2025 Fall Preps Preview: Two years removed from devastating bike crash, Ferris setter Kjersti Jacobson's focus is on winning

Two summers ago, Kjersti Jacobson was preparing for her sophomore year at Ferris High School and focused on her new role as the Saxons’ starting setter.

Then came the bicycle crash.

“I was finishing up my Counselor in Training program at Camp Reed with this 200-plus mile bike ride and as I was coming down this huge gravel hill, my brakes just gave out,” Jacobson said. “I pretty much had a hole in my right knee just a few weeks before the season was going to start.”

To Jacobson’s surprise, there was no surgery needed or any ligament damage from the crash, but what was required of her was patience.

“We didn’t want her to push it too hard and try to injure the knee and then not be able to come back,” Ferris volleyball coach Staci Hazelbaker said. “I knew when I got the news that it was still early enough in the season that the hope was we would get her back. And what I told her was that I would rather have you at the end of the season than the beginning of the season if we had to choose.

“But it was still such a big blow at the time.”

When Jacobson eventually was cleared by the training staff and her doctors, she helped lead the Saxons to their first state tournament appearance since the title-winning team of 2001.

This year, Jacobson – now a senior – hopes to repeat the team’s success from two years ago.

“I don’t know that I have ever been this excited going into a season just knowing the potential this team has,” Jacobson said. “We only have a few new girls in the rotation, so we have that same bond and chemistry which gives us a chance to work on playing faster and better.”

Hazelbaker, who is entering her sixth season at the helm for the Saxons, says that Jacobson’s infectious personality and tireless work ethic make it really easy for everyone to want to play for each other.

“It’s easy to see her speed, aggressiveness and just overall skill, but it’s really the small things that set her apart,” Hazelbaker said. “She always wants to make the ball better, which makes the other girls want to improve the ball and when they’re all working for that common goal it shows.”

It also helps that Jacobson has a strong arsenal of hitters to set to this season. Hazelbaker said that the team will rely on junior Naomi VanderLouw in the middle, along with outsides Freya Tresidder, Callie Hutchison and Fiona Kelly – a junior transfer from Lewis and Clark.

But the key cog in the machine is Jacobson.

“You don’t get a lot of players who voluntarily want to take the leadership role. And she just fits right into it,” Hazelbaker said. “It is amazing because it just brings the whole team together, and it really, like, it’s a glue. It’s like they stick together and they want to play well for her.”

Jacobson said that during her injury recovery, she put an emphasis on learning how to be a leader from some of the seniors on that team. And that role to her is more important than being a good volleyball player.

“Seeing everything from the sideline during that time just made me so much more grateful for the chances I have when I do get on the court,” Jacobson said. “Since then, I’ve just tried to pass down that message to everyone and it’s fun to see how much we all appreciate being able to play this game.”

Jacobson is still undecided on what her next step will be, but she said that she is talking to several colleges at the Division II level and preferably goes “somewhere warm” – but for now, her focus is on getting the Saxons back into the state mix and leaving her mark on this program.

“It’s easy to say ‘hey, I just want to win this year,’ but really my goal is that we win as a team,” Jacobson said. “I want us to be excited for each other and play hard for each other – not just individually. And a lot of that starts with me continuing to grow as a setter to put my teammates in the best position for them to succeed.”