Story by Keenan Hall
Staff writer
Murray State’s volleyball team will open the season in the New Orleans Invitational this weekend with three matches in two days.
The Racers will face off against the Houston Cougars first at 3 p.m. Friday at the Human Performance Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. They’ll have a quick turnaround, with two matches Saturday against the Omaha Mavericks at 10 a.m. and the New Orleans Privateers at 5 p.m.
Starting the season, the Racers were voted the top team in the OVC while nabbing three players on the preseason All-OVC team. In second place, the Austin Peay Governors finished behind the Racers by only three votes. Southern Illinois University finished third in voting.
The dynamic duo of junior outside hitter Rachel Giustino and junior right-side hitter Rachel Holthaus were voted to the preseason All-OVC team. The third player voted on the preseason All-OVC team was former OVC freshman of the year and sophomore middle blocker Katirah Johnson
Giustino led the team last season with 469 kills, and led the OVC with 4.01 kills per set. Giustino also tied Johnson with a team-high 55 blocks last season. Holthaus finished second on the team with 2.42 kills per set, and third on the Racers scoring 242 kills on the season.
Last season, the Racers fell in a tough, five-set battle in the OVC tournament championship against Austin Peay.
Head Coach David Schwepker doesn’t think his team is completely prepared for the weekend, but hopes to see an effort to perfect the things they’ve been drilling in the preseason and practice.
“Do I feel we are prepared? Not at all,” Schwepker said. “But hopefully things we’ve been working on I will see that we are doing those. Also, come back with a million more things that we have to fix.”
In the mean time, Schwepker has placed an increased emphasis on perfecting the process.
“We’re not trying to get everything done by this weekend,” Schwepker said. “We’re just doing part of a game here, a part of a game there. Because I feel like it’s better to fix one thing and then go on to the next, as opposed to doing a little bit of everything, and we really get nothing done.”
The Racers will have a slew of road matches before their first home game at 1 p.m. Sept. 29 against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels in Racer Arena. Schwepker hopes Racer supporters are in full effect come late September.