By Taylor Lupetti (@tayclupetti):
It has been an electric start to the season for San Jose State women’s volleyball which is 8-4 through a third of its season.
The team started last season the same way, winning 8 of its first eleven (lost 3-1 to Nevada last night), but would only win four more games the entire rest of the season.
Starting this season with a fresh mindset, libero Jamie Hirai was confident the team would be better than in past seasons.
“We have a way more solid foundation with so many people back,” Hirai said. “This is the first year that we have had such a healthy team, we are a lot stronger than we were last year.”
With more than half of the team having returned from last season, there is a sense of familiarity on the court.
“We have a little bit more maturity in our program,” said head coach Jolene Shepardson. “We have some upperclassman that have been here for a couple of years and it really helps when you’ve played together for longer periods and to have been able to train them the longer they’ve been here.”
Also new coming into the season, were battles at multiple positions for a starting role, providing added depth and motivation for the squad.
“We have more variability in our offense and our defense and more competition for each position,” Hirari said. “I think that will be a lot more motivation to play better.”
The team’s out-of-country trip over the summer was an experience that seemed to be the main ingredient in the team’s confidence and success this season.
“Our Brazil trip was definitely an opportunity that was a blessing to have as a team and as a program,” Shepardson said.
It’s an altruistic environment on the team. No one has more of a voice than another and “power” is distributed evenly when it is necessary, a practice not picked up by many teams.
“We don’t have one captain, we don’t have a team leader and with our coaches, it’s not a dictatorship,” said outside hitter Summer Avery. “We have a free-flowing team and I think that allows for a lot of creativity and a lot of problem solving.”
After tough back-to-back losses against No. 9 University of Kansas and University of Idaho last Friday, SJSU found its winning ways once again defeating Santa Clara University.
“We are fighters and we are workers and we are here to give all the teams a hard time and see if they can deal with it,” said outside hitter Fernanda Vido. “Some of them haven’t been able to so we are going to keep doing our job.”
Learning from the mistakes of last season, the athletes are changing their outlooks on the season, bringing a new mindset to the floor.
“We’re taking it one day at a time,” Avery said. “Last year we were immature and were trying to get to the end of the season before it was over or we were trying to hang on to stuff that we had already done.”
Practices and strength training aside, the athletes attribute their hot streak to the chemistry the team shares on and off the court
“We are more than just a volleyball team,” said outside hitter Giulia Gavio. “We know each other, we have each other’s backs and I think this is our biggest strength — we’re together and we’re different from other teams.”
Using last season as a learning template, the Spartans are focusing on what they can do right instead of what they may have done wrong.
“I think it is important to just keep putting the work in everyday versus just expecting something good to happen at the end.”
With nine weeks ( 17 games) left of the team’s regular season, the athletes are continuously putting the hard work in, for the chance to go to playoffs in November.