The women’s volleyball team of Seton Hill University (SHU) had a winning season with an unbeatable AVCA All-Academic record.
By Megan Seigh
Sports Editor
The women’s volleyball team of Seton Hill University (SHU) had a winning season with an unbeatable AVCA All-Academic record.
“I, along with all of the other volleyball coaches, am very proud and excited that our team earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association Academic All-American Team. Our student athletes love the game of volleyball and are very good at it. But, they also understand that the academic arena is where they must excel because that is where they will make their future,” said Coach Rick Hall.
“Being a collegiate athlete requires a lot of devoted time into not only going to several classes a day, writing countless amounts of papers, and completing hours of homework a week, but there are also daily practices, matches, and mandatory workouts that must be attended. That is why achieving AVCA All-Academic as a team this past season is a great accomplishment for our team.” said Michelle Ferrari, a sophomore.
The team strived for academic reward and achieved it, so now their job is to maintain that title and focus on ways to make their game stronger.
“I am very optimistic and looking forward to this season with all of the players we have returning. There should be some intense battles for starting positions with the players that are returning. Three returning starters are junior setter/outside hitter Megan Kehlert, sophomore middle hitter Rebecca Robinson, and sophomore outside hitter Megan Stroud,” said Hall.
“I am afraid that I am not participating much with the team anymore because of a reoccurring shoulder injury. However, I think that the girls are going to work very hard this year. I know that they are in pre-season right now doing that very thing,” said sophomore Lindsey Skorupan, former team member.
Ferrari acknowledged, “I not only speak for myself when I say that my team, coaches and I have certainly raised the bar of expectations for this coming season. We have a lot of talented girls who, through both hard work and dedication, can lead the team to having a victorious record.”
Hall knows the strength coming from the returning women but the team will also be relying on its incoming freshmen for substantial force.
“We have 3 quality freshmen coming in that we hope will adjust quickly and be able to make an impact on the team immediately; Christina Donahue, Ashley Steinbach, and Lindsey Pavlikowsky,” said Hall.
With much hard work ahead of them, the women’s team will strive for dominance in the finals this season, with much confidence from the coaches and players alike.
“We have to make sure we go out strong, mentally as well as physically, in every game and acquire a solid chemistry at the court because volleyball is such a team oriented sport that having a strong chemistry between players is vital,” said Ferrari.
“I am cautiously optimistic that we can continue our winning ways with a squad that finished fifth out of sixteen teams in the WVIAC standings during out first year of championship eligibility,” said Hall.