Photo by Sam Thiel Members of the SMSU volleyball team celebrate after scoring a point during their Oct. 20, 2018 match against Northern State University. The Mustangs begin their season with high hopes of making it to their 16th straight NCAA Tournament.

MARSHALL – Another quest is underway on the hardwood floors of the PE Gym, as the Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball team has spent the last week breaking in the new season.

For senior Erin Corrigan, it’s a little bit of a mixed reaction.

“It’s super bittersweet, the last few years have flown by but I’m very excited,” Corrigan said. “I think that we have a great dynamic and it’s going to be another good year.”

The Mustangs had another strong run last season, posting an overall record of 23-9 and reaching the NCAA Central Region tournament before falling to Concordia-St. Paul.

SMSU coach Terry Culhane said the beginning of a new season is an interesting time of the year and they’re looking forward to new challenges.

“It’s always interesting when you start a season and you have a lot of the same players, but every year you have some change,” Culhane said. “But we’re looking forward to the challenge and we still have a number of kids who are veterans that played quite a bit last year. Hopefully we see improvement and move forward.”

One of those challenges will unfold when SMSU takes the floor for their first match in early September, there will be a couple of noticeable players missing, with Division II Honda Female Athlete of the Year Taylor Reiss and All-NSIC second team member Kaylee Burmeister having graduated this past spring.

Culhane added Reiss and Burmeister left an instrumental mark on the program with their ability to play any position and knows that it won’t be an instantaneous change with filling their spots.

“The biggest thing for those two is they did so many things for us; they were six rotation players, they both hit for a lot of their careers and more importantly, they would pass-serve and defend, so they were in the game all of the time,” Culhane said. “Those kids are hard to find where you have six rotation players, so that’ll be the process for us, just trying to figure out who’s going to take some of those responsibilities.”

The returners

The Mustangs will have another pair of seniors helping lead the charge this season, with Corrigan and Jenna Walczak anchoring the leadership roles. Corrigan patrolled the back row once again last season, recording 265 digs as well as 13 service aces while Walczak had 15 kills and four blocks in eight matches from the right side.

Corrigan said it’ll be a new role for both her and Walczak as leaders, but is excited for the challenge.

“Jenna and I have been doing everything together since we have gotten here, so it’s crazy that we’re seniors and we have a leadership spot,” Corrigan said. “I think that’s going to be a part of our spot on the team because there’s a lot of competition, so I’m excited to get into that different type of role.”

Walczak added that it’s not just the seniors that have stepped up and been leaders.

“I think all of our classes have stepped up, even the freshmen coming in, they’ve all stepped up and have been leaders,” she said.

Also coming back this season are juniors Emma Thomssen, Payton Hjerleid, Sarina Smith, Caedyn Reinhardt, Zoe Lier and Angela Young. Young was second on the team in kills last year with 332 and had a hitting percentage of .270 while Smith was fourth in kills (262) and led the team with a .308 hitting percentage. Reinhardt had 37 kills and 29 total blocks while Lier posted 16 kills and 18 digs and Hjerleid added 217 total digs and 45 set assists. In her first season as a starter, Thomssen recorded 1,410 set assists, including a season-high 61 on a pair of occasions.

Culhane said they’ll look to their upperclassmen to contribute a lot as the season progresses.

“Erin has played three years in a regular position as a right back defender and that’s important for us and Jenna’s been around for the three years and has played sporadically,” Culhane said. “Our junior class with Angela Young, she had a great year as an outside for us last year opposite Taylor and hopefully we can keep her in the game longer for a potential six rotations. And then we have some front row players between Sarina, Caedyn and our setter is back in Emma, so we have a lot of players in that class that have contributed or we’re hoping can contribute but we’ll have to wait and see how that all shakes out.”

Rounding out the returning players for SMSU are sophomores Sydney Omtvedt, Meg Schmidt and Lexi Ferrell.

New beginnings

As many athletes around the country are getting their seasons underway, last week’s practices marked a new beginning for SMSU’s latest freshman class. Three newcomers join the Mustangs this season in outside hitter Rachel Fink, setter Alisa Bengen and middle blocker Lydia Sussner.

Sussner, who is the most recent player in the Minneota-SMSU connection, said she’s excited to get the season underway.

“It feels so good, we’re having so much fun, we’re a really competitive group so we go after each other but it’s a lot of fun,” she said.

After helping lead the Vikings to a pair of state championship appearances, including a title last season, Sussner said the biggest learning curve between the high school and college game is the speed of play and added she sharpened her footwork and got stronger throughout the offseason to prepare.

“I think just the speed of the game, it tends to pick up the higher the level you get to,” Sussner said. “I worked on my footwork and just did a lot of lifting and trying to get stronger and keep myself healthy.”

Fink, who comes from Rochester Century High School and the Janesville, Iowa native Bengen, will also look to hit the ground running.

“Alisa we think will be very capable of pushing Emma in the process and give us depth in that position,” Culhane said. “And then Rachel will probably see some time on the court, especially in serve-receive, she’s a good passer and that’s really hard to replace so she should be in a good position to find playing time.”

Road trip

Once again, SMSU begins its season with a lengthy road trip, traveling to Houghton, Michigan, to play in the Michigan Tech Classic on Sept. 5-7 before heading West to Denver, Colorado, for the Colorado Premier Challenge on Sept. 13-14. Last season, the Mustangs split four games in Florida before taking three of four in Colorado to start things off.

As they start their quest for a 16th consecutive appearance in the Region tournament, Culhane is aware of the hurdles that lay in front of them with a competitive conference, but said as long as they play as a unit and continue to improve each day, they’ll have a strong shot at reaching their goal.

“Obviously it is a challenge and we know that our conference doesn’t get any weaker, so we just need to try and get better in practice and come together as a group and find a way to win some matches,” Culhane said. “There will be a lot of hard-fought matches, and how we react to that will help answer the question of us possibly making the region. That’s always our No. 1 goal, to make the regional tournament and we’ll see how that all shakes out.”