‘Hey, we all want to win D9 and go far,’ I think we’ll be fine. That’s honestly what took us to D9 last year was being able to be like, ‘Hey, we all want the same thing. Let’s just work together instead of nitpicking at each other.’”

The goals this year are simple.

Win the D9 title again. Go farther in the state playoffs. Keystone fell in the first round of the PIAA Class 2A playoffs last season and finished 17-5.

As far as Exley’s future goals are concerned, she wants to play volleyball at Slippery Rock University while studying early childhood education.

She plans on walking on to the team at The Rock.

“I’m sort of at the point where I’m going to go to Slippery Rock and if I can play there, I will play there,” Exley said. “I definitely still want to play and not just completely give it up. But it’s not my No. 1 thing to go and play college volleyball.”

Her No. 1 thing is to enjoy every second she has on the volleyball court at Keystone.

“I mean, it’s our senior year — I think all of us are like, ‘Let’s just work together and have fun,’” Exley said. “It’s going to be our last year together. We should make sure we have fun and make the best of it, have the best experience we can.”

Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.