Author: Julie Xu
After defeating the University of La Verne for the first time since 2001, women’s volleyball has proven that it is the team to beat this season. Since losing the their first match, the team has won 15 of their last 16 games, and they hope to keep up this great season. “I attribute all of our success to the team really buying into working harder this year,” Head Coach Michael Talamantes said in an e-mail interview. “The amount of effort [the team] puts into each practice has been great… I’m always demanding more but compared to a year ago it’s like night and day.”
Talamantes also credits the team’s strong performance this season to the Tigers’ determination. Although the team is at the top of its game, the women are not growing complacent.
“My team simply hates to lose, and after that opening loss we just took it to another gear and have [won] 15 of our last 16 matches,” Talamantes said. “We’re very happy with where we are at (15-2, 7-1 in SCIAC, putting us in second place) but this team is just getting warmed up.”
Even warm-ups are intense affairs for the volleyball team. The Tigers are especially fervent right before they take to the court for a game.
“We always have good intensity before a match,” Meghan Fruth (junior) said in an e-mail interview. “Before we play a good team we get fired up in order to make big plays.”
Inexperience proves to be the only potential weakness that the team and coach unanimously agree upon, but it has not hindered the Tigers thus far.
“[The inexperience] of the team hasn’t been an issue at all this season […] we start five freshman and two sophomores in our top nine but we have come up with big plays when we’ve needed them,” Coach Talamantes said. “We’ve played a lot of tough teams and at this point I don’t see us having any weaknesses lately.”
With four players over 5’11”, the sheer power of the lineup is a huge advantage for the women. Notable players include Logan Boyer-Hayse (sophomore), Stephanie Gann (first-year), Madyson Cassidy (first-year) and Kathryn Bockmon (senior). Boyer-Hayse and Gann provide extreme firepower for the team, while Cassidy and Bockmon keep the defense strong.
Although the roster is solid this season, the volleyball team attributes its winning streak more to attitude than to skill. The secret to the team’s success is its thirst for victory, according to many of the players and the coach.
“I believe what has kept us playing at such a high level is how much we want to be successful,” Coach Talamantes said. “We won’t accept anything less than a win and it shows in how much emotion we have when we take the floor. This group loves to compete!”
Simply put, the goal for the season is to improve from previous years.
“The expectation of this team is that we continue to have the best season Occidental volleyball has ever had,” Boyer-Hayse said. “We are all focused on winning the SCIAC, the post-season tournament, and fighting for a national title. As a team, our sights are set on nothing short of winning it all!”
Last season, the team went 15-15 and finished fifth in the SCIAC at 6-8. With the consistent outstanding performance that the team is presenting, the Tigers may find themselves in first place at the end of the season. Come out and support the women on the volleyball team as they compete against Swarthmore in Thousand Oaks on Friday, Oct. 15 at 3 p.m.
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