The more important the game and the more intense the moment, the better Marian's Maureen Kloap played.

For her outstanding performance the entire season, but especially when her team needed it most, Kloap has been selected as the Times News Volleyball Player of the Year."I had a lot of experience playing in big playoff matches," Kloap said. "As the pressure built for each important game, I would tell myself to calm down, stay cool and focus on the basics of doing my job."Kloap played the position of outside hitter for the Fillies and made three deep playoff runs during her career, resulting in one state championship and two second place finishes. She believes her best games came when her team needed her to play at the top of her game, specifically in the state title win against Cochranton during her sophomore year and against Greensburg Central Catholic in her junior year."I was younger then, with little big game experience," said Kloap, who has been playing volleyball since she was in the fourth grade. "I wanted to prove that I could compete against the best. I especially remember a kill shot I made that turned the momentum toward us after we had lost a game to Greensburg."Speaking of kill shots, Kloap totaled 623 nonreturnable hits during her tenure at Marian. Throw in her 703 digs, a top-10 record book statistic, and her 174 service aces, and it's no wonder that she received first team All-League, All-District, and All-State awards in 2015. This season she led the Fillies in digs (295), was second on the team in aces (69), and third in kills (239).Marian coach John Fallabel agrees that Kloap came up big in big games. He also says that she is the most athletic of all of his high performance players."Maureen has outstanding speed and quickness, and her jumping ability enabled her to play great defense from her position."Kloap is quick to say that what she most enjoyed was helping her team succeed on the court."Volleyball is a game where you know you will make mistakes. You have strategies against particular opponents, but you have to react quickly when you make a bad shot so you don't let your team down."The 5-6 senior explained that her physical training contributed much to her success."Besides playing for Coach Fallabel's Anthracite Volleyball Club team in the offseason, I ran a lot of sprints and weight trained, too," Kloap said. "In this game you need strong legs and hips to be able to build your power for passing and for quick reactions to the ball."Kloap's effort on the court was something her coached noticed."You could tell how hard Maureen competed because she was totally exhausted after every game," Fallabel said. "She was always reliable and always gave the best of herself."Kloap credits her coaches and her teammates for all her individual awards, but her greatest supporters have been her father, Phillip, and her mother, Delores, who never missed one of her games.Kloap said that what happens off the court and during practices builds a championship team that learns to become a family, one that laughs together and one that loves to play together.Kloap hasn't decided where she will attend college yet, but knows she wants to major in biology.Dictionary.com defines this science as the study of the behavior of the physical world through observation and experiment.Maureen Kloap has already applied scientific thinking skills to observe her opponents' strategies and then utilize a variety of her athletic talents to help Marian High School become a volleyball powerhouse.Now it's on to the next level, where she looks to continue her success while she keeps her cool during the heat of intense moments of many more big games yet to come.