JOHN SHERMAN john. sherman @ apgecm. com

With the addition of Maple Grove for the 2025 season, Lake Conference girls volleyball becomes even more competitive.

Frequent state qualifiers Wayzata and Minnetonka are accustomed to being the top two teams in recent seasons, and St. Michael-Albertville has also been a contender. Then there is an Edina team that has become a factor under head coach Mark Nelson.

Nelson has help this year with James McDonald joining him as a co-head coach. Graduation took away several key players in June with the departure of All-Lake Conference libero Paola Contreras-Diaz and steady

setter Greta Granberg, but Edina is in good shape for 2025 with the return of four experienced captains – Seniors Liv Peterson, Miklayne Koeppen and Aubrey Mueller and junior Marielle Meyer.

Koeppen talked about the addition of Maple Grove to the conference:“ When you play against good opponents, you grow as a team. We can gain confidence from playing teams like Maple Grove, Wayzata and Minnetonka. I remember my sophomore year when we almost took a set from [ state Class AAAA champion ] Wayzata.”

“ There is a lot of hard competition in the Lake Conference,” Mueller said.“ But some of those teams lost a lot of players from last

year.”

For one of the rare times in program history, Wayzata didn’ t qualify for state last season. But Minnetonka did.

What does Edina look like this year?

“ I think it will be a good season,” Koeppen said.“ That’ s my goal.”

“ There is a lot of competition to make the team,” Peterson added.

“ We already have good team chemistry,” Meyer noted.“ There are a lot of seniors on the team who want to go out with a bang.”

Peterson, Koeppen and Meyer lead the team’ s hitters while Mueller is in line to take over the libero spot left vacant by Contreras-Diaz’ s graduation.

“ Paola was a really good

( SUN PHOTO BY JOHN SHERMAN)

Edina High’ s girls volleyball captains for the 2025 season are, from left to right: Seniors Miklayne Koeppen, Aubrey Mueller and Liv Peterson and junior Marielle Meyer.

player,” Mueller said.“ I know what I need to work on and I hope to have a lot of good digs.”

Meyer talked about how

the Edina players interact with coach Nelson:“ There are serious moments and also some relaxing moments when he tells