When Marist runs an effective offensive play out of the middle, there are usually a lot of hops — during and after.

Hannah Hosty doesn’t hold back her emotions.

“It’s just the feeling of getting a good, clean swing and putting it down,” Hosty said. “It’s the best feeling in the world. I get really excited.

“Even when my teammates hit, when you hear the ball come off their hand perfectly and go straight to the floor, it’s just a fun feeling in time. They deserve to get excited for.”

She would likely be a hoot to watch a horror movie with.

“Yeah,” Hosty said, laughing. “I’m very emotional like that with getting excited or scared.”

The Truman State recruit is having a breakout senior season. She’s providing not only the hops but a significant amount of offensive and defensive contributions.

Hosty, a 5-foot-11 middle hitter, has 172 and 84 blocks for the RedHawks (30-4) in her second season on the varsity.

Marist coach Jordan Vidovic described Hosty as going “the natural route” to becoming a captain and a team standout.

“She worked her way up,” Vidovic said. “She played on the freshman team as a freshman, on the JV team as a sophomore. She didn’t play a lot last season, but we had strong senior middles.

“She handled it great because of her attitude about everything. She came in this season with such a fresh excitement. It’s cool to see her taking off and becoming one of those players who make a big impact in the game.”

Indeed, Hosty has gone through the process — at times, a tough process.

“It was especially hard freshman year,” Hosty said. “That was COVID and kind of a weird season. I feel like my real first season was my sophomore year on the JV. We had a good JV team, and I wanted to work hard to get to that next level.”

The playing time, however, didn’t come.

“Honestly, that just gave me an extra push to really want to play my senior year,” Hosty said. “I worked really hard to do things like get my vertical up, work on my arm swing and my hand contact. I worked on my blocking and tracking the setter.”

And she watched, especially senior middle hitters Emilia Batus and Ufuoma Omene and junior Juliana Valdez.

“All three of them are and were amazing middles,” Hosty said. “I just noticed things like Emilia and Ufuoma had really great arm swings and really got on top of the ball.

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“Hitting that 10-foot line every time is something that they really did. It made me more conscious about my arm swing.”

Her offensive potential has been a boon to pin hitters Bella Bullington and Jessica Kurpeikis. Her proficiency as a blocker has really been eye-opening.

“I think blocking for a middle is one of the most physically difficult things to do in volleyball,” Vidovic said. “You have to work 30-plus feet from side to side on the court. The other positions don’t have to do that. They just play their little zones there.

“A lot of middles just give up on plays, but Hannah works hard to get extra touches, extra blocks, and work across the net. Her motor is so high she gets those extra touches and blocks that other players might not have the intensity to get.”

The hops? She doesn’t just save them for herself.

“She gets excited when our team has a good team or one of her teammates does something well,” Bullington said. “It’s really cool. We might be down a couple of points, but we’ll get that one kill and Hannah will scream her head off.

“Everyone is like, ‘Oh, my gosh,’ and we just start laughing. Hannah brings that type of energy. It’s something that every team really needs. We’re so lucky to have that.”