Student Athlete of the Week Lizzy Kaus

Very few high school student-athletes take their work more seriously than Niwot volleyball senior Lizzy Kaus.

Prior to the season, Cougars head coach Tony Engel described the work ethic of his middle blocker, saying she "comes to work with a hard hat on every day," and locks in on getting better. An improved Kaus finally got to reap the benefit of her efforts on Sept. 5 when she helped Niwot to a season-opening sweep of Silver Creek High School.

The third-year varsity player contributed four kills and two blocks in Niwot's quick 3-0 victory.

"I work hard to do what's best for my team," Kaus said. "I really care about teamwork and trust in the people that I'm playing with."

Kaus said that her mature approach took hold when she played for The Diff Volleyball Club as a 15-year-old. There, she learned mental toughness and the importance of visualization.

"That was my first club season and that was kind of their theme," Kaus explained. "That really helped me and that has stuck with me throughout my whole volleyball career."

Those same values are also present within Niwot's program. Kaus shared that before each match, her team gathers to visualize their goals together and share what they'd like to accomplish on that particular day. With the help of that ritual, the Cougars are 3-2 through their first five matches.

Niwot, however, has a fairly young roster this season, which has the senior Kaus in a prominent leadership position.

"My personal goals are mainly leadership and really taking over with [being] an older teammate," Kaus said. "[I want to be] a role model for the rest of my team because the rest of my team is pretty young. I think that's mainly my role and also having a good relationship with the rest of my team, really trusting them."

So far, Kaus has been impressed with her younger teammates.

"It's been really good," she said. "A couple of them were on JV last year, and I think that they've really improved over the span of a year. I'm really impressed with them."

With her high school career nearly complete, Kaus would like to play volleyball in college and study exercise science.

"I just love the sport," Kaus said. "I've been playing it for a while and I really want to continue that. I love the teamwork aspect of it. I think volleyball is really good [because] it blends in with the rest of your life. It shows you how to be disciplined, how to do time management, and I love the lessons you learn from volleyball."

Kaus and the Cougars open their home slate on Thursday, Sept. 14 against Windsor High School, which beat Niwot in a tournament match on Sept. 9.