Jennifer Hoffer – Sports Editor
The SCSU girl’s volleyball team is continuing where they left off from last season. The girls went 24-11 in their 2012 campaign and were eliminated in the semifinals of the Northeast-10 tournament.
Senior Jade Black said the team looks just as strong if not stronger than last year.
“How we get along on and off the court is a big key to our success,” Black said. “Last year we got along, but this year its different, there’s just a different feeling there. This year everything’s meshing well. We have a good relationship with the coaches and everything so I think that’s what’s key right now for us.”
The team is 13-7 so far this season, through 20 games.
Jade was just recently named Connecticut Army National Guard Female of the Week. She said she credits her improved playing this season from here offseason workouts.
“I did a lot of strength workouts this offseason to build up my shoulder muscles,” Black said. “I’m not one of the strongest players. So I’ve really been working on that so I don’t fatigue as easily.”
Not only has Black said she has seen a lot of improvement in her own abilities, but also her teammates, too. “A lot of our team this offseason has had the initiative this summer to go out and workout and try to improve themselves, which overall improves the team.”
Black said she gravitated to volleyball in middle school. She said she had to choose between cross-country and volleyball.
“I didn’t feel like running so I chose volleyball,” Black said. “I really progressed throughout the years, and feel in love with the sport and decided I wanted to pursue this further.”
Her love for volleyball led Black to Southern. Her coach from her old school knew the coach from Southern well.
“They taught the same,” Black said. “And I thought the way my skills meshed with the teaching skills that I would be a good fit for me.”
She said her recruit visit to Southern was the decision maker for her.
“When I visited I met the team and just really liked the girls,” Black said. “That was really my main individual reason for coming here, just the team. The group of girls is great.”
One of the biggest challenges for Black was adjusting to the speed of play coming from high school.
“College volleyball is a lot faster completely different,” Black said. “Everything moves so much faster. You don’t have much time to sit there and see where there balls going to go. You have to be on all the time.”
One of her biggest accomplishments, Black said, was during her freshmen year.
“We had a really hard game, five sets versus a team we had never beaten,” Black said. “And we beat them. It was nationals and I had never experienced that whole thing. I was new exciting, I loved every minute of it.”
As her season comes to an end, being the last season of her four-year career here at Southern, Black said she is going to miss the girls the most.
“The group of girls are great here, I’m really going to miss them,” Black said. “But Lauren McVey and Sarah Beres are the two remaining seniors, my best friends and are the girls I have lived with for the past few years. I do everything with them. It’s going to be a big step to go on without them and not see them everyday.”
McVey said that she credits a lot of the three seniors great success to the way they get along.
“Jade, Sarah and I all have a strong relationship on and off the court which contributes to our leadership roles as senior captains,” McVey said. “We enjoy being with each other and pushing each other each day in practice.”
After Black graduates she said she is going to head back to Kansas and continue on her path of international business; a goal she said she had set going into college.
“I’ll probably go work at this big power and engineering company where my dad works and I’ll work in the marketing department,” Black said. “It’s going to be a big change for me, but we’ll see what happens.”
As of today the girls have seven games remaining in the regular season, as their hopes for another Northeast-10 tournament run continues.
