Women’s Volleyball: An Upcoming Rollercoaster Season

COVID is something we would never imagine. Like every other team in Canada, Seneca’s Women’s volleyball team must find new ways to prepare for a tough upcoming season.

The last time the women’s volleyball team had a season was two years ago. In the 2019-2020 season, they had a disappointing record of 5-13. It wasn’t the season they wanted, but this year they plan to turn it around. With this season approaching time wasn’t on their side. Due to COVID and the restrictions they didn’t get a chance to build team chemistry during the summer months as most teams would create another barrier they must overcome.

Since then, Coach Anthony Fong has had a fresh new team, with many new faces. They enter this season with only two vets, some rookies, and a few transfer student-athletes. Even though they are short on veteran players, in the off-season they picked up two new players from different schools that have experience playing high-level volleyball. Having experienced players makes it easier for the players to understand quickly in a short season.

Coach says “I think we have a really good group of girls, who they might not be vets as in played for Seneca but we do have some experience coming from outside, we picked up two athletes who played in OCAA before for different schools, so they come over to Seneca”. Usually, when that happens it’s hard for a team to gel quickly.

OCAA plans to have a testing protocol, and all participants are required to take a rapid antigen test prior to every game. For an athlete to participate, the player must have a negative test each time to be eligible to participate. This way it makes it safer for athletes to continue to safely play the game they all love.

As of right now, OCAA plans to not have fans until further notice. Coach Anthony explained what it would mean to him and his team if that was allowed, “I think our fans are integral to our program as we probably have one of the largest colleges in Canada and so our fans tend to be very vocal and can always see you when the opponent from smaller schools come in, they’re not quite used to the atmosphere that we generate at Seneca, so I think our fans play an integral”

Even though Seneca’s Women’s Volleyball team must overcome many barriers including building team chemistry, COVID-19, and the restrictions that come with it, they plan to do their best with what they have, making it the best season since 2019.