Unbeaten weekend provides confidence boost for stretch run

By Lauren Engleman
Junior, OH/OPP

Getting two victories this past weekend was great for the program because we’re that much closer to getting back to the MAC Tournament. Kent State hasn’t been able to do that in awhile, so we keep working toward our goal of #11.22.

Winning back-to-back 5-setters is rough on the body and mind. For us, it was a big confidence boost and also let us know that we can push through even when the odds are against us. We didn’t have the momentum in either match after losing that 4th set, but found a way to fight back and get the win.

Sweeping Akron was great for us, especially doing it for the first time since 2009. It’s always great to beat your rival, and I’m really glad we were able to get the win for our seniors.

Personally, I’ve played more the last few matches than I had been previously in conference. I’m so excited to help carry the team to a victory. The coaches gave me an opportunity at the end of our match against Western Michigan, and I was able get kills on all 4 of my attempts. That gave me the confidence to believe that I can help the team.

For these last 4 matches, we have to keep the momentum going in our favor. We need to keep pulling out wins in close sets like we have been and just keeping focusing a little more during those moments where we’re down. 

Wrapping up elementary school visits

As part of a community outreach initiative, members of the Kent State volleyball program have visited elementary schools in the Kent City School District throughout the Fall. Friday marked the fourth and final visit for the Golden Flashes, as members of the team went to Longcoy Elementary to spend time with the students at the school.

Freshmen Payton Moore and Drew Norberg were along for three of the four school visits and reflected back on those experiences.

Payton Moore

For the last trip, they were having their Halloween parties. I started off in a classroom and was at a station where they did this experiment to show density. You pour cornstarch, water and other different liquids and then you see them rise to the top.

Every time that we’ve gone and walked into a classroom, they would get all excited. Usually Liz was with us and they’re not used to seeing a girl that tall. Whenever it would be time to leave, you could tell they didn’t want us to go. Like today, they were on the playground and were screaming “Bye!” at us. I think it just makes their day.

I think the schools were really happy to have us there too. They all told us, “We always get the male athletes. We never get the females athletes here.” So I think interacting with the students was especially important for the girls that like playing sports since we can relate to them better than guys can.

Drew Norberg

I started off today working with a PE class. We stretched with them and overlooked the activities they were doing and got to talk to them a little bit. Then we want into some of the classrooms and read to them. We read Oh, the Places You’ll Go! By Dr. Seuss and asked them questions about it.

Overall, I think it’s been a really good experience visiting with the students. The teachers are trying to get them to realize that playing a college sport is something that they can do someday and that their education is really important, along with their physical activity. I think its’ good for them to meet actual college athletes and hear from us that they can do it as well.

Setting up for a strong finish and return to SPIRE

By Ola Nowak
Senior, Setter

When I heard that I reached 3,000 assists, it was a nice surprise because that is something I don’t keep track of. A big reason that I have been able to accomplish this is because our team has gotten better from when I came here. Obviously, I couldn’t achieve this without my teammates.

I feel like a big reason for the success that we have had this year is because of how close we are as a team. The communication and chemistry on the team got better. We got to know each other better and we feel each other better on the court.

Defense has been something that we’ve done well to help us win matches. In the beginning of preseason, we emphasized defense mostly, and that’s what has kept us going. The big long rallies that we have from getting lots of digs gives us a lot of confidence. We saw how we can beat teams by making them tired because we are digging more balls than last year. Obviously, our hitters are doing a better job of putting balls way this year as well.

Last weekend was a little bit rough, but we are making sure that we pick things up to prepare and get ready for this weekend. We watched the film from last 2 matches to see our mistakes and try to eliminate them. Our goal is still to get to the MAC Tournament and we know what we have to do to get there.

Life as a freshman student-athlete (Part 2)

Today is the second of a two-part entry in which our freshmen discuss their first year as a college student-athlete. This year's four freshmen all came to Kent State from different states, spanning from Florida in the South to California on the West Coast.

Maddie Moxley

My time so far at Kent State has been a mixture of emotions and experiences. Moving this far away from home has been hard, but very rewarding. I feel like I have been coming into my own person because of it. When I get homesick, my teammates are always there for me. It has only been two months and already I have lost track of how many times I’ve thought to myself how lucky I am to have the teammates and coaches that I have.

Learning to manage my time with classes, tests, trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, and studying took some getting used to, but after the first week of travel and preseason I finally settled into my routine. I feel like I have everything figured out now and have been focused on school and volleyball.  

One of the most stressful things about the first two weeks was being undeclared in my major. Initially, I had no Idea what it was that I wanted to major in. After my first week of my Intro to Psychology class and a great conversation with one of our seniors, Hannah Herc, I finally declared Psychology as my major. I don’t think I would have been as interested in the subject had it not been for Hannah, but now I am ecstatic about my major and all of my future classes at Kent!!!

Bianca Cifaldi

I really like it here. I was super nervous coming in because I have a big family at home and knew I was going to get homesick. I was definitely homesick a lot at first, but it’s been a lot easier to deal with as I’ve grown closer with all of the girls. Friendships on the team grew very quickly. It didn’t take time for it to get not awkward and we all just kind of fit right in.

Our teams understands that we all do things a lot differently. Usually when you’re with a team, you’re with them for a longer period of time, but being new, you have to get used to everyone and how they react to certain things. I feel like this team does a really good job of it. We all celebrate different and are intense in different ways, but we all deal with it and feed off of it.

Usually I’ not really big in school, but I’ve taken it super seriously and I’m enjoying it. I feel like playing volleyball is helpful for me. If I was just a student, I would feel like I have a lot more free time to do whatever I want and wouldn’t be able to manage my time as efficiently. But being a student-athlete, I definitely take my time more seriously. When I have to be doing homework, I’m doing homework, and that usually doesn’t happen with me. But I’m getting the hang of it.

I definitely realized that I wasn’t in high school anymore when went I went to my lecture class for psychology and there were 400 students and it took me by surprise.

Looking back on an upset…and moving forward with eyes on MAC Tournament return

By Hannah Herc
Senior, Libero

Last night was unbelievable!!!!! I’m just really proud of my team. Beating a ranked team is what we’ve been working on since I got here. OU is always #1 in the conference and we’ve gone 5 games with them and lost in the past. Just beating them gives the team a whole new confidence, letting us know that we do have the ability if we work together to beat anybody.

I think the win kind of puts Kent State on the map. Finally, people are talking about Kent State volleyball and not just all the other sports teams we have. We’re finally being recognized, which is nice. Our crowds have been great this year, and I think that has really helped us. Having the support there makes us want to make Kent State proud. Their cheering and yelling gets the other team rattled and adds to the energy that we already bring to the court. It’s so awesome to feel loved!!!

Let the celebration begin!

Our team has grown a lot, even from Buffalo and BG matches. In both of those, we came out and won the first game and then lost the next 3. I think we were sick of that and really learned from it and were able to fight back last night and not let a bigger team that is supposedly a better team beat us down.

We’re focusing more on not getting caught up in the point and getting better every point rather than focusing on the end result. We just feel that if we work hard every point, and just try to get better during the game that it’s going to be the outcome that we want.

We have practice today, so we have to stay focused. We can’t let 1 win get to our heads because we still have a lot of MAC play to go. We need to go about today like it’s any other day and just focus on getting better to get back to the MAC Tournament. 

Kent State defeated #18 Ohio 3-1 for the volleyball program's
first ever win over a nationally-ranked opponent.