Women's Volleyball | 08.13.2019

LEWISTON, Idaho – After finishing the 2018 season 17-9, coach Shaun Pohlman and Lewis-Clark State volleyball are ready to take on their final season in the Frontier Conference. The season begins on Wednesday when the Warriors travel to Walla Walla University for a 6 p.m. match. They then head to Ashland, Oregon for the Southern Oregon Tournament before coming home to host the Red Lion Invitational Aug. 30-31.
 
LAST SEASON
The Warriors completed one of the best seasons in the past 10 years in Pohlman's first year at the helm. With a 10-2 start to the season, LC volleyball bounced back from two opening losses with an eight-game winning streak. They finished fourth in the Frontier Conference regular season before falling to Rocky Mountain College in the conference semifinal. Seniors Rachel Gregg, Lauren West and Aubrey King were voted All-Frontier Conference.
 
"Last year, some of our influences came from everyone being new to everyone," Pohlman said. "While I had spent the off-season with my returning players, none of them spent a season with me. We spent a lot of time clarifying acceptable standards of effort and behavior, and we had many players ask a lot of questions, which is great, but it slowed down the time we had together and I feel we didn't get as much out of our practices as I would have liked. There were many times we didn't get to everything we had planned.
 
"So far this season, we have only had that happen once, and I believe that is, in part, due to staff returning," Pohlman explained. "I prioritized expenses and time to spend the weekend at a coaching clinic together and that really put us all on the same page. Secondary to that, we just have more players who had played for us last year. Practices are more productive because more people are on the same page. This is allowing us to understand the system better although, with eight newcomers, we still have quite a ways to go before we are completely on the same page."
 
ON THE COURT
This year's roster includes four freshmen, four sophomores, four juniors and five seniors. The Warriors return eight players from last year's roster as well as one student-athlete who joined the program after the season.
 
"Leadership starts with us as a coaching staff and then the returning group," Pohlman said. "If our returners do not provide leadership, the newcomers will do whatever they want and it becomes total anarchy. As a group, our returners have done a good job leading thus far and I believe they will continue to grow in those roles as the season progresses."
 
The Warriors return multiple statistical leaders as well, including Sydney Lawrence who led the team in hitting percentage (.290) and digs leader Gionni Brown (455).
 
FRONTIER CONFERENCE
The Warriors will open up conference play on Sept. 19 when they host MSU-Northern. They will welcome in defending conference champion Providence on Sept. 21 before heading to Billings, Montana for a rematch with Rocky Mountain College of Sept. 27. Senior Day will be held on Nov. 2 when Montana Western comes to Lewiston.
 
LC volleyball was voted fifth in the preseason Frontier Conference coach's poll, but the ranking does not faze Pohlman.
 
"I feel that there are many teams that have proven themselves more worthy of a higher spot over the years compared to LC and they have pretty strong recruiting classes," he said. "I'm not going to concern myself too much about it knowing that, and look forward to the opportunity of proving ourselves. I'm glad the conference doesn't just hand out respect, and that will set the tone for us this season – we will have to earn it."