As Jersey Loyer returns to the court this fall, the Concordia senior outside hitter is looking for something seldom done in the Summit Athletic Conference: winning the Glass Spike, representing conference player of the year, for a third-straight time.
“There are so many great players in the SAC,” Jersey tells PSM. “It’s a real honor to be amongst them. All the past winners I’ve looked up to. It’s just great to be a part of that.”
Jersey’s journey to being one of the top high school volleyball players in Indiana is an interesting one. She grew up in Clarkston, Michigan. Her dad, John, is an NBA scout who served as interim head coach for the Detroit Pistons for a time. Mom, Katie, played college volleyball at Indiana. She later got into coaching herself, rising to head coach at the Southern Indiana and, later, an assistant coach at Purdue. Oldest brother, Foster, won Michigan Mr. Basketball in 2018 and started his college basketball career at Michigan State. Her younger brother, Fletcher, had become a prolific scorer at Clarkston High School, averaging 22 points per game as sophomore.
“Our family’s super-competitive,” Jersey beams. “Even if it’s just finishing dinner first, or something silly like that. Being surrounded by other people who have that competitive drive has been so nice.”
When the State of Michigan shut down winter sports during the 2020-21 school year, the Loyer family moved to Fort Wayne. Jersey enrolled as a freshman at Concordia and playing for her aunt, Trish Miller, on Cadets volleyball team and at Summit Volleyball Club. [Fletcher attended Homestead High School, placing second in Indiana Mr. Basketball voting in 2022, and playing for Indy Heat EYBL before going to Purdue.]
“From the day she walked into our gym as a freshman, she played in every match, she’s led in every category,” Trish says. “Even as a freshman, she was our go-to player.”
Through her first three seasons at Concordia, Jersey tallied 1,127 kills and 955 digs. In addition to back-to-back Glass Spike awards, she has been named All-SAC three times, All-Area twice, All-State and an Indiana Junior All-Star. She was also a finalist for the Ayanna Patterson EmPower Forward Female Athlete of the Year Award in the summer of 2023. As a team, Concordia won the SAC championship last season with a 7-0 mark in conference play.
“We have an expectation of excellence here at Concordia. And it’s so important, because our team is so young [this year]. So, I just take them under my wing and along for the ride,” Jersey adds.
If Jersey wins the Glass Spike this year, she’ll join former Bishop Dwenger star Eva Hudson as the only other three-time winner of the SAC player of the year award.
She has committed to play college volleyball at Butler.