Volleyball seeks revenge in conference

By Maddy Adams     8/27/15 12:38pm

Following a successful 2014 campaign, Rice volleyball will look to build off of its momentum to capture a Conference USA title and an NCAA tournament bid this fall. 

Rice last appeared in the 2014 C-USA championship game where they fell to Western Kentucky University and the team’s overall record (23-10) was the fifth-best in school history. Rice was picked by the conference’s coaches to finish third in their conference behind University of Texas, San Antonio and WKU.

According to Head Coach Genny Volpe, consistent leadership and a balanced offense led to last season’s successes.

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“Last season we had some great senior leadership. … We had several players pushing each other every day in practice, which led us to improve over the course of the season,” Volpe said. “We also had a very balanced offense, which we look forward to replicating this year. … We really stepped up our kill numbers and our hitting efficiency was one of the best in the nation.”

Newly elected captain and junior libero Kimberly Vaio said the team’s strongest asset last season was the its cohesiveness on and off the court.

“We wore the same shirts to practice, ate team meals without cell phones and made decisions as a unit,” Vaio said. “Our discipline we demonstrated off the court translated to our positions on the court; we were mentally prepared before matches, and we welcomed adversity with confidence because we knew that together we could overcome anything.”

Despite their strengths and ability to work together, Rice was unable to earn the C-USA title and advance to the NCAA tournament. Volpe said last season’s shortcomings were due to an inability to finish at critical moments. However, Volpe said she believes the fresh team will not suffer from the same issues.

“We were in the driver’s seat on some occasions against really strong teams, including the C-USA championship match, and we didn’t finish,” Volpe said. “This is a new team with a lot of new faces; I believe that those issues have not carried over to this group.”

This season, Rice has 11 returning players and four new additions, including a transfer student, a junior walk-on and two freshmen. Volpe is confident in her players’ abilities despite the loss of strong players such as Jillian Humphrey.

“We have a strong group of returners, even though we lost some key players from last year’s squad,” Volpe said. “This could be the best team in terms of depth we have had in the history of Rice volleyball.”

According to Volpe, the team needs to concentrate on winning conference.

“We are very focused on competing at the highest level we can every time we step on the floor,”  Volpe said. “We want to win C-USA and make it to postseason.  We were very close last year, and want to finish strong this year.”

The Owls will begin their season Aug. 28 against the University of Texas, Austin.

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