Andrea Hannasch has high expectations for the team. | antonio zaragoza, photo editor

Don’t be fooled by the early months of the season — despite the fact that it’s still very early in the campaign, junior middle blocker Andrea Hannasch has already been a tremendous standout player for the women’s San Diego State volleyball team. Hannasch, along with the rest of the SDSU volleyball squad, has proven that it is not going to be an easy team to beat this year. It is clear how badly Hannasch wants to prove this, by coming into each game with consistent hard spikes and blocks that have been difficult for opposing teams to respond to.

To start this season, Hannasch was named MVP of this year’s Aztec Invitational. It was an award she was proud to receive.

“Felt amazing,” Hannasch said. “Definitely a surprise but it was such an honor to receive that at our home tournament.”

With only one loss to Tulane and wins so far against UC Irvine, Portland, Nevada and William & Mary, SDSU stands with a solid record of 4-1. Hannasch, along with the rest of the Aztecs, is looking forward to performing consistently throughout the season.

“Our expectations are very high this year,” Hannasch said. “We’re looking to win the Mountain West and really make a name for ourselves. It’s a big jump from where we’ve been in the past but we know we can do it as a team.”

With the team dedicating several hours into extra conditioning at practices, things are looking up for SDSU as it launches into the season.

“We’ve conditioned more than we ever have going into the season, which has made a big difference,” Hannasch said.

Another key aspect to the team’s success thus far has been discipline. “We’ve put a lot of focus on discipline this year,” she said. “We’re working on being much more consistent during practice and after a really tough but successful preseason, going into games was the easy part.”

The ladies will put their hard work to the test once again when they play against Kansas on Friday in the DePaul Invitational in Chicago.