Claire Sheehan has developed into a major weapon for the Hawkeyes after overcoming some preseason struggles.

By Anna Kayser
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Hawkeye outside hitter Claire Sheehan has provided both an offensive and defensive spark for Iowa volleyball recently.

As a freshman, Sheehan ranks third on the Hawkeye roster in kills with 106, trailing experienced offensive keys outside hitter Taylor Louis and middle blocker Jess Janota.

On Sept. 16, Sheehan recorded her personal best 19 kills with a .429 attack percentage against American. The same weekend, she had 11 kills against Princeton.

However, her offense isn’t the only key to her success.

“The thing she’s doing best right now is passing, and that’s not as glamorous, because she’s so used to getting thunder kills, but she’s starting to hit the ball well, too,” head coach Bond Shymansky said. “The psyche of a player who plays six rotations, all those things are linked together. When you’re passing well, you’re hitting well; when you’re hitting well, you’re passing well. So she really needs to keep working on keeping the whole symmetry together.”

Senior libero Annika Olsen also attested to Sheehan’s defensive strength, as well as the uniqueness she brings to every rotation.

“Her passing is incredible,” Olsen said. “A lot of teams target the L2, which is her position, but she’s done a really good job of putting us in system, and I think in the front row, she has a heavy arm, and she hits the ball hard, and that is something that we haven’t had before in the L2 position. So that brings a lot of depth to our team.”

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However, Sheehan’s success hasn’t come without its struggles.

She started out slowly in preseason, which Shymansky attributes to coming in as a freshman and trying to iron out the mistakes in her individual game.

The transition from being a big-time starter in high school to being on the bench in college can be a difficult one for new players. This is something Shymansky says Sheehan has overcome.

“Early in the preseason, Claire was struggling like all new players do. It’s trying to figure out what are they going to be unique at, kind of suffering through the failure,” Shymansky said. “They really have to dig in and discover a little bit about the flaws in their game, and work on it, and focus on it rather than just make it a pity party. Claire’s kind of gone through that process and has really come out on the other side, competing hard.”

Sheehan focused on those flaws in her game during the preseason tournaments, figuring out how the team worked together as a whole and how to be competitive at a major level.

Part of this was realizing the weaknesses in her offense.

“In club season, I wasn’t very good at hitting off the blockers’ hands. I just thought that I could hit through everyone because their block wasn’t all that good,” Sheehan said. “Here in the Big Ten, block is like the real deal, so you need to learn to work around it or work over it, and I think that’s what I worked on the most. Now, it’s coming through.”

Another part of Sheehan’s game is her personality and the way she stays steady on the court.

“As a player, she’s been so terminal, and she’s been so clutch because she has been playing six rotations,” junior outside hitter Kasey Reuter said. “She’s our rock. She isn’t super fiery or anything, but she is very consistent and is someone that we know we can depend on.”