SDSU women’s volleyball faces tough challenges with a young team

The Aztecs lost all three matches at the Aztec Classic this weekend to fall to 2-7.

by Abigail Segoviano, Contributor • September 12, 2022

Sports

Senior opposite Kayla Rivera attacks during the second set of San Diego State’s second game of the Aztec Classic on Friday, Sept. 9 at Aztec Court at Peterson Gym in San Diego, Calif. SDSU dropped their second match of the day to the University of Arizona Wildcats 3-0.

San Diego State volleyball (2-7) hosted the Aztec Classic this past weekend but unfortunately lost all three matches. Although they lost their matches, the energy of the crowd and teammates was wild.

Throughout the weekend, the Aztecs lost to Maryland (6-3) with a score of 1-3 and Arizona (7-1) with a score of 0-3 on Friday, Sept. 9. To close the Aztec Classic, they lost against Sacramento State (3-6) with a score of 2-3 on Saturday, Sept. 10.

This past weekend the energy was immaculate with the SDSU band playing, the dance team performing, and the cheerleaders cheering on the Scarlet and Black. Despite the disappointing outcomes, head coach Brent Hillard said the team has to stay confident.

“We know we are a young team, we know we have about 4-5 freshmen on the court at all times. They have to continue with belief and trust,” head coach Brent Hillard said. “Emotionally they can’t get too down when things don’t go their way”.

With this only being the preseason, the Aztecs are trying to improve and fix any techniques they need to fix before conference play.

“We want to be ready for conference and we challenged ourselves with a lot of Big 12, Pac 12, Big 10 Teams that are very good and strong athletes,” Hillard said. “We went a different route than a lot of teams that we played against in our conference and hopefully, that will help prepare us. That we will find out our gaps and our places that we need improvement sooner as opposed to feeling a false sense of superiority.”

Elly Schraeder, a sophomore transfer from USD, had 13 kills throughout the tournament. Elly has a great energetic spirit that brings the court to life when the Scarlet and Black are falling behind.

“We just have a really strong bond between each of our teammates and when someone does something amazing, all I want to do is cheer and celebrate for them,” Schraeder said when asked how she cheers up the team. “Even when we are not getting the points we need, just playing against people that I enjoy being next to helps.”

Now, the number one enemy for the Scarlet and Black team is the clock.

“We are just a young team and a young program. Our base enemy right now is time, the fact that we haven’t had enough of it together,” Schraeder said. “When you think about it, we are playing some big teams so it’s a good learning spot for us. It’s preseason, we could just take what we are learning now and use it for the conference season.”

The Aztecs will return this Thursday, Sept. 15 to play against UCLA in Peterson Gym at 7 p.m. The Aztecs will be giving out t-shirts to the first 250 fans.

About the Contributors

Abigail Segoviano, '24-25 Mundo Azteca Editor

Originally from Richmond, California, Abigail Segoviano is a second-year student, majoring in Journalism with a minor in Spanish. This is Abigail’s second year at the Daily Aztec where she got the opportunity to expand her writing skills as a journalist. As a staff writer last year she had the opportunity to mainly cover the entire season of women’s volleyball and also covered a couple of games for women’s basketball. This year her main focus is to branch out and write for different sports. Additionally to get involved in other sections such as Multimedia and Mundo Azteca. Abigail is the Vice President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (SDSU Chapter). Abigail received an award from The Daily Aztec: “Consistent Contributor.” In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching sports, listening to music, and going on adventures with friends.

Eric Evelhoch, '23-24 Sports Editor

Eric Evelhoch (he/him/his) is a senior media studies major who was born outside of Detroit, Michigan, and lived in Ventura County, California, for a decade-plus. He is a returning college student and transfer from Santa Barbara City College, where he served as Sports Editor for The Channels. Evelhoch is also a Sports Director for KCR College Radio, where he restarted play-by-play coverage post-pandemic. Currently, he serves as the play-by-play broadcaster for the SDSU ACHA DI hockey team and has filled in on the call for Aztecs sports on the Mountain West Network. His prior freelance experience includes print, digital, online video and audio-only, and broadcast radio formats covering football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer and volleyball.