The Sea Lions volleyball team looks to turn around from an injury-riddled 2016 campaign and use a surge of youth to compete for contention in the PacWest this year. With only five players with playing experience from last season returning, the new look 2017 team is working hard to become a resurgent force in the region. Roster
Head coach Jonathan Scott has five returners who played last year to go along with two players coming off of redshirt seasons and nine freshmen.
“There is hope in the air, hope is the right word,” Coach Scott said. “We’ve got a ton of youth on this team, a ton of freshmen and, in addition to that, a lot of the other girls on the court are sophomores. That does allow for the older girls on the court to provide the perfect amount of experience and wisdom, so it’s an awesome combination of a high volleyball IQ with the older girls and athleticism and physicality with the younger girls.” Offensive Outlook
With the team losing two of the top three scorers from a season ago, it will be a new look offense that will have their ups and down throughout the season.
Coach Scott sees a season of turbulence for his offense, “I think offensively there will be a few matches where I’ve got to imagine, it will be as good as it gets across the country. That will only be a few times but there will also be a few matches where we play with nerves and with inexperience, which will likely lead to high errors.”
He also had high praise for his second-year setter, Cara Keturakis, who showed great promise as a freshman and could be even better with a year of experience.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun because she finally has the weapons,” Scott explained. “Last year, due to the gnarly amount of injuries we suffered, our lineup was our lineup, and we had to shift things around with the same few weapons that we had. She was forced to be a star at that time which is not what you want out of your setter. You want your setter to allow the others to be the stars. This year I think she is going to allow others to be the stars more often than not which will ultimately show that she really is a superstar.” Defensive Outlook
One of the biggest transitions for the Sea Lions this season will be the adjustment to a new face at the libero position. Four-year starter, Christin Fisher, has graduated bur Coach Scott still expects a high level of competition from his core defense.
“Defensively has always been a point of pride for our program and this year is no different,” Scott explained. “I do believe because our more experienced girls tend to be more back row players I expect us to be quite good again.” In regards to the libero position, Coach Scott has great confidence that whoever earns the spot will pick up where Fisher left off.
“Certainly we do not have the girl that everyone in the conference knows is the best libero, or one of the best liberos, they are going to face all year. We do not know how that will affect other teams, maybe they will have more confidence playing against us because she is gone. But, the reality is, we’ve got senior Megan Angerstein who is ready to go, she is playing like a stud. Or, Itali Andrade who is ready to go and she is playing like a stud. Also, we have freshman Holley Persson, all three of them are ready to go and step into that libero spot and they are battling. It is not a matter of two of them losing that jersey, one of them is going to earn it.” Strengths
A young team can have rough spots to develop around but when you have a core piece to build around it can make the transition easier. With Keturakis back at the setter position, Coach Scott expects the raw talent of his young players paired with the key returners can be a positive for them.
He explains, “Well, I don’t think it would be arrogant to say that we will probably have the best setter in the conference, Cara Keturakis, she was likely the best setter last year and she’s just a year older. We are going to be raw and physical. In the back court the ball is going to stay off the ground, with our back row players there are going to be moments of absolute awesome and we have physicality up front.” Weaknesses
The obvious weakness for the Sea Lions is their youth and lack of experience with collegiate level competition.
“Experience, we have very little of that across the board,” Scott said. “With most of these girls, the most pressure they’ve experienced on the volleyball court was a high-level Junior Olympics match or a high-level CIF match. Those certainly provide some pressure but now they are facing pressure against teams that have no weaknesses.” Schedule
The Sea Lions will once again start their season hosting the Seaside Invitational before heading to the regional crossover tournament the second weekend. These tournaments can help prepare the young team for the tough conference play to come.
Coach Scott explains how their early schedule will not be a strong as usual to help with the difficulty of the conference schedule.
“Because we had a lower finish last season, the second weekend regional crossover won’t be the highest level of strength of schedule compared to what we will need to make the playoffs. So, I felt compelled to schedule our first tournament at home to get the best possible teams here. We will have a ton of freshmen on the court and our very first match will be against Alaska Anchorage who finished in the National Championship game last year.” Goals
Coach Scott hold his team to a high standard and their team goals can help them achieve those standards. “We have two team goals,” Scott said. “One of them is to, individually, be better than I was yesterday so that the team can be better today than they were yesterday. The other goal is to be the hardest working team in every match.”
Even with a young team, Scott expects to see these goals represented no matter the level of experience. “(We can achieve our goals with) several core values that we hold close to our program, without going into each of those individually, it comes down to wanting it more and proving that we want it more with our actions.” Conclusion
The volleyball team is filled with new faces that will look to the veterans and coaching staff to help them step into newfound roles. If the team can find offensive efficiency to go along with their solid defensive play they will be able to find success throughout the season. The team will look to exemplify their goals so they can build on each game to become a complete force within the conference and region.