 Well, last season, the BSU Beavers volleyball team started a new air under head coach Kevin Olmer. Now they welcome nine new faces to a roster without a single senior player. Take a glimpse in the gym during a Beaver practice, and you might notice some fresh new faces. Well, actually nine, to be exact, that are putting on the green for the first time. But the team's connection, well, that speaks differently. It was apparent on the first day that we didn't have to break the ice, and that's a huge thing. The fact that they knew each other had conversations and met people face to face, and just sit and talked and been able to break the ice. So what's the secret bringing together a group of 15? Well, it's actually simple, just having fun before the season even started. We've just kind of done a lot of stuff out of volleyball and off the court, which has built the chemistry there. And you can definitely see it on the court as well. We biked around the lake together. We went paddle boarding and have done a team scavenger hunt. And even though the roster doesn't hold a single senior, the team will look to the sophomores and juniors for leadership. As the returners, we need to step up and be the leaders towards them and show them what it is. But like we still are new as well, and like we're all learning together. They also face the task of replacing graduated standouts Jesse Yos and Amanda Tronic, but hope to bring a little more balance on the attack. It has to be different because of where we're at. The nice thing is we're a lot more balanced because of the players that are coming in and the ones that were here in the spring. We've got more ability all the way across the net. So this young squad is ready to turn some heads this season with some extra motivation against the rest of the NSIC. I think it's more of an underdog thing and like using it to add to our advantage and like who cares like we're here to play and let's show them wrong and let's play our game. Didn't do as well as we wanted last year, so we kind of the returners feel that and we want to really push each other and ourselves even more this preseason this fall to prove our conference wrong. So they'll open up a week from Friday at the Minot State Classic against S.D. School of Mines at 11 a.m. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.