FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Birgitta Gray O: (406) 896-5917 E: birgitta.gray@msubillings.edu
August 25, 2015 Yellowjacket volleyball season preview
MSUB head coach Lisa Axel sees a lot of positives during the Yellowjacket preseason. With more new players than returning, this season will be a mesh of experienced ability combined with untested talent. BILLINGS, Mont. – Coming off a season where the team had the program’s best win in its history, the MSU Billings volleyball squad looks to a few new players to build on a key core base. The 2014 Yellowjacket volleyball program picked up some significant wins against conference opponents last season, including #11 Western Washington, and MSUB finished sixth overall in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with an 8-10 record, 13-14 overall. With 11 teams competing in the GNAC this year, the Yellowjackets were picked to finish ninth in the conference in the preseason coaches’ poll released Monday. Alaska Anchorage came out atop the poll with 92 points, edging out last year’s top-finishing team Northwest Nazarene which came in second with 85 points. “We need to be consistent,” MSUB head coach Lisa Axel said. “We had some huge wins last season and then we faltered during some matches. We were able to play at that high level, but it’s a hard conference. There are no off nights where you have an easy opponent; everybody is a tough opponent. We need to go into each match in battle mode every time we step out onto the court.”