MOORHEAD—At 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26, the Concordia volleyball team will open MIAC play against Macalester with their first home game. However, this doesn’t mean their season is just beginning. For the past three weekends, the team has been traveling all over the Midwest to play in tournaments, earning live game experience for this young team.
These tournaments have gone differently than planned, as the team heads into conference play with zero wins and thirteen losses. Faith Radermacher, the team’s head coach, remains confident in her team’s ability despite early hardships.
The team lost six seniors from last season and has also dealt with injuries to key players so far this season.
“We graduated six starters last year, so we have some young athletes in there, but talented… we’ve just had to do a little facing adversity as far as injuries go,” Radermacher said.
The good news is that the team is getting healthy and will have its first chance this season to play in front of a home crowd energized by homecoming week as it begins a three-game homestand on Thursday.
“I feel like we’re in a good place. We have our players back. That’s feels good going into the games this weekend,” said Radermacher. “It’s homecoming so we’ll have large crowds and big support, the girls are excited for sure to be at home.”
The team’s thirteen-match losing streak has affected confidence and team morale, but there has been an emphasis on looking for growth and learning from these struggles.
“It definitely affects confidence levels a little bit, but we’ve really tried to push investing in the growth that will come,” Radermacher said.
Another big challenge the team faced was filling the setter role and finding consistency in that court position.
“That was a big change for us, having an all-conference setter last year and now having one of our starting setters get injured. Having that inconsistency in that setting role has definitely been a challenge,” said Radermacher.
With conference play starting, the team will start to play in bigger, more meaningful matches that will determine their progress this season.
“Conference is when every game counts,” said Radermacher.
The Cobber’s next three matches will all be at home against Macalester at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26, St. Mary’s at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 29, and Mayville State at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
Cobbers can watch the games in Memorial Auditorium to cheer on the Cobbers and help them get their season back on track.
