by Tom Galaraga
Staff Writer
With the return of several key players and the addition of a few young, upcoming athletes, the University of La Verne women’s volleyball team has high hopes for the upcoming season.
After earning the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Player of the Year award last season, senior Amy Brummel returns to the courts for her final season.
“She [Brummel] is a very strong player and she fights to the very end,” said junior teammate Adriana Contreras. “Every time she hits the ball she puts it down.”
Contreras, second team all-conference middle-blocker sophomore Stacey Lupu and Brummel are the key returners for the Leopards.
Although the majority of the roster is composed of freshmen, head coach Don Flora believes this year’s team is stronger than last season’s. With the arrival of strong freshmen players such as Amy Smith, Flora anticipates a good season
The relatively young team had an opportunity to demonstrate its strengths and weaknesses in a scrimmage match against the alumnae team. The current team defeated the alumnae five games in a row with impressive scores including a 15-0 victory.
The scrimmage match demonstrated the offensive power that the team has and allowed younger players an opportunity to work as a team.
“We’ve got a good offense and a lot of firepower,” Flora said.
Flora said he intends to strengthen the team’s ball control and service reception with “high intensity practice and repetition.” Building a stronger defense to compliment the offense is the goal of the rigorous practices.
The team has been practicing nearly every day for this past week with practice lasting close to six hours long, all in preparation for the challenges ahead.
Strong opposition is expected from both Cal Lutheran and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
ULV, which has traded off SCIAC championships with Cal Lu during the past few years, finished second to them last year.
With a stronger team this year, Flora is optimistic about the upcoming season and hopes to improve on last season’s overall record of 15-7 and 9-3 SCIAC.
“We came into camp in better physical shape and we are still learning something new everyday,” said Flora. “Now the team just needs to gel together a little more.”
“This year’s team is better than last year’s team because we have unity,” said Contreras.
Flora said that he has a positive attitude going into the season and that the key to the team’s success would come from their ability to learn to play together.
“Volleyball is chemistry,” said Flora.
The Leopards recently returned from a weekend tournament in Oregon, where they defeated three contenders.
Game one brought a victory for the Leos over George Fox University (15-10 in five games). The second and third matches found the team dominating over Lewis and Clark University (15-8 in three games) and Willamette University (15-7 in three games) to complete the tournament sweep.
The Leopards will travel today for the Whittier tournament.
