Wofford volleyball looks forward to ending COVID-19 hiatus
After having its season postponed from the fall semester due to COVID-19, Wofford’s volleyball team was itching to get back on the court and compete. After weekend scrimmages against one another for months, the urge to stand across the court against another team has certainly grown, but Head Coach Lynze Roos has found a couple of silver linings in the delay.
“The bonus part about having that extra time is that we had seven new players, and so the time with them to start to do a lot of teaching without the pressure of playing right away was pretty cool,” Roos said. “We had 10 weeks of practice where we could slow some of that stuff down, really get on the same page so that, when we came back in January, it was far less teaching and going right into play.”
With two seniors on the roster this season in middle blocker, Riley Coonan, and defensive specialist/libero, Emily Durham, the Terriers boast a team full of young, talented players who have already impressed the coaching staff. Roos pointed specifically to Millie Loehr ’24 and Sarah Barham ’24, both of whom Roos expects to contribute throughout the course of the season.
“Millie (Loehr) being 6’5”, she’s a different kind of player at the net that you don’t see every day,” Roos said. “Sarah’s super quick and fast at the net, really quick off the ground. Those two in the middle, they won’t miss a beat.”
Roos also added that she believes that the Terriers could potentially play as many as six unique lineups over the course of the season, demonstrating the confidence that she has in talent that the program has recruited and developed. She expects the Terriers’ depth to be the hardest thing for opponents to deal with as the season progresses.
“Right now,” she said, “I feel like, if a starter is out or three starters are out, there’s three kids hungry to fill those roles and not miss a beat as far as the talent.”
As for Coonan and Durham, Roos added that both players are the standard for what Wofford volleyball looks for in its players.
“(Riley’s) really matched (her passion) with putting the effort into her nutrition, the weight room, taking the training room and injury seriously, recovery, and she’s just become the standard for what we’re looking for in our athletes,” Roos said. “Emily Durham has come in every year and just been in great shape. … She’s so fast, she’s so fit, and if there was a combine for volleyball, she would crush everything.”
Coonan, who has spent her entire career playing alongside Durham, also spoke very highly of her teammate and how she pushes Coonan to be better every day.
“She puts so much passion into everything she loves and everything she wants to achieve, and that’s definitely rubbed off on me,” Coonan said. “You can’t ask for a better teammate or friend than that — someone who’s gonna push you every single second.”
While Roos pointed to depth as one of the Terriers’ biggest strengths, Coonan noted the team’s energy both on the court and on the sidelines as an advantage that the Terriers can always carry with them whether they are playing at home or on the road.
“We have 18 voices which, for a volleyball team, is a lot,” Coonan said. “We’ve kind of had the mentality that, with the masks, you never know how loud you’re gonna be, so you might as well scream as loud as you can. Having that mentality is gonna be really hard to beat because you can have the same amount of people, but if people are being louder, then it feels like they have twice the amount.”
As the Terriers look ahead at their schedule for the rest of January and into early February, Coonan has one specific date circled on her calendar: a showdown with rival Furman on March 21 — Coonan and Durham’s senior night.
Last season, the Terriers fell to the Paladins in the first round of the SoCon tournament by a score of 3-1, a tournament that the Terriers played host to inside Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. Since then, Coonan has never forgotten that moment.
“To go out (in the) first round against your rival,” she said, “against a team that you were picked to beat nine times out of 10, it’s resonated with me for a full year and a couple months now. To go out like that in November 2019 and now be all the way in 2021 — March 21st, I have that date circled for my senior night to show finally who’s the top dog in South Carolina.”