 Welcome to Go Mustang Sports season previews and we're talking women's volleyball I'm Dave McHugh joined by head coach Dave Trumbo and coach It goes without saying almost last year incredibly successful Very close to getting to the championship weekend at Hope falling just short in the round of 16 That's the kind of season though I know you guys were looking for and I know you're looking forward to building on Yeah, that this that was our third consecutive year going to the NCAA tournament and each year We've taken one step farther, you know and to be get to the elite 16 last year beating number eight in the country Juniata on their court and shocking the heck out of that It was just it was a five set a five setter 1211 we're down we scored the last four points. It was and yeah, it's probably the most fun I've had in 20 years coaching so now you build off of that But any good team is gonna have some good players who exit here in college and you do lose some some good players But you also keep a really good core unit as well What are you looking forward to with this team and what you see heading out of preseason now? Well, our schedule is definitely tougher In our minds as coaches We believe that we have to get to the point at conference playoff times that we believe we can win that conference championship We are gonna be so much better in October than in we are in August And for us to be in the mindset that we're ready to win our third consecutive Mac title That's what we're looking for you speaking of a third consecutive Mac title. You've lost two sets in the conference period Coaches think you'll be number one again. The expectations are high for your program Does that maybe add a little bit of pressure going into a season when you have lost some key players or is it kind of like? Yeah, that's right. We're Stevenson. We're that good It's more the latter That the we have Two seniors two juniors Six sophomores and seven freshmen. Yeah, so we're pretty young but the freshman come in with the expectation You we didn't have to teach them how hard you have to compete at this level to win they came in competing That's the kind of kid that I liked recruit. It's division three. You don't get them all Yeah, I don't sign anything to get here, but you know, we got some great kids coming in So they are we're actually probably a better team from bottom up But those key players that we lost in when you lose to all Americans Yeah, your top hitter plus a senior that was in your receive and put the ball down in the NCAA tournament for your final point None of them are back Some other kids are gonna have to step up this year along with who we have already from last year Well, that's another topic of this team is as much as success as you had last year as much as the expectations are there You are kind of a team that's gonna be looking to fill some important roles You bring in a lot of freshmen as you point out you got that sophomore class that is certainly gained experience itself Have you found those holes filled yet? Are you guys still in the process of finding that breakout star? Maybe well, we have you know, Sammy Pirro our labarro and the team is kind of built around her great Servicing and her passing two time all honorable mention all American and then we have Meg Miller back who you know All conference two years in a row all region just a fantastic middle but then we've got to fill some spots and one of them was is it set her and Sarah Bollinger was on the team last year. She's looked great. She looked much better than she did in the spring. She's relaxed She's ready to go So we're really feel very encouraged by the way. She's played Along with Karen Schemler who who is really competing do we run a 6-2 do we run a 5-1 with Sarah? The problem is there's only five foot three friends only five four sure Are we gonna have our center front row? That's a question to be answered and then who's gonna fill out those right side and outside spots We have a couple of really good freshmen Who I feel like they are used to the speed and the level in college already But they're just freshmen they're 18 year old or so they're gonna make their mistakes They're gonna what are they gonna do with 23 23? That's the real question How do they adjust to the different game? It's a much success right the pressure and okay Who we going to who who are we gonna go to on game point here because there's some of those kids are definitely gone Another key to the season is you look at the schedule first off you host four try matches At home this year taking advantage of the football schedule as we joked But more importantly you have a lot of really good competition this year It seems to me looking on the outside You guys have gone after the good teams to play but the good teams are willing to take you guys on now To it seems there's a bit of a mutual respect that it's very true. We're right now. We are others getting votes Yeah, I'm in the season the ranked number 19 the ABCA understood that we lost a lot of right, so they dropped us from 19 At the end of the season to 26 now and that's very realistic Yeah, sure and you know and to tell you the truth teams that are below the top 25 They really want to play us so it's a little bit easier to get those teams to play us And of course now that you know the last two years would been one of the top teams on the east coast So Eastern Juniat are on our schedule this year 14 and 15 in fact we play them back-to-back Great schedule. Yeah Carnegie Mellon who was a very good team and then we start off this weekend against Boston UMass Who's number 22 right now Susquehanna is not getting any votes I can't figure out why because they barely missed getting that at-large bid last year Hey, who's a player not one scary they added a setter and from what I understand She could be come in as a freshman and start so she must be pretty good Yeah, have effort we're playing them that first weekend. They haven't lost a player. They've got everybody back In fact, they've been in Puerto Rico playing so all that's great. They've been playing for a month We're getting them the first week. So tough schedule Mentally, we're gonna have to be tough. I kind of say this to them every year We're never gonna do what we did the year before You know and then here we go 37 and 3 so we're not gonna do what we did the year before we're not gonna only lose three sets or three matches all year It's going to be a process. We're gonna have a lot more three to two matches and sure zero matches I think it's going to be a fight because for not we are defense is phenomenal. We can't put our put the ball down against ourselves That's pretty good. I mean is yeah, I kept are you guys cooperating with each other? Okay, so when we warm up we cooperate. We just you know pass that hit pass that hit, but You know, we're just not hitting very well against each other So that remains to be seen what we can do next weekend when we when you kind of wrap up Are you here in the preseason getting ready for those first games? What are your final thoughts as you exit the preseason and you start getting ready to really you know compete? Well first comes to mind our seniors Sammy Perrillo and Meg Miller They are a hundred and four and ten or three years here They've gone to the NCAA three years in a row and I would love to send them one more time sure the thrill of getting there I mean it is such a big deal and If we can do that one more time for them to make it four for four That's the first thing that comes to my mind And I'm really encouraged by the play of the underclassmen the sophomores and and the freshmen So which bodes well to the future. We're really thin at the top of the class, which is unlike us We usually have three or four like we did last year and the year before we had three or four seniors And we're able to fill those spots We just have a lot of spots to fill and we're looking for kids to step up Looking forward to the season especially those nice bunch of home games You get to watch a lot of volleyball here at Stevenson He's Dave Trumbo head coach of the women's volleyball team will look forward to their schedule tipping off first home game here And it Stevenson will be September 13th in a try match for Coach Trumbo. I'm Dave McHugh for Go Mustang Sports