CSC Athletics
John Murphy, CSC Sports Information Assistant
The Chadron State College volleyball team looks to build off last year’s success when it opens its season Friday at the Lindewood Challenge in St. Charles, Mo.
The Eagles will play Urbana University, from Ohio, at 1:30 p.m. MT on Friday, before facing the host Lindenwood Lions at 6:30 p.m. On Saturday, they will face Missouri S&T at 10:30 a.m., and Southern Nazarene University, of Oklahoma, at 3:30 p.m.
Coach Riann Mullis enters her third year at the helm of the team. She’s impressed with the dedication the players had during the offseason and noted how the offseason improvement was better than the previous two years.
Four captains have been selected based off a team vote. Senior setters Madison Webb and Mickey Trimble, senior outside hitter Dominika Senkerikova and junior middle hitter Timmi Keisel will all represent the team.
Mullis expects a core of nine to ten players to see the court every match, an improvement from previous years.
All four of Chadron State’s opponents are opening their seasons this weekend.
The first, Urbana, finished last season at 19-17. The Blue Knights enter this season with only one senior and one junior on the roster after graduating six seniors.
Lindenwood, who has two seniors and six juniors on their roster, finished last season with their first winning season since 2011 with a record of 20-13
Missouri S&T enters the season with a new head coach after going 10-21 a year ago.
Finally, Southern Nazarene finished 15-18 last fall.
The Eagles scrimmaged South Dakota School of Mines and Central Wyoming on Friday. They won two sets over Central Wyoming in a one hour timed match, while defeating South Dakota School of Mines in three straight sets.
In the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference volleyball preseason coaches’ poll, released last Monday, the Eagles were picked to finish 12th out of the 16 conference teams, after finishing 10th last season.
Nikki Kennedy of Regis University was named the Preseason Player and Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, while Kylee Wurster of Colorado Christian was named Preseason Setter of the Year.
Regis was picked to repeat as conference champion.