Elkton-Lake Benton junior Hannah Krog is the 2019 Register Volleyball Player of the Year.

“Hannah is a talented player that continues to make an impact with her team, the Dakota Valley Conference and our region,” said ELB coach Melissa Erickson. “She is a six rotational player who is known for her offensive abilities but provides great defense for our team as well. Hannah has height with a powerful swing to attack the ball high. She is a smart athlete that will hit around the block, through the block or utilize the block to score for her team. Hannah continues to improve in her defensive abilities.

“This year we transitioned Hannah to the outside. Her height helped to put up big blocks against right-side hitters. Hannah reads the opposing team well to always place herself in the best defensive position to dig attacked balls.

“Hannah is a great volleyball player as a junior with a tremendous amount of potential to become one of the best volleyball players in our region and state.”

The Lady Elks posted a 25-7 record. They tied for second in the Dakota Valley Conference regular-season standings at 7-2 and were the league tournament champions.

“I thought we worked really well together and our bond was a lot stronger than it had been in previous years,” said Krog, who is from Lake Benton. “So we knew how to pump each other up and give each other confidence when we were struggling. I thought we had moments where we were on a really big high and winning and not letting anything drop and we could do anything to where we would let anything drop and go but we just had to get our bond and connection together and we would make a strong game.”

ELB was the No. 3 seed in a stacked Region 4B. It beat Howard 25-20, 25-11, 25-20 in the quarterfinals but dropped a 25-23, 25-18, 25-22 match to Ethan in the semifinals.

The second-seeded Rustlers and top-seeded Chester Area both ended up qualifying for state.

“It was super tough,” Krog said of the region. “We’ve always had a tough time with Chester because they’re such a great fundamentally strong team. And then there’s Ethan, who is just as good. Once they’re on, they’re on and it’s really hard to stop them; you just have to be on a really good connection.

“Those two are really strong teams and we were just lucky to be able to play with them – even though we may not have won, it was still a good experience for us to play against such a good team.”

Krog is a three-time All-Register and All-DVC honoree. She was the conference MVP in 2019.

Krog recorded 445 kills while hitting .240. She added 31 service aces, 14 1/2 blocks (six solo) and 374 digs.

She put up those numbers while transitioning from middle hitter to outside hitter.

“It was a really big difference,” Krog noted. “Middle hitter is more of a block and you go for quicks; outside you just have to be ready to always attack. I played outside as an eighth-grader on varsity, so I kind of had an idea of it. But it was just hard to transition to get all these hard hits in even though the pass may have been off so the set had to be off – so that part was hard to where they weren’t perfect sets to where I had to transition off and be ready to hit every single time.”

Krog is a four-year starter and a two-time team captain.

She has 1,172 career kills to go with 104 service aces, 93 1/2 blocks (68 solo) and 841 digs.

Krog was on the AVCA Phenom List in 2018 and 2019.

Krog has one more year of high school volleyball remaining and may play in college, if she gets an attractive offer.

“If I have a really good offer, I might go play volleyball,” she added. “But my goal right now is to become a Registered Nurse and maybe work a little bit in the ICU field. I really had a strong want to do that and I feel like that’s what I’m meant to do.

“So if I get a really good offer for volleyball, I’ll take it; but other than that, I’m going to stick with going to school for nursing at SDSU.”