By: Sarah McCall

The women’s volleyball team began their season at the beginning of September. Get a sneak preview of what the team is going to look like this season. 

As the 2023-2024 school year begins the West Virginia Wesleyan Volleyball team has been preparing for their upcoming season. The Volleyball team reported to campus on August 12th to begin their pre-season. This week was to focus on getting the team ready for their first tournament and the upcoming season. 

The team this year has nine returners, and there are 3 seniors. With only so many retuners there are sixteen freshmen, Coach Wheeler who has been the head coach for 7 years, says “By having such a big freshman class the younger players have some extra excitement and energy to practice. I do love how our veteran players support and mold the freshman. We have a great group of athletes and a much-needed group of experienced players”. The team is being led by seniors Hope Arce-Reed and Autumn Molenhouse. They were both starters last season and they continue to lead the team this year. 

The Bobcats started their season off at California University of Pennsylvania, they went 1-3 on their first weekend. After that, they attended a tournament at West Chester University and had another weekend of being 1-3. Most recently they played in their own home tournament and 2-2. Coach Wheeler said for this season she’s “most excited to see the development of each player and how that will impact the team. I am also excited about the culture and watching the players support each other this season”. 

The Cats have already played ten games thus far, and are gearing up for their conference play starting this week. Some of the teams that are in their conference are West Virginia State, Fairmont State, Davis & Elkins, Glenville, Wheeling, West Liberty, Concord, University of Charleston, and Frostburg State. Coach says “My favorite team to play is Wheeling because I like to see how we match up with them because they always make it to the postseason, and that is impressive because it is such a hard conference to compete in”. The Cats went 3-13 in conference last year. They had wins against Concord and Alderson Broadus.

Coach says her favorite memory from this season already is, “the first 2 home wins we had during our home tournament, also when we beat Seton Hill in the first set 25-13. I have seen a lot of potential in these girls already and I can’t wait to see how we develop together as a team”.