Crown Point junior outside hitter Elle Schara’s former position may be the secret to her success.
Schara, a Purdue commit who has set the Bulldogs’ career record for kills with 1,480, used to be a libero.
“She spent so much time defending against hitters that she had an advantage because she knows where it’s hard for defenders to pick up balls,” Crown Point coach Alison Duncan said. “She knows what defenders are going to do or how they’ll read and react to the ball, and then she’s skillful enough to execute on that.”
The 5-foot-11 Schara’s background is also one of the reasons she has 1,012 digs in her career.
“Being a libero rounded out my game,” she said. “If you can’t pass, you can’t do much. Having that back-row experience was just amazing because it’s a staple of the game.”
Schara, the 2024 Post-Tribune Girls Volleyball Player of the Year, can do it all. She led Class 4A regional champion Crown Point (28-7) with 577 kills and 57 aces and ranked second on the team with 359 digs.
Since the season ended, Schara has been picked for the Indiana Junior All-Stars, the Indiana High School Volleyball Coaches Association’s Class 4A all-state first team and the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s All-America third team.
Of the six Indiana players on the All-America teams, Schara is the only nonsenior.
“I was just as shocked as everyone else,” she said. “There aren’t a lot of juniors there, so I was really proud of myself because that’s a huge accomplishment. I can really only give credit to my teammates who’ve made it possible for me to have all of this success.”
Schara, whose older sisters Kendall and Marley played for Crown Point, also recognizes the stars who preceded her. She remembers watching Alaina, Morgan and Savana Chacon play for the Bulldogs, and it was 2018 graduate Morgan Chacon’s career kills record that Schara broke during Crown Point’s win against Warsaw in the regional final on Oct. 26.
“Morgan and all of the Chacon sisters were such great athletes to look up to,” Schara said. “It’s just an amazing accomplishment to have broken that record.”
To rack up so many kills, Schara didn’t simply spike the ball over and over again.
“Sometimes really good hitters rely a lot on power, but she’s not just about power,” Duncan said. “She’s very skilled in the different shots that she’s developed over time, and she’s worked on creating this toolkit of different kinds of finishes that allow her to pick up, maybe, five more kills per match, which adds up to a lot of points over the course of a season.”
Schara credited her time with 1st Alliance Volleyball Club.
“They really broke stuff down,” she said. “Being able to strategically place the ball and hit certain shots were the biggest things for me this season.”
Schara will be back with that same club team in the upcoming months and expects to uncover a few more tips and tricks.
“There’s always something that can be improved,” she said. “Coming from the club season, it can only get better. I’m super excited for the next season. I hope we can go just as far or maybe even farther next season.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter.
