MORGANTOWN — After a 2021 campaign that saw the Morgantown volleyball team finish with a record of 32-10-1, head coach Erica Manor-Sphar and her players are hoping to repeat, and build, that success in the upcoming season.
The Mohigans made an appearance in the 2021 state tournament before falling 3-1 to Hedgesville. Manor-Sphar and her returning players have now had a taste of success in both the regular season and the postseason, and hope to not only return to the playoffs, but advance even further.
“Our goal is that we come in each day, trying to get better,” Manor-Sphar said. “We want to get better in serve-receive in hopes of opening up our offense some more. We want to continue to build a strong culture in a program from top to bottom. It’s not about the wins and losses, but it’s about helping each athlete find success.”
Senior defensive player Meredith Mills agreed with her head coach, saying she hopes to help guide some of the younger players mentally to stay focused on the task at hand.
“More teamwork, better mentality going into games. Focusing on the game that is in front of us and the point that it is front of us,” she said. “We have been focusing on our culture to help keep us focused on the things that matter in the moment. More consistency in our play. We want to focus on the basics and not get caught up in the moments.
“I hope to lead the younger kids and be a mentor for the younger athletes. I want the seniors to hold themselves to a high standard of mentoring the younger kids. This week, we have been doing a kids’ camp and it’s important to show them it’s OK to make mistakes. We have been trying to build an open and inclusive environment for everyone.”
MHS will play a difficult schedule that includes a lot of high-level opponents both in-state and out-of-state. A few that stand out are a tournament hosted by the University of South Carolina and one in Kentucky, as well. Another is a game against always-tough Hedgesville that will be played in Morgantown on Sept 9.
One thing that stands out among the players and coaches as a similarity is the importance of building a strong culture and community among the team. Senior setter Paige Brock said it is something that is very intentional, and she feels her team is able strongly bond on and off of the court.
“It has definitely gotten a lot better since my freshman year. I love the team bonding and the culture times. We are really intentional with building our culture,” Brock said. “That is one of the things that makes us stand out, is how we focus on our culture. Culture time is about 30-45 minutes of discussion after lift before practice that we discuss as a team things that will help or hurt our culture. Sometimes we have coaches or players speak and other times we have hosted guests. Over the last couple years, we have hosted Fairmont State, WVU and Pitt volleyball players and we had a Ph.D. student from WVU talk to us about the importance of sleep.”
Manor-Sphar agreed, “Since stepping into this program four years ago, building the culture has been the number focus. It has taken some time to get it to where it is this season. We look forward to continuing to refine it more this year. We have started a leadership council and focused more on communication and respect. We meet with everyone once a week to talk about our culture, so it is something that we are very intentional about.”
The Mohigans will begin its season on Aug. 20 as it travels to Pine Richland in Pennsylvania. MHS will open at home Aug. 24 as it hosts Buckhannon-Upshur and Preston.
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