Merritt Island volleyball player Bella Schwantz named BSN Offensive Player of the Year
MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. — Merritt Island Mustangs Junior Bella Schwantz has been named as the 2023 BSN, Beach Wave Volleyball Club Offensive Player of the Year.
Schwantz had quite a junior season as she helped the Mustangs finish 23-7 and return to the FHSAA Final Four.
The junior led the Mustangs and finished second in the county with 291 kills. She was second on the team with 49 aces and while this is an offensive award, it’s important to note that Bella wasn’t the type of player that stood around and waited to be set up for the big shot.
Schwantz also played outstanding on the defensive end leading the Mustangs with 280 digs.
Big time players make big time plays in big time games and Schwantz certainly did that in many of the Mustangs tougher matches this season.
Merritt Island played a very difficult schedule this past season one that included facing an eventual state champ in Gulliver Prep, two state runners up in Viera (twice) and Bishop Moore and Jensen Beach who along with the Mustangs reached the 5A Final Four.
Against Gateway and Wesley Chapel in the regional semifinals and finals Schwantz had 13 and 15 kills respectively
She finished with double digit kills in 16 of the Mustangs 30 matches and she added double digit digs in 13 matches.
Bella played in all 92 sets the Mustangs competed in this past season and she along with Maddie Johnson, Cam Childers and Elena Martin made up quite a fearsome foursome of big hitters for head coach Angie Patrick as the four combined for 906 of the teams 1,037 kills.
Bella will be back next season to lead a team that should return nine players from this year’s final four roster.
Congratulations Bella on winning this honor.
RUNNER-UP:
Our runner- up to this award was last year’s winner Mallory Merz from the Viera Hawks.
Mallory had another outstanding season as she led the Hawks with 559 assists and was amazing when the Hawks needed her most in many of their big matches but her biggest contribution this past season was her on court leadership and her ability to always do what was best for her team.
Merz ends her career as the all time assist leader at Viera and she helped lead the team to their two best finishes in program history. She has left an outstanding legacy of what Viera volleyball should be moving forward.
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