{"id":35639,"date":"2017-11-08T08:39:37","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T13:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=35639"},"modified":"2017-11-09T07:14:19","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T12:14:19","slug":"royals-athlete-week-womens-volleyball-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royals-athlete-week-womens-volleyball-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals Athlete of the Week: Women’s volleyball team"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an exciting end-of-season twist, EMU\u2019s women\u2019s volleyball team made it back into the ODAC Tournament after a ten-year hiatus. As they all deserve a little praise, the entire team is the Royals Athlete of the Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like we made this small impact on the school and athletics,\u201d reflected senior and co-captain\u00a0Jasmine Johnson<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(Staunton, Va.\/Robert E. Lee), \u201cand it was just an overall awesome feeling and thing to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team got into the eight-team tournament after coming out on top of a four-way tie. It was a nail-biter until the very end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had sort of written off the chance of us getting in,\u201d said head coach Carrie Bert. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know for sure until the very last Friday of conference season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior and co-captain\u00a0Maria Yoder<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(Manheim, Pa.\/Hempfield) highlighted all of the behind-the-scenes work that went into her team\u2019s success this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team put in a ton of work in the offseason to prepare for the season, and many of the girls on the team would go to extra skill sessions with our assistant coach that weren’t required or show up early to get more reps before practice,\u201d Yoder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to figure out how to win,\u201d said Bert, \u201cafter years of EMU being in kind of the assumed bottom of the ODAC.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s seniors played a big role in overcoming that mental block.<\/p>\n

\u201c[They] have taught the rest of us that they have fight and they\u2019re competitive enough, and some of the girls that I\u2019ve recruited since have bought into that,\u201d Bert explained. \u201cAnd so this particular group collectively has a great desire to win and doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s worth playing if they\u2019re not trying their hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith every sport and season, it is always a crazy roller coaster ride,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThere were many different highs and lows for this season. Some highs were taking Roanoke and Virginia Wesleyan to five games. Even though we lost both, it still showed the potential of our team and how amazing we could be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bert said she is proud of how much the team’s athletes have grown over the course of this season and their years at Eastern Mennonite University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe end of the season proved that they found a spot where they had confidence in themselves,\u201d she said. \u201cTrusting each other and having confidence in each other and the seniors and some of the juniors leading [was essential].\u201d<\/p>\n

The Royals were knocked out in the first round of the ODAC Tournament, losing to top-seeded and eventual champion Randolph-Macon.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yet, how exciting to have that opportunity,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I told them [the team] at the end. I said, we need to think about this in terms of winning and learning, not winning and losing, because we\u2019ve been given the opportunity to be in this place … and we need to thank the seniors for building this program into something where this is the expectation now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that we don’t lose our desire to improve,\u201d Yoder added. \u201cThe seniors on our team this year have encouraged the rest of the team both vocally and by example to expect more from ourselves. I hope this attitude is continued by the juniors and underclassmen next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson is excited for the team\u2019s future as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have such high hopes for these remaining players and players coming in,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have such an amazing foundation and team chemistry. I’m really excited to see what they can do next year. I think they can do amazing things with this program and help create a name for EMU women’s volleyball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re smart, they\u2019re athletic, they\u2019re competitive,\u201d Bert said. \u201cWe were often outsized [this year], and yet we didn\u2019t always let that stop us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson is graduating this year, but she will take her experiences with her team with her when she goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know where these four years have gone, but playing volleyball has been the highlight and light of those years,\u201d she said. \u201cFour years ago, I would tell myself to enjoy and cherish every moment I had on the court and to remember the amazing relationships I’ve made in the volleyball world. I couldn’t imagine my life without volleyball, and it has helped shape me into the person I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bert is graduating five seniors, each a four-year member of the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, this is a group I\u2019m really going to miss,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve loved playing with this group of people,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI’m very excited to see where they take this program in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an exciting end-of-season twist, EMU\u2019s women\u2019s volleyball team made it back into the ODAC Tournament after a ten-year hiatus. As they all deserve a little praise, the entire team ... read more about Royals Athlete of the Week: Women’s volleyball team<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":35644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5634],"tags":[17510],"feature":[17426,17241,17422],"class_list":["post-35639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens-volleyball","tag-carrie-bert","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature","feature-news-landing-page-main-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nRoyals Athlete of the Week: Women's volleyball team - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royals-athlete-week-womens-volleyball-team\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Royals Athlete of the Week: Women's volleyball team - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an exciting end-of-season twist, EMU\u2019s women\u2019s volleyball team made it back into the ODAC Tournament after a ten-year hiatus. 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