Club volleyball sets roster

The Southeast Missouri State club volleyball team held its tryouts for the 2012-2013 season on Sept. 9 and 11 at the Student Recreation Center-North.

Sunday was a day for Kristen Stermon, club volleyball president, to evaluate all the new players.

"We have about 20 girls who tried out. Our tryout started with simple drills such as forearm passing and peppering," Stermon said. "We do run scrimmages toward the end of each practice because it helps determine how someone will perform in a game-like setting."

Tuesday was the final tryout day and about an hour into practice the roster for each team was set and presented.

"We have three teams with eight players on each team," Stermon said.

The club team is taking a new approach to how the teams are set up for this year.

"Instead of having one really strong team we are making each team equal by mixing in the returning players with the new players," Stermon said.

The teams named Red, White, and Black have no rank and are considered just as strong as either of the other squads. Each squad will travel to the same tournaments and compete separately.

Hofmann also really liked the new team format saying, "It provides a good mix of old and new players and allows each of the three teams to be very competitive.

Two new players that made the club team are freshmen Laura Kowalski, who is on the Black team, and Brooke Handley, who is on the White team.

"I tried out because I played in high school and I couldn't imagine staying away from the sport," Kowalski said. "This was the best choice for me to keep playing."

Handley echoed that statement and also said she couldn't imagine not playing and was very excited about joining the club team.

Returning senior Rachel Hofmann has been on the club volleyball team since she was a freshman.

"I really like the new girls that we are adding. They have a lot of talent and look like they want to win games as well as have fun," Hofmann said. "It also helps that so many of the new girls played in high school and are bringing a lot of experience with them."