BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Olmsted senior Lillian Wagner thrives in pressure situations. As the volleyball team captain, she loves being counted on to provide a spark.

“It can be really intense and intimidating at times especially when I always know I’m expected to get that second ball up and somewhere where it can be played out well. So it can be a really intimidating thought when but when I get in the moment I kind of just focus on the task at hand, focus on the ball really, I kind of just set my eyes on my target and just go for it,” Lillian told News 4 Sports.

“She makes sure she’s that leader on the floor, she’s that leader off the floor, she’s our captain so she’s really setting the bar high, setting the tone for everybody making sure they need to get done and really just puts us to that next level to try to get us to win,” Olmsted volleyball head coach Paige Anderson told News 4 Sports.

Not only does Lillian excel on the court, she also succeeds in the classroom maintaining a 99.75 GPA and ranked fourth in her class which will help her in the next phase of her education as she plans to pursue a degree in psychology, a subject she’s grown to love during high school.

“I take AP psychology this year and seeing how that class runs and I’ve always kind of been interested in how we process things and how our brain, how we feel the way that we do all the time. During Covid and stuff like that I really struggled mentally during that year so definitely it made me want to know why I was feeling the way that I did,” Lillian explained.

And you know Coach Anderson is going to miss her a ton next year in more ways than one.

“Oh it’s gonna be a hard one, it’s gonna be such a big loss off the floor, on the floor, everywhere. It’s gonna be heartbreak for sure,” Coach Anderson said.

Lillian is also the captain of the bowling team, secretary of national honor society and a member of yearbook club.