By Rachael Bentley
After spending a whole summer preparing for this fall season, volleyball Coach Linda Sagnelli believes that the team is in the best possible shape they could be.
The team spent the summer taking classes and training with Mike Piper. The coach staff is not allowed to work with the team during the summer due to NEC regulation, but they still practiced in the gym with Piper and worked out some plays.
“He has done a phenomenal job with the team,” said Sagnelli. “We had some very clear goals when they left last semester.”
The team has five new players this season, three of them being freshmen.
“The dedication that they have to being successful is at a really high level,” explained Sagnelli. “They have been working out with the strength coach through out the whole summer and most our new players were here as well. They started summer school on July 22, and took six credits in summer sessions. Because of that the NCAA allows them to have the academic services and to work with our strength coach.”
This season’s co-captains are Emily Cochran and Jamie Rademacher.
“Our two captains are great leaders,” explained Sagnelli. “They have had a lot to do with the team unity and I couldn’t be happier with the role that they are playing this year. I respect them both very much for their dedication.”
With the start of conference games just around the corner in September, Sagnelli has been putting a lot of effort into getting one of her newest players ready for conference games.
Makenna Lommori was a two-time state player of the year in Nevada as a junior and senior. Sagnelli believes she is going to be an impact player this season even though she is only a freshman.
“Typically we play a 5-1 system but this time we’re playing a 6-2 system, so there are two setters on the court,” said Sagnelli. “Because of that, McKenna has the ability to be one of those setters, and when she rotates to the front of the court we can use her attacks because she is such a great hitter.”
Because of Lommori’s offensive ability she may become one of the teams top hitters, and Sagnelli can see she has the ability and wants to help her develop it.
All of this training is in preparation of what is sure to be challenging season for the Division I team.
“This period before we go into conference games is a great time to get people on the team playing experience and to see what the team looks like and what we have to work on,” said Sagnelli. “Conference play for us starts on September 22nd. We hope we have the kinks worked out by then, which I believe we will.”
As the team goes through the month of September they have a lot of competition. They just came back from West Virginia which wound up 1 and 2 in that tournament, and they will be playing in a tournament on Friday at home against Saint Johns, Holy Cross and Brown University.
“You always have to prepare to the best of your ability for conference games,” said Sagnelli. “We have been concentrating a lot on the little things and the fundamental skills, and try to get better at repeating that successfully. We prepare to the best of our ability for each different team that we play.”