Weak conference may net VB wins
After a not so impressive season last year, Head volleyball Coach Brent Martindale knew that there needed to be some changes in the next year. Those changes consisted of getting a lot more firepower on offence.
“One thing that will make this team better than last year’s will be the offence we will bring to the table. Last year it seemed like at times our defense would play great but we just couldn’t get a play on offense” said Martindale.
This archived article was written by: Riley Spears
After a not so impressive season last year, Head volleyball Coach Brent Martindale knew that there needed to be some changes in the next year. Those changes consisted of getting a lot more firepower on offence.
“One thing that will make this team better than last year’s will be the offence we will bring to the table. Last year it seemed like at times our defense would play great but we just couldn’t get a play on offense” said Martindale.
That offence that he is talking about will come with two new freshmen that had stellar seasons in their respective high schools. Hometown girl Meagan Garvin was a big sign in the off-season. Another big sign for the Eagles was Alexis Adams from Clearfield; Adams is fourth place in the all-time state record books in kills in a season.
“Alexis was a big sign for us looking at the record books, every person around her all went to big Division 1 schools and we were lucky enough to get her here,” Martindale said.
With this entire new freshman power CEU also received a lot of their players back including: Karissa Law who started every game for Eastern Utah last year, Chloe Wilson who would be so far the most improved player, says Martindale. Marissa Crookston ended the season on a strong note last year, Nicole Norr Graham was injured most of the season but in the games she played, showed some real potential, Norr will also be playing two positions this year and has been learning them in the off-season. Amber Kohler has really stepped up and took the leadership role for the team. Kristy “Nacho” Rindlisbacher and Tauna Garvin will be returning and worked really hard in the offseason.
For the freshman that will be on the team this year there is Alexis Adams from Clearfield, Jesilyn Gurney from North Sevier, Alexa Monson from Hooper, Meagan Garvin from Price and Alexandra Schuda from Hamburg Germany.
The main strategy for the team will be to show a lot of looks but keep it as simple as possible. The team also want to work toward there strengths such as offence now.
“Defense is always a high priority for every team and CEU is alwaysi mproving on that,” Martindale said.
This year may be the year for CEU to really step up in the conference and show what they really can do. With the two powerhouse teams in the conference, Salt Lake Community College and Northern Idaho College both getting new head coaches and SLCC not returning a lot of players, NIC will have five freshman on the squad and seven sophomores. CEU played a good game against NIC in the conference tourney winning one of the sets.
Hopefully this is the year that the Eagles can soar to new heights in volleyball and turn the heads of the people who have lost faith in them.
The tourney hosted by southern Idaho this past weekend was canceled due to miss communication.
“They thought that we didn’t confirm with them about us attending the tournament, I feel bad for the girls who were really looking forward to this and if really hurts our pre-season schedule by us loosing games” the coach said.
