EMU’s women volleyball team’s 2024 season started on Tuesday, August 3 with a long awaited victory against their rival Mary Washington University. After a very exciting match, the game ended with a 3-1 score, favoring EMU for the first time since 2009, the beginning of EMU’s and Mary Washinton’s women’s volleyball rivalry.
Casey Steinbrenner, women’s volleyball coach, explained that their training has not changed physically, but that they have emphasized the idea of competition on the court. “Competition has become a big part of culture and we often talk about seeing adversity as a challenge and not a threat.” Player Mara Woolford, junior and number 7 in the court, agreed by saying that this season’s word for the Women’s volleyball team is “compete,” which gives the players a push to play at a more advanced level and keep playing at their best even when the score is not on their side. “This year our team has a lot of chemistry with each other and we focus a lot on building trust with our teammates and confidence within ourselves. We are holding ourselves and our teammates to higher standards and pushing each other everyday to improve as a unit” said Mara, excited to see what this season will bring for her team.
Members from other generations also enjoyed the game that afternoon. “The girls had great team spirit and cohesiveness. It was fun watching them be aggressive from the service line, and I was also very impressed with their defense. They were scrappy and were able to get many kills as a result of that” said Bethany Shultz, a 2020 graduate student who saw the game from the comfort of her home. “Clapping and standing ovation were some of the reactions after Mary Washington’s last serve did not go over the net” said Marciella Shallomita who got there right on time for the celebration. It was overall a happy time for EMU students and people who knew the significance of this winning in EMU’s program history. There are many other games coming as they just started this season, and although most successful games are forgotten very easily as coach Casey recalls “we usually have three matches against three different opponents each week so it’s easy to move on to preparation for the next opponent and quickly forget about our achievements.” This victory will be remembered by the team and their loving supporters.
