The Virginia Peninsula Community College volleyball program is starting its third season, but first in the National Junior College Athletic Association. The Gators’ coach and players are embracing being a part of history.
“Our coach today had a talk with us about starting a legacy,” Ashleigh Yost, one of two returning players, said Thursday. “It’s definitely exciting to step into those shoes knowing you’re the first. I feel like every girl here wants to leave their mark.”
That will start Wednesday, Aug. 28, when the Gators open the season at home against Bryant & Stratton.
“We’re a stronger team than we were last year,” said coach Tommy Thomas, who led the Gators to a 3-4 record and a third-place finish in the New South Athletic Conference tournament in 2023, his first at the helm.
Yost, a 5-11 outside hitter from Smithfield, agreed.
“We’re already better this year, and we just started, than we were last year,” she said.
She attributes that to having more hitters than last year, when their strength was back row and defense. She also thinks this year’s players are more well-rounded. They have a new setter, Berkeley Stenges, who was an all-state player for Thomas at Peninsula Catholic, and strong hitters in Yost and Kingsleigh Guinn (Kecoughtan High School).
Three of their hitters are listed at 5-11, with two more at 5-9.
“It’s not only the height and the experience, but it’s the want to win,” Yost said. “We have a lot of want in this team, and we’re definitely going to come after a bunch of (opponents) this season.”
With fewer than 10 players on the roster, they are being asked to do more than they did in high school. Yost said most of their hitters were subbed out in high school for defensive specialists when it came time for them to rotate to the back row.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury, seeing that we don’t have many girls,” she said. “Back-row passing, it’s unfamiliar to me. So, it’s definitely something that I have to grow to get better. I feel like it goes for almost all of our hitters, but it’s already gotten better.”
The Gators are no longer in the NSAC. Instead, they are in Region 10, and will have a much tougher schedule.
“We have four teams that have won a national championship that we’re playing. That’s how strong our schedule is,” Thomas said.
Opponents this season, other than Bryant & Stratton, include Richard Bland, which won the NJCAA Division II national title in 2022, Cheyney University, and Southwest Virginia Community College. There is a good mix of dual matches and tri-matches, with 23 matches on the schedule, a significant increase from last year. Thomas doesn’t think that will have a negative impact.
“Most of these kids have played club ball. They’re used to it,” he said of a long season.
Yost prefers a full schedule.
“I think that it’s a very good number,” she said, noting she’s been trying to prepare her teammates for the grind.
“Playing in a game, I tell my teammates all the time, is nothing like practice,” she said. “You have people watching. You have to play at your best in that moment. There’s no room for error in that moment, as opposed to practice. I think we’re all pretty pumped up to have all these games coming up.”
Yost said consistency will be a key to success but said they have been working hard in the gym and she likes what she sees so far. If they can continue to improve, she expects a successful season.
“The main goal here is to get our foot in the door for this legacy,” Yost said.
Following Wednesday’s season opener, the Gators follow it with two more home matches: Friday, Aug. 31 against Patrick & Henry Community College at 6 p.m. and Tuesday, Sept. 3 against Mid-Atlantic Christian University, also at 6 p.m.
For more on VPCC athletics, visit www.vpccgators.com.