Volleyball

TJ SCOTT Sports Reporter @iamtjs_

The 2019 season was one plagued with turmoil and losses for the Missouri State volleyball team.

After parting ways with long-time head coach Melissa Stokes due to NCAA violations, the team suffered its worst record in program history, finishing 10-22 on the season.

It took some time to find a replacement for the winningest coach in program history, and they found that with coach Steven McRoberts.

McRoberts holds a 587-245 record in his 23 years of head coaching experience at Lubbock Christian, Central Arkansas, Tulsa, and Ole Miss. He also has 21 winning seasons.

McRoberts is aware of the program’s lack of success last year and is prepared to return the program to its winning ways.

“It’s our plan to have a bounce-back season,” McRoberts said. “This program expects it. There’s a lot of pride in the program.”

The Bears will have 10 returning players from the 2019 season and seven new recruits, pushing the roster total to 17 players.

“The only thing I know is to prepare these young ladies the best I can and do it through hard work,” McRoberts said. “We really do have a great group of young ladies.”

Even with adding seven new players, the team lost two key players to transfer. Junior Laynie Dake, the team’s kill leader in 2019, and sophomore Chloe Rear will not return to MSU this season.

“The first thing you want is players that are 100% bought

File Photo by Christian Cuozzo/THE STANDARD The Bears celebrate after winning the fifth set against Bradley University in November 2019.

into you, the program and the university,” McRoberts said. “I wish those players well, but if we want to bounce back we can’t do it with players who have one foot in the water.”

Even with being eager and having faith in the team, McRoberts acknowledges the struggles that the COVID-19 pandemic poses.

“It’s going to be a tough transition, I’m not going to lie,” McRoberts said. “We’ve probably had maybe 10 practices under our belt together. We were really going to get it going after spring break, but we didn’t get that opportunity.”

Another area that COVID-19 has impacted is recruiting.

McRoberts said that there has been a lot of virtual recruiting through video tours of the campus and facilities as well as watching films of the recruits.

“I’m confident that we have players coming in that are go ing to help us,” McRoberts said. “We took our time on a lot of these players and I feel confident with the grouping we’re going to put out there in the fall.”

With distancing restrictions in place, the team has found unique ways for the team to bond and build chemistry in preparation for the upcoming season.

“The main thing is communication,” McRoberts said. “We’ve been doing Zoom calls every Monday and Thursday.”

Along with their regular Zoom sessions, the team has done team and culture building exercises.

“We went through a book with each other called ‘Chop Wood Carry Water.’ It’s a great team-building book,” McRoberts said. “We do ‘what went well Wednesday.’ You shoot a video or take a picture and tell the team what’s going well on that day.”

As for the physical preparation for the season, McRoberts and his staff have supplied the team with exercise material and they will be given a summer program as well.

“The ones that can get to a weight room — it will be im portant for them to do that,” McRoberts said. “The ones that can’t — they’ll need to do a lot of bodyweight stuff. We need to be physically ready to go.”

The schedule is subject to change due to COVID-19, but McRoberts is still looking forward to every match.

“I’m excited for the first one, McRoberts said. “That’s going to be exciting for us to see how the season goes.”

The Bears play their home games in the Hammons Student Center right next door to JQH Arena.