Volleyball kills beginning of season, hitting a win streak

The Grinnell women’s volleyball team served up a winning streak by securing five consecutive victories, which hasn’t been done since 2019. 

Jenna Keller `24.5 attributes this success to team dynamics. “Our team this year is one of the best teams I’ve ever been a part of at Grinnell,” said Keller. “We’ve really built a strong community, and you can see it on and off the court.”

During preseason, the team trained for twenty hours a week, using this time to play against one another to identify strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to prepare for upcoming matches.

“We had an extra week of preseason this year, which was huge,” said Emily Brewer `24.5. “We had a full week to ourselves of just practicing and training.” 

Keller said that their coach also provides them with “a little bit of scout” using film to identify the skills of opposing teams. 

Though assessing other teams’ gameplay beforehand is important to volleyball strategy, Keira Sullivan `27 said that having control during the game is also key. 

“I would say that volleyball is a self-contained sport because we are on opposite sides of the net,” said Sullivan. “We have a lot of control of what we do with ourselves and are able to make quick, real-time adjustments.”

She said this helped when they competed against Coe College after losing their first game to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

“We came out strong and we ended up sweeping them in three straights, which was really impressive,” said Sullivan, referring to their winning sets in a game. “I think being able to turn around from a loss earlier in the evening showed resiliency.”

On the role of coaches in helping the team, Hayley Taka `26 said that Eric Ragan `12, head volleyball coach, has helped the players learn empowerment from one another, while also emphasizing the team’s goal.

“We would have these circle talks about what we want for the season, and he would angle the conversation to how we should be thinking about that on the court,” said Taka. 

“He reminds us that we all have something unique to give to the team,” said Brewer, “that everyone has something they can give and need to give on the court.”

As the season continues, the team will compete to make it to the conference tournament and better themselves to beat their rival, Cornell College. Taka said that there’s been a rivalry between Grinnell and Cornell, especially since Cornell has won The Midwest Conference consecutively for multiple years.

“They’re number one in our conference, so every time we play them … we have to crush Cornell,” said Taka. “So hopefully we do it –– fingers crossed.”

Aside from their on-court dynamic, the team’s off-court relationship has been imperative to their overall success. 

“These are the people that you’re working super closely with,” said Sullivan. “So being able to have a positive relationship really enables that and facilitates on-court success.”

To continue growing these relationships, the team has a game-day ritual called “Psych Ups.” This is when a teammate signs up to either plan an activity for the team, or even get the group a gift before a game.

“Last week before our tournament, we had temporary tattoos that we all put on in the locker room,” said Sullivan. “It’s just something fun and silly that helps us bond and get excited to play together in the match ahead.”