BLUEFIELD – The Bluefield University Women's Volleyball team will serve it up today to start the 2023 season. The Rams are in the Big Easy, New Orleans, to play in the Wolf Pack Welcome Tournament, hosted by Loyola University. The BU will face Michigan-Dearborn and Evangel, Friday, Aug. 25, then take on Ave Maria and host Loyola, Saturday.
Buddy Gallemore begins his ninth season at BU and hopes to build on the success of last year's team. The Rams finished fourth in the Appalachian Athletic Conference with a 22-10 overall record and 17-4 in conference play.
"We don't want to rest on last year's laurels," Gallemore said. "Last year is last year. This is a whole different year. It's almost a whole different team. We don't want to rebuild, we want to reload. I think we have done that."
The Rams lost key players from last year's team, All-AAC performers Lauren Sotomayor and Adrianna Soto Alvarez, along with former AAC Player of the Year Leslie Flores previous All-Conference selection, Jessica Wells, and Carly Connor. Returners include AAC Setter of the Year Nayerly Jimenez, Georgia Lewis, Liangelys Santana Robles, and Abbey Boehm. Newcomers will complement the veterans.
"We have a lot of offense coming in," Gallemore said. "Hopefully they can work out. Of course, we lost a bunch of offense from last year and they are going to be hard to replace. But I have some players who can do it."
Newcomers include junior college transfer Joslyn Evans and freshmen Lianette Burgos, Madison Rodabaugh, Taylor Rodabaugh, Amelia Garrett, and Chesed Russell.
"We are not as big as we were last year, but I think with the speed of our offense we will be able to get some attackers one-on-one," Gallemore said.
The Rams open the season in New Orleans before traveling to the University of Rio Grande for a tournament Sept. 1-2. The home opener is Sept. 8 against Milligan. Gallemore explained the trips to New Orleans and Rio Grande.
"We want to play better teams to get better," Gallemore explained. "We want to carry on our culture of winning. We have a good core back that has been through the culture the last couple of years, just not accepting losing and resting on what we did last year. I think the biggest key is us sticking together and playing well, and stepping up for those bigger games."