The Bellevue College volleyball team started the new season with the goal of making it to the Northwest Athletic Association of Community College’s tournament and having a good show of support. The team was strong last year and performed well all season, but they had a disappointing finish at the NWAACC championship tournament after being eliminated during the double elimination tournament.
Jocelyn Lawrence, since taking over as the new interim coach, has placed all players on intense practice in order to discover who the best players are. She revealed that all the players have been working hard to make the first six starting spots that are available on the team.
“All the spots on the team are up for grabs, and there is no automatic spot for any player,” says Lawrence. “All the players have to work hard to make the starting six spots available.”
Coach Lawrence’s strategy is to strengthen the defense of the team and to cover every spots on the court to help the team win more games. She is optimistic that her crop of talented players will get the team back to the NWAACC tournament championship with hard work, unity and dedication to the team.
The team recruited seven freshman this year, all of whom are competing for a place alongside the sophomore group which has the most outstanding player on the team, setter Danielle Smullin. Coach LAwrence explains that Smullin has been a huge leader for the team this year, bringing a lot of positive energy. The team has played 12 matches so far this season. This lands them with a score of 6-6 having played against many competitive teams this season.
On Wednesday, the team played its first division game with the Northern teams at Whatcom. They played Olympic on Friday at home for their first division home game. The plan of the team to succeed this season may be paying off already. They just finished second at the Clackamas tournament to the home team. They went 5-1 on the weekend, which, according to Lawrence, was a pretty successful weekend for them.