By Mike Pugliese
Assistant Sports Information Director

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - With eight incoming freshmen and nearly an entirely new team, Bard College women's volleyball, led by head coach Stefanie Carrington, is looking forward to the possibility of getting back out on the court this year.

Despite the uncertainties surrounding the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Carrington and the team remain optimistic. The most recent update is that there is the possibility of three dates of competition in the spring, which gives the team anywhere from three to six matches. In the meantime, the Raptors have been practicing outside on North Field, because the Stevenson Athletic Center remains closed.

More than anything, the team was excited about coming back and being able to work together after months away.

"It feels great," Carrington said. "I'm excited, I know the team is excited to just be playing volleyball. We have our challenges and things are definitely different than they normally are, but just the fact that we're able to play and be together is great."

Senior Mikala L'Hote echoed the coach, saying, "It definitely feels refreshing. Although the semester and the season are not structured in the same way I have grown used to these past four years, it's very nice to come back to some sort of routine. Something about getting back into the groove of things, anything at this point, is a comforting change of pace."

Although the team was disappointed to learn that they would not be able to compete as scheduled in the fall, senior Stella Gatti says they did not let that discourage them.

It was definitely a huge disappointment not being able to compete or play indoors because I'm a senior and have been looking forward to my final season," Gatti said. "However, the enthusiasm to play and get better is still totally there among both the returners and the freshmen. We are still lifting and running our practices how we normally would, and it has been great to see that having no prospects of competition has not affected how seriously we all take the sport and also how much we enjoy playing together."

Carrington has been happy with the effort she's seeing in practice.

"They bring the energy every single day," she said. "They treat every practice almost like it is a competition. When we do scrimmages or games where they're competing against each other, they go hard and they treat it like it's the biggest game of their lives. They do such a good job with that."

There was plenty of praise to go around for the eight newcomers as well. As part of the biggest freshman class the program has produced in over a decade, the incoming class will play a major role in the direction of the program in the coming years. Carrington has been impressed from the very beginning, citing their enthusiasm for the sport as something that stands out to her.

Honestly, as a group, their energy is probably the most impressive thing," she said. "I think they could have gone a number of ways. They could have come in nervous, they could have come in unsure, and they really came in and bonded as a group and brought an energy to practice that I think is something I maybe haven't even seen in my time here yet. Their energy and enthusiasm for the sport and for each other is awesome."

L'Hote noted that while building chemistry with the new members of the team is going to be the most important thing, she too is excited to work with them in her senior year.

"Meeting new people and learning how to play next to them is not something that comes easily overnight; it takes time to build up trust and confidence in one another, on and off the court." L'Hote said. "Our team has been very close-knit in the past, which has inherently affected our gameplay for the better, but we have to start from the ground up this year. These girls are awesome. They came in with a great attitude and a willingness to learn and train with the hopes to put the skills they are learning now toward their future seasons with the program. I am very excited to see the progress and impact they make on the team in the coming years."

When asked about what she would like to see accomplished in the event that the team takes the court this year, Carrington believes the team can improve across the board.

"Every year I talk about being better than the year before, so I'd love to see that." she said. "Wins and losses are obviously the way that the outside eye would look at this season and compare it to last year, but I think if we can get out there and say 'Hey, our energy is better than last year, we're producing more offensively than we were last year, defensively we're better,' any of those things I think can mark forward progress and improvement. Given the struggles we've had and having to deal with this pandemic, I think moving forward in any of those areas would be a win."

Carrington has one other top priority.

"More than anything I hope that for my seniors we're able to at least take the court one more time, so we can celebrate them and come together and compete."