ABIGAIL CIRELLI | staff writer
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Ben Ritter
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| Azusa Pacific's first women's club volleyball team holds practice in the Cougar Dome in preparation for their Sunday, Feb. 8 match versus UCLA. |
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For the first time, Azusa Pacific University has a women’s club volleyball team.
Started last semester by freshman undeclared major Robin Rhine, the club team won both of their first games.
The team won their first game of the season on Jan 22 against Cal State Fullerton 3-1, and their second game last Friday at UC Riverside, 3-0.
Most of the women on the team don’t want to or can’t make the time commitment of playing collegiate volleyball but have played volleyball competitively for a large portion of their lives and still want to play the game while in college.
“We’ve gotten to know each other so well; none of us knew each other before. I’m a freshman, so I didn’t know anyone,” Rhine said. “We’ve come together. Everyone has something to bring to the table.”
Freshman nursing major Molly Miller said it would be impossible to be a nursing major and be on the collegiate team.
But, unlike when playing intramurals, Miller doesn’t have to sacrifice competition.
“No matter what the age we’re all competitive and we all help each other out,” Miller said, “It’s more laid back; I feel like when you’re a college athlete that’s your job. That’s your life.”
Rather than having a coach, the team is self-coached. Practice is held two to three times a week and every week two girls rotate coaching, running practice, and helping organize the line up.
“We all work together at equal levels. [Rhine] does a lot of the background work, scheduling and stuff like that,” Miller said. “It’s not like she’s controlling,” Miller said.
Club advisor Karen Sorensen encouraged the women, none of whom had been on a self-coached team before, to build off each other through this community style of coaching.
“What I love about the team is that we don’t have a coach. We’re self-coached. And so what’s really cool is how we help each other, give feedback, give criticism, but it’s constructive,” Rhine said.
Sophomore English and biblical studies double major Rachel Fou says the team works harder in this setting because they are self-motivated.
“It works out really well, because all the girls on our team have really good attitudes about it. I think if it were any group of girls they could get really catty about it and it would not work out too well,” Fou said. “We understand how we want things to run; we’ve agreed on things.”
Rhine started the club team last semester after attending the open gyms that senior communication studies major Jimmy Lundgren held to increase interest in the men’s club volleyball team.
Rhine says Lundgren encouraged her to start a women’s club team.
Lundgren transferred to Azusa Pacific in fall 2007 with the intention of playing men’s club volleyball.
Upon arriving, Lundgren found that the team, which had been around for approximately 25 years, had died out around 2003.
So Lundgren started up a new team in spring 2008. With borrowed jerseys and shorts from Wal Mart, the team placed 17th in the nation last season.
“It was a pretty successful year and a great start to what will hopefully be a continuing program and a growing program.” Lundgren said.
Having gone through all processes of starting a club team, Lundgren helped Rhine start a volleyball club.
Rhine also had started the volleyball and basketball teams at her high school.
While the two club presidents had similar experiences and the teams rally support for each other, there are some differences.
First, while neither team has a coach, the men’s team doesn’t vote for each lineup like the women’s team does.
“We don’t have a coach; I basically run practice,” Lundgren said, “Every once in a while, people will throw in input and all that stuff, but I’m kind of the one that basically ‘coaches’ them. So it’s a lot of just spitballing around and helping each other out.”
Also, the women’s team membership fee is higher than the men’s and isn’t experiencing the financial strain that is on the men’s team, which is fundraising this semester.
“Last year everything was just so last minute, we were just getting the cheapest stuff; our uniforms were itchy and hot. This year we got a lot better quality stuff, so it’s a really big problem to break even,” Lundgren said.
Overall, the team isn’t concerned with winning or with drawing big crowds.
What brings these women together is their love of volleyball, competitive spirit, and respect for each other.
A club team provides an opportunity to have more fun and flexibility than in collegiate volleyball, and more competition in by intramural volleyball, and is for those up to the challenge of playing bigger schools.
