The Wildcat volleyball team begins their regular season this week on the road.
The team travels to Weatherford, Oklahoma to face the Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 1. The Bulldogs were 22-12 last season with a 10-6 record in the Great American Conference.
“It’s just like any other match,” head coach Dominic Yoder said. “We’re going to go in with our goals in mind that we want to compete at a high level to open up our season.”
The Wildcats and Bulldogs have never faced each other before. Yoder added that when he last saw Southwestern Oklahoma State as coach back in 2006, they were an up-and-coming program.
“We’re playing teams that we don’t normally see, but we’re still going in with the same mindset,” junior middle hitter Madison Whitehead said. “We want to win and do well.”
Next, the team travels to Canyon, Texas to take part in the Lady Buff Classic on Friday, Sept. 2 and Saturday, Sept. 3.
“We’re going in with the same mentality, with the idea that we want to compete at a high level,” Yoder said. “These are winnable matches for us.”
In Canyon, the team will face Eastern New Mexico, West Texas A&M, McKendree and Adams State.
“Our goal is to win as many matches as possible,” Whitehead said. “We’re going to work on things that we need to get
better at.” To begin the classic, the Wildcats will play the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds at 10 a.m. on Friday.
“Those matches are very important for preparing us, for not just the conference schedule, but for the potential NCAA tournament,” Yoder said.
“We want to try to gather points to be able to earn either a bid or by winning our tournament because we will earn an automatic bid.” The Greyhounds were 13-20 with a 4-12 record in the Lone Star Conference last season.
The Wildcats and Greyhounds have never faced each other before. Next, the Wildcats will play West Texas A&M at 8 p.m. on Friday. Yoder added that West Texas A&M is traditionally a strong program.
The last time he faced West Texas A&M was back in 2006 as a coach, and he said they were a strong program then.
West Texas A&M went 16-17 last season with a 5-11 Lone Star Conference record.
The Wildcats and the Lady Buffs have faced each other six times, with the Wildcats leading the series 4-2. Their last meeting was in 1999.
On Saturday, the Wildcats will play McKendree at noon and Adams State at 4:30 p.m.
The McKendree Bearcats went 22-11 last season with a Great Lakes Valley Conference record of 15-3.
The Wildcats and Bearcats have never faced each other before.
To finish the classic for the Wildcats, they will play the Adams State Grizzlies, who went 10-16 with a 9-9 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference record last season. NMU and Adams State have never faced each other before.
“We’re going to go into these matches with the idea that these are new teams,” Yoder said. “They’re going to put on their jerseys the same way we are, and we’re going to go out there and compete and play our style of offense.”
Yoder added that this is a tale of two seasons for the team, with preseason games against nonconference opponents before they start conference play on Friday, Sept. 16 at Saginaw Valley State.
“We have all been working really hard so it should be a good season this year,” Whitehead said.
