After a dominant junior season, leading her equally dominant Biddeford volleyball team to a Class A state championship, the question became: what were Danielle Emerson and the Tigers going to do for an encore?

And Emerson admitted, she felt the weight of the question.

“I definitely felt a lot of pressure this season with how last season went, because people were like ‘Oh, you can go back-to-back,'” she said. “Biddeford volleyball has never won two state championships back-to-back. … But my teammates and my coaches, they helped me through tough times when I was kind of struggling and reminded me to have fun.

“(It) just took that weight off my shoulders.”

Emerson got over the pressure, and capped her high school career by continuing to show the state’s most polished skill set. Biddeford, despite losing 13 seniors from the 2022 team, went 13-3 and made the Class A semifinals, and Emerson was a big reason why. She totaled 250 kills, 56 aces and 284 assists, earning a nod as the SMAA’s Player of the Year along the way.

Emerson also is our choice as the Varsity Maine Volleyball Player of the Year for the second straight season.

“I kind of focused on making (underclassmen) feel comfortable, and showing them how hard we work,” Emerson said. “From the beginning, we kind of set a standard, saying we worked our butts off to get to where we were the past year.”

As the senior leader, Emerson continued to show the game awareness that has become her forte. Coach Ruth Shaw called Emerson “a coach on the court,” someone who could communicate with teammates and spot weaknesses and places to attack in the opponent.

“She’s very intelligent, as far as understanding what’s going on on the court,” Shaw said. “Who’s blocking on the other side, where the open holes are. … I would call timeout, (she’d say) ‘Yeah, Coach, I already moved everybody around for that,’ like on a serve receive. It’s just amazing. It is phenomenal, I’ve never had a player in the how many years I’ve been coaching (like that).”

Emerson said that mental advantage has come from years of being “obsessed with volleyball,” attending camps and playing for the Maine Juniors program in middle school.

“With that experience comes a better understanding of the game. How to score, what different spots are open, how one team plays versus another,” said Emerson, who started playing in third grade. “When I’m on the court in the middle of a game, I do feel like I can understand how different teams move when I’m hitting against them.”

Her smarts paid off in a different way this season. The graduation losses Biddeford dealt with prompted Shaw to use Emerson, the state’s best setter, more in a utility role. She played setter, outside hitter, middle hitter and even as a defender in the back row, wherever the team needed her in the moment.

“It was an adjustment at first, but (I was) just understanding that change is going to happen. That’s how sports work,” Emerson said. “Just focusing on what position you’re playing in that moment was a big point for me that I had to work on, (and) understanding that I can’t be everywhere at once.”

Wherever Emerson played, she thrived. Her kills rose from 148 to 250, and her aces ticked up from 53 to 56.

“I don’t think there were too many plays where Dani did not touch the ball,” Shaw said. “Either she set the ball for somebody, or she passed and then she hit. Dani became like three people on the court.”

Emerson will be taking her all-around game to Plymouth State in New Hampshire. She’s eager for the challenge.

“I am super excited to play college volleyball next year. I’m incredibly lucky to have had this opportunity,” she said. “But I think it’ll definitely be an adjustment.”

Her senior year proved she can handle the challenges ahead.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to see another Dani Emerson,” Shaw said. “She’s the complete package.”

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