Amid the falling leaves and first-year lanyards, a team of 13 women is spending its days gearing up to take a run at a goal. That goal, though, is not just a conference title ‚Ä” it is finishing what they came so close to achieving last season.
When last October rolled around, the women’s volleyball team was 8-12 ‚Ä” not an outstanding record, but also not very close to an exciting finish.
This year is a new year: the team figured something out, and things have changed. The women’s volleyball team put on a 7-2 record, and by the end of that same month, they had a conference contender record.
The team made it to the tournament, falling to Hiram College but knowing that they had taken a struggling season start. They whipped it into shape and now start at a fresh season with a blank slate.
There are seven returning letterwinners, including Ali Drushal ’09, Megan Earle ’09, Abby Jensen ’11, Amanda Gottesman ’11, Sarah Lorch ’10, Abbie Casey ’09 and KateLynn Riley ’10.
Drushal, who holds the school record for digs and last season earned the most digs of all of NCAA Div. III players, and Earle are both expected to form the base of Wooster’s defense, aided tremendously in the front by Lorch, Casey and Riley.
Wooster’s biggest hurdle this season will be the loss of a number of strong athletes who graduated, but there is hope that a large and talented group of first-year team members will help take them to a 20-win season (their first since 2005).
Last year, they ended their season in third place, behind Hiram College and Wooster’s hated rival Wittenberg University. The team is well-aware of the challenges that the conference poses for a championship title run. Even though there will be tough challenges ahead, the outlook is a very positive one for the team.
The team begins non-conference play with a two-day tournament on August 29 and 30 at Marietta College, and conference play September 19 at Hiram. After Hiram, Wooster barrels through a barrage of NCAC match-ups through September and October before the top four teams enter the NCAC tournament on Nov. 7.
Last year, her first year at Wooster, Coach Sarah Davis succeeded in pushing the team to recover from a tough first half of the season. Now Davis is also taking aim at the NCAC trophy.
After a strong finish to last season, the team is optimistic, despite the losses of key seniors Erin Wright ’08, Carolyn Ciriegio ’08 and Heather Wolff ’08.
Even with the losses of some key contributors, there are plenty of athletes left that are ready to pick up the slack and step into those key roles. If the team can pick up where it left off, it will look to be in the conference alongside NCAC titans Hiram and Wittenberg.