Sports
Key volleyball contributors return
By Robert Fitzgerald '20
September 1, 2016
Tags sports
The Hamilton volleyball team, led by Head Coach Erin Glaser, will look to bounce back from a disappointing 2015 campaign, in whcih the team sported a 6-18 record. Having gone just 1-9 in NESCAC conference play, the team will look to bounce back and emulate the success of their impressive 15-12 2014 season, which included four conference wins and an extremely close quarterfinal loss against eventual NESCAC champions, Williams.
The Continentals have plenty to be excited about heading into the fast-approaching 2016 season. Having graduated just one senior, Jamie Granskie ’16, the team will retain almost all of their key contributors from the previous season. The has also grown with the addition of several first-year recruits and the continued development of the remainder of the roster. Offensively, the personnel remains largely the same from the 2015 season. In 2015, outside hitter Erin Donahue ’18 (3.0 points per set) and middle hitter Jessica Weston ’17 (2.7 points per set) were just two of three Continentals, along with Granskie to play in all 91 sets.
Now, the junior and senior will try to once again lead their team in kills and points per set. Assisting these two, as well as many more attackers, will be a task primarily handled by setters Kyndal Burdin ’18 and Meghan Wilkinson ’19. The pair finished ninth and 11th in total assists in the conference last year, respectively. At a towering height of 6’3”, Weston is likely to continue to produce on defense as well as offense. She and fellow six-footer middle hitter Margaret O’Brien ’18 (sixth in Total Blocks across the NESCAC last year) both had double digit solo blocks in 2015, and will look to do more of the same this fall. Someone on defense will have to fill the large shoes left by defensive specialist Granskie, who finished 3rd in the conference with 4.56 digs/set. Among others, Tayzia Santiago ’19 and Jenna Donovan ’19 will need to find a way to match Granskie’s fantastic production for the team.
The Continentals open their season on Sept. 6, where at Morrisville State. All-important conference play begins just 10 days later, when Hamilton will visit the Cardinals of Wesleyan University the night of Sept. 16. The Hamilton faithful with have to wait until Oct. 4 for the team’s home opener at Margaret Bundy Scott Field House. The contest on Oct. 4 will be the first of six consecutive home games, a stretch which includes contests against reigning NESCAC Champion Bowdoin on Oct. 8 and 2014 Conference Champion Williams College on Oct. 14. In line for a comeback campaign, the Hamilton volleyball team will need to battle through a tough NESCAC schedule and win a few marquee matchups at home if they want to make their way to the Conference Championship Weekend, as they did in 2014. While the task will not be easy, there are plenty of reasons to believe that it can be done.