Wofford volleyball has had a successful season so far, and they do not seem like they will be slowing down.
This season, Wofford volleyball has achieved its highest rating in the program’s history in the first NCAA Division 1 rating percentage index rating of the season and has kept a high rating up since subsequent rating percentage indexes have been released.
Led by six seniors, volleyball has a strong rotation of returning players, as well as new freshmen players. Seniors on the team are Sarah Barham ‘24, Elise Schneider ‘24, Emily Hodson ‘24, Millie Loehr ‘24, Abbey Richman ‘24 and Addison Foote ‘24.
On Oct. 6, Barham became the third player in Wofford history to have 400 career blocks.
“I didn’t really know that I was that close to getting (400 blocks), so it was definitely a surprise,” Barham said. “I had a lot of support from my team.”
Other highlights for the team include Barham and Richman dominating the Southern Conference volleyball defensive player of the week list and Loehr reaching 200 career blocks.
One of the reasons that Wofford Volleyball has been so successful this season is because of the team culture, according to Barham. She does not see this team culture going away any time soon, as she is confident that the underclassmen will maintain the culture into future seasons.
Women’s Volleyball Head Coach Lynze Roos has high hopes and expectations for the future of this team as well.
“We want to be the first (women’s athletics team at Wofford) to make it to an NCAA tournament,” Roos said. “I think it’s so rare that there’s an opportunity to be the first at something anymore, so I think that’s driven us a lot.”
Sending a team to the NCAA tournament is a goal for women’s athletics at Wofford, and it has now become a realistic goal for the volleyball team, as well as for the Wofford Women’s Basketball Team.
Roos also attributes some of the team’s success to the support and investments that women’s teams have received from the athletic department and the College, especially over the last few years
The student-athlete identity that players have at Wofford is one of the many things that players need to have a desire to play and be successful. Players on the Volleyball team, like all student-athletes, want to be playing for Wofford.
This, along with athletes wanting to attend an academically rigorous Division One team, is something that Roos and her coaching staff have to think about when recruiting their players.
Roos also emphasized the resilience and leadership that the seniors on the team have had saying they have made an impact on the team and its future by stepping into their leadership roles and with their consistency.
“This is a really exciting time for them just as players, so I think that they have been a class that has been really patient and put in the work, and now they’re really playing well,” Roos said. “It’s been really fun as a coach.”
