2021 Volleyball Season Preview
LIBERAL, Kan.- The Lady Saints Volleyball program starts the season ranked third in the NJCAA D1 volleyball rankings and predicted to win the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) West in the latest Coaches Poll. With a new leader at the helm, Coach Geno Frugoli receives notable respect from peers and the national committee members in his inaugural season.
In the 2019 season, the Lady Saints finished with a 32-2 overall record and was the 2019 National Runner-up. Coach Frugoli discusses how it feels to be nationally recognized early in his first season, "Well I think it is welcome to Seward because excellence has been here for many years and I feel like this year is no different." Frugoli added, "Even though the ranking is nice we have to live up to it. My mindset is we are going to work hard every day and take each game as they come."
There are three returning Sophomores from the historical team a year ago with Grecia Soriano, Livia De Pra, and Ariana Arciniega. To start the 2020 Fall semester the Lady Saints had just five student-athletes on their roster and brought on six additional student-athletes to start the 2021 Spring semester. In three short weeks of practice, the Lady Saints have been able to get to know each other on and off the court.
Coach Frugoli has added big hitters to the roster, "Seyun Park has become an explosive hitter that we will be counting on. So is Gabriela Badilla she is someone that can take over for some of the outside hitters that were here in the past."
The Lady Saints will start the season with a conference match next Monday (January 25th, 2021) at Barton Community College. Barton finished third in the KJCCC last season and voted to place third in this year's Coaches Poll. The Lady Saints have six matches in the first week, four out of those six matches will be against teams ranked nationally in the top 14.
"Right after we play Independence, we have a tournament with four teams in the top 14. We play those games in two days and back to back which makes it a very difficult schedule." Coach Frugoli discussed the strength of the schedule that awaits in week one.
At the start of the season, there will be no fans allowed into the matches. The Conference will meet on February 1st to vote on fan participation for the remainder of the season. When more information is available, we will make it available to the public.