The San Jose State women’s volleyball team is ready to play this spring season with a new coaching staff and head coach, Trent Kersten, who is focused on rebuilding the team.
“We’re a program that’s going to roll our sleeves up and get it done,” Kersten said over Zoom. “And if we don’t get it done the first day, fine. We’ll get it done at night, too.”
The last season of play for women’s volleyball was 2019 when the team finished with a record of (10-19, 5-13 MWC). The 2020 season was postponed to this spring because of the coronavirus pandemic.
SJSU was scheduled to begin its season against Boise State at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, but the two-match series was shifted to Thursday and Friday, according to SJSU Athletics.
Match 1 will be played on Thursday at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont while Match 2 will be played at Spartan Gym in San Jose on Friday.
Kersten said SJSU is looking forward to playing Boise State because their team has faced similar challenges to our own team.
“I think they’re ready to compete, you know, and we’re just excited to be able to play a match despite the current COVID circumstances and all the hurdles that we’ve had to overcome,” Kersten said.
Despite the setbacks caused by the pandemic, the women’s volleyball team said it isn’t dismayed and is prepared for the 2021 season. Middle blocker Haylee Nelson, who was a 2019
All-Mountain West honoree, believes the team has improved.
“[Kersten] took where we were at and kind of just rolled with it and helped improve each one of our skills as leaders, as people, as volleyball players,” Nelson said over Zoom. “That’s what’s helping us strive to be better, and coming into a season off of a bad season with higher hopes.”
Libero Sarah Smevog said 2019 was not the team’s best season.
“But now we are moving forward with new coaching staff, new systems, some new girls and so we’re just really excited to move on and prove ourselves this upcoming season,” Smevog said over Zoom.
Kersten is focusing on the fundamentals of volleyball this season to create a fresh start for players to improve.
Smevog, who was recently named to the 2021 Spring Preseason All-Mountain West volleyball team, said focusing on the basics is important to form a strong foundation to build upon as a team.
“Something that we emphasize in practice a lot is serving and passing and it’s just the fundamentals of volleyball, really,” she said. “If we get good at serving and passing, the rest will just fall into place.”
The team believes they are at the best point they can be this season regardless of strict COVID-19 restrictions.
“We have to stay in our bubble,” Smevog said. We can’t really visit family, visit friends, visit boyfriends, anything like that.”
Nelson said even though some teams have fewer restrictions, SJSU is prepared to face off against them.
“I mean, everyone wishes that they could practice [more], I think in this situation,” Nelson said. “But for us, I think it’s been important that [Kersten] keeps reminding us that [restrictions aren’t] going to stop us.”
She believes her team has studied its opponents well even if other teams may have practiced more.
“We’ve studied teams on Zoom for the past two weeks, pretty much every night,” Nelson said. “So I think that the aspect of not having enough time to train isn’t something that we’re going to let hold us back.”
The 2020 women’s volleyball season is shaping up to be an exciting one.
Smevog said she expects her team to exceed all expectations this season.
“I think that the quality of our practices and how hard we’ve been working with every practice we’ve had is going to pay off and that just means that we’re going to peak later in the season which is great,” Smevog said.
