Siuslaw Vikings volleyball standout Elyssa Rose always has been in the front row.

For her first two years in the sport, it was a front-row seat.

"I wasn't very good," she said, with her easy smile. "I just sat on the bench my seventh- and eighth-grade years."

That has changed big-time in high school. She has taken her game up several levels, and next year wants to take it to college.

"I want to play college so bad," Rose said.

The 6-foot-1 senior now has a spot in the front row, where she is a three-time Far West League all-star at middle blocker.

Thursday, she and her Vikings teammates open the 2016 season at Philomath for nonleague matches against the host Warriors and the Junction City Tigers.

"I'm really excited about the season," she said. "The team is looking very well. We're really excited."

The Vikings are a veteran team and a deep team.

And a tall team, especially when Rose plays alongside 6-footers Makenzie York and Emma Collins and 5-11 Mia Collins.

"We have a huge front row, which is great," Rose said. "We have such a huge block, which is so great."

"Huge" is a favored word in her vocabulary. For one, she was not a huge fan of volleyball in middle school.

"I wasn't planning on playing, but people were pushing, like, 'You should try it,'" Rose said. "I rarely played in a game, but with practice and help from my teammates, I really started to love the game."

She has had a small parade of coaches along the way, all of whom have encouraged, polished and inspired her game.

There was Rich DeSantis, her middle-school coach.

"He showed me how to play the game," she said. "He pushed me harder, and it helped."

Rose literally took it to the next level entering high school, where she was been coached by Amy Peterson, Angie Herring and Jon Hornung.

"My freshman year, coach Peterson really pushed me," Rose said. "Plus I had two great mentors as teammates, Ashlee Cole and Kylee Brandt, who really helped give me the confidence I needed."

Rose was rewarded with selection to the all-league second team.

She further blossomed under Herring, making first-team all-league her sophomore and junior years.

Rose's love for the sport grew to the point that she abandoned two sports she also was good at, basketball and track and field. She gave up both following her sophomore year.

"I tried basketball, and track and field, and it wasn't the same," she said. "I would look forward to volleyball games. I couldn't wait to get out there and play."

Throughout, she's had tremendous support from her parents, Mike and Michelle Rose.

"When I told them I don't want to do basketball and track anymore, they were like 'Great, what do you want to do,'" she said. "They're super supportive in everything they do for me.

"I decided to stick to club volleyball because I love the sport so much. I've improved so much from playing club."

To nurture her game, Rose joined the highly competitive Webfoot Juniors Volleyball Club in Eugene, playing this past winter and spring on the 18-under silver team.

"My mom is huge into it," she said. "She would drive me to all my practices in Eugene, which is a huge commitment."

Both parents came to all her tournaments.

"We'd be going to like Reno and Spokane and they would drive me there," Rose said. "It was so fantastic. They were great with it."

Her choice, and her hard work, have paid off.

College coaches have taken notice. She has had recruiting trips to two schools in Florida — Lynn University and Ave Maria University — and she has an official visit lined up in October for Menlo College in Atherton, Calif.

Lynn is located in Boca Raton and is Rose's current top choice. She wants to major in health science/exercise science, with a minor in business management.

She has the grades (3.8 GPA), the school involvement (student government and Interact Club) and the talent that colleges and coaches covet.

"I try to maintain good grades because, for college, the better grades you have the more scholarship money," she said. "The colleges I'm looking at are all private, and they are expensive."

Rose was class president her junior year and vice president her freshman and sophomore years. She does community service through the school's Interact Club, which is supported by the Rotary Club of Florence.

"It's huge," she said of Interact. "They do so much for the community, which is great."

College beckons, but her senior year awaits.

She delights in coach Hornung's quick-set offense. "I love it," she said. "Coach Hornung has been great!"

And she is all about the senior experience, from the classroom, to the court and to the community.

"I so look forward to it," Rose said. "I want to be the most involved that you can be."

And she will do it from the front row. For her and the Vikings, that's indeed huge.