You may have heard that junior setter Lexi Rosenblatt and senior outside hitter Greta Carlson have big reputations. They have both been touted by multiple central Texas publications as Centex players to watch during the 2024 volleyball season.
The dynamic duo proved those prognostications accurate in their first home game of the season on Aug. 13 as Rosenblatt recorded a career milestone: her 1,000th assist, setting Carlson for a first-set kill, one of her career-best 26 kills for the match.
As you might expect from players with superior court awareness, they—along with their coaches and teammates—were keenly aware before the match that Rosenblatt was nearing the milestone.
“Lexi was at 996 assists going into the Belton match,” Carlson explained. “This means 996 of her sets had resulted in kills. For the Belton match, she only needed four more to reach 1,000 assists, which is a huge accomplishment.”
The milestone moment came toward the end of an epic first set, which the visiting Tigers ultimately won, 30-28. After junior libero Aaniya Thornton served and then received Belton’s first volley, Rosenblatt set Carlson with a trademark high-arching pass that arrived perfectly so that Carlson could rotate her torso to face the entire court and unleash a clear winner that shot like a laser beam from her outstretched right arm cross court for a textbook kill.
“It was a really great moment for the team, and brought a lot of joy and energy to the court,” Carlson said afterward. “I am very proud of Lexi for reaching such an amazing goal!”
What did Rosenblatt think of the moment?
“It was such a fun moment for me because we knew it was coming,” she said. “Greta and I were counting down each assist I got that set until the last one. I felt so loved and supported by my whole team. It was really special. It was a long time coming and had always been a goal of mine, and it was a really great feeling after all the hard work.”
The milestone is even more remarkable when you consider that she is only a junior and that she missed a huge chunk of her freshman season due to injury.
How was she able to do it?
“Lexi is really explosive and has a quick reaction time on the court,” Carlson said. “She is talkative on the court and has good control of the ball. She also has a high game IQ and knows what sets/plays to run at certain times.”
So she is skilled and she’s smart. Anything else?
“Lexi is such a special player, not only because she is an amazing and consistent setter, but she also leads the court with positivity and energy,” sophomore teammate Sienna Martens said. “She is so uplifting to anyone in their head, and gets so excited for us when we score points.”
Uh, Sienna, we don’t all speak volleyball fluently. What does “in your head” mean?
“It means when someone may not be playing great and is acting negatively, they are usually ‘in their head’ saying stuff that’s bringing them down,” Martens said. “Lexi does a really great job of comforting people in those situations and helping them get back to having fun.”
It wasn’t just the players who were happy for their star setter.
“Lexi has been underrated for a while,” head coach Amy Brodbeck said. “I am so proud of her and her accomplishments.”
We’re not sure how such a complete player could be underrated, but we think that might change this season, and the home opener provided a perfect case in point.
Rosenblatt did not just reach a milestone assist, she recorded a team-high 31 assists. And that’s not all. To culminate a comeback from a 2-1 deficit, Rosenblatt ended the game with a stuff block that sent the crowd, the bench and her teammates on the court into a euphoric playoff-atmosphere celebration.
“There is absolutely no better way to end a five-set thriller than stuff blocking the hitter that has been killing your team all game long,” Rosenblatt said. “I just had it in my head that she was not getting past me this time, that [senior middle hitter] Helen [Rogers] and I would be up and ready to shut her down. It’s just an insane way to end the game.”
Insane and positively inspiring, which raises an unimportant just-for-fun hypothetical question. If you could only keep one highlight: the game-ending stuff block or the milestone assist, which one would you keep?
Well, reader, which one would you keep? And which one do you think Rosenblatt would keep?
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We asked her teammates to predict the answer.
“I think the game-ending block,” Martens offered. “It was such a tight game, and she blocked their best hitter, so I think that she would say that, but she was definitely feeling accomplished for the assists!”
OK, one well-justified but hedged vote for the block.
“I think she would keep the milestone assist because there will always be another block but maybe not another 1,000-assist milestone,” Carlson said.
We have a split decision, so who was right? What say you, Lexi?
“Such a hard question!” Rosenblatt protested. “I would say the block was more fun, just an insane way to end the game, but if I could only keep one memory, I would keep the assist. The accumulation of all that hard work and the way my team lifted me up (metaphorically) is not something I ever want to forget.”
Thanks to this video, you and we won’t have to.
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All of us at MacJournalism would like to congratulate Lexi on this milestone achievement and also Greta for setting a new personal best for kills in a game, one better than the herculean total she amassed in McCallum’s playoff victory at Cedar Creek a year ago.
