Volleyball starts season by defeating alumni

By Nicholas Grenke

Western Herald

The Western Michigan University volleyball team kicked off its season by hosting its annual alumni exhibition match Saturday, beating their former players in straight sets.

“This is the first opportunity for us for us to play someone else other than ourselves, and the girl’s excitement was contagious,” head coach Colleen Munson said. “It’s also nice for the former players to come back and play it shows the passion they have for the program.”

“It’s a little weird being back to a place you haven’t been for a long time, but we were welcomed back with open arms,” alumni Kathryn Babcock said. “You can tell this year’s team is ready to win this year and deal with the competition.”

The Broncos will be looking to continue the success of last season’s Sweet 16 team that posted a 28 win season last year. With all returning starters the team is ranked in the top 30 of the NCAA poll.

“We need to focus and not listen to what others are saying about our team because that can get in your head,” senior outside hitter Katie Eberling. “We’ll worry about our side of the net.”

The team showed the chemistry of playing together from the first set to last.

“We’ve had a lot of good experiences together over the last couple years, whether the tournament or playing in Brazil,” Eberling said. “We’re just trying to get on the same page as a group.”

The Brown and Gold will travel to Honolulu, Hawaii on Wednesday for next weekend’s Honolulu tournament where they will face No. 7 Hawai’i, No. 9 UCLA and No. 25 Santa Clara.

“We’re playing some great teams and that’s where we left off at last year,” said Eberling. “It’s good to play programs at the highest level.”

Senior setter and captain Jillian Mitchell sat out the last few sets of the match in order to rest a sore IT strain in her knee.

“It’s not really a concern, we’re just being cautious,” Munson said.

Western Michigan easily beat the alumni 25-9 the first set, 25-13 in the second and 25-10 in the third. After the final match the teams decided to play another to get some work and the Broncos kept the streak going with a 25-11 win.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Aug 23 2009. Filed under Breaking, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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