The Wildcat volleyball team wrapped up its spring season on Saturday with matches against Weatherford College, Texas Woman’s University and Hardin-Simmons University.
All but one of the Wildcat spring matches were sweeps, including these three matches. The only game that the Wildcats did not sweep was their first of the spring at Texas Tech University on March 6.
This spring season has been considered successful in the eyes of the coaching staff for many reasons. The team lost two key pieces in Madeline Guffy, setter from Krum, and Bryley Steinhilber, pin hitter from Kennedale at the end of last season.
Because of these losses, Head Coach Ijeoma Moronu Alstrup knew others would have to step into those roles and use the spring season to get comfortable in them.
“We have a really great core group of sophomores that have always been really hard-working,” she said. “I think we’re just trying to find different people to step up in different ways. Maybe not in the exact same ways that Bryley and Guffy did, but in their own way.”
One of those sophomores, Rachel Koss, sophomore setter from Appleton, Wisconsin, said this spring season has been very beneficial to work on chemistry and timing with the new hitters, even though most of it starts off the court.
“We’ve been spending a lot of time together, the whole entire team, and we are seriously all best friends, and it’s awesome” Koss said. “They fit in so well, and then that honestly translated in the court because now I know their personalities.”
Moronu Alstrup and her staff brought in three transfers in the offseason, along with one freshman who is already on campus and one who will arrive for the fall. The three transfers are Aubrey Beaver, sophomore pin hitter from Murrieta, California, Erika Gustafson, sophomore middle blocker from Denton, and Brennan Ramirez, libero from Waxahachie.
Beaver transferred from Cal State-Fullerton, Gustafson came from Montana State University and Ramirez transferred from the University of Texas.
The two freshmen who will be available in the fall are Aaliyah Jowers, pin hitter from Abilene, and Hadley Welch, pin hitter from Lubbock.
Beaver said a key piece of this spring season has been for the team to set its sights on the end goal.
“We’re just super intentional,” she said. “At the end of every practice, we talk about the WAC Championship. We’re very clear about our goals and what we want to do in the fall, and so it’s really easy to refocus ourselves on what we all agree we want to do.”
The team has not released its fall schedule yet, and there are still over four months before the first fall match, but Moronu Alstrup said the spring season is a good sign of what is to come.
“Being able to win the rest of our spring matches has been really big for us,” Moronu Alstrup said. “Not having a lack of focus or a lack of intensity and dropping sets we probably shouldn’t have, has been super promising for our future.”
