High expectations are continuing to circle the King’s athletics community this season, as The King’s College Women’s Volleyball team is poised to have a breakout year.

A year ago, King’s struggled, mightily, only earning one win during their eleven game season. However, the pains of defeat were to be expected, as last year wasn’t supposed to be a ‘year to remember.’

“My go to motto last year that I told my girls was that this is a building year,” Volleyball head coach Alex Salavitch said. “Now, we are out of the building year; we are done building. I think that when you have the talent to focus on the current season rather than looking at building [the team] up for future seasons, that validates that we are out.”

With that promising statement in mind, Salavitch stated that this year’s goals are to make the playoffs and possibly more than that.

“Playoffs, definitely playoffs, and maybe more,” Salavitch said.

For the players, the goal is slightly more simple.

“Our goal this year is to win games,” said co-captain Annie Kopack, 20’. “Last year we had quite the winless streak, and we don’t want that this year.”

Transforming a one-win team into a dominant team on the court, in one offseason, can be a bit of an outlandish goal. But, in college athletics, that can sometimes miraculously be the case.

Turnarounds in a program are achievable, especially when the team has restocked themselves with talent and the core of the previous year’s team returns. This year’s King’s Volleyball team fits that criteria perfectly according to Salavitch.

“We have some returning players, who took a year off, that are back playing and are extremely talented,” proclaimed Salavitch. “We also have some extremely talented freshman and returning players, so we are talented all around this year.”

Not only is the talent coming in this year, but depth looks to be a strength for King’s this year rather than a weakness.

“Last year we only had about 6-7 girls on the team,” said Kopack. “This year, we have eleven girls who have already made things a lot better. The Freshmen are already building us up, and they are essential to us this year.”

Having depth is crucial in college athletics. There will be multiple games throughout the season where someone will miss due to injury, scheduling conflicts, or MTA subway delays (only in New York City!)

Having almost two sets of lineups for the 13-game season will be vital to the success, as relying on just six girls to carry the entire workload for the team isn’t feasible.

Will King’s turn the ship around and set its course to the playoffs? There is a real possibility it could happen. Salavitch, who was the star of the King’s Volleyball team during her time at King’s (2012-2016), has always been a straight-shooter. If it is not great, Salavitch is not going to shy away from pointing that out.

Following my conversation with Salavitch, I am confident that the King’s Volleyball team will make playoffs this season. Winning it all? Maybe not. On the bright side, making the playoffs after only winning one match last season is quite an accomplishment.

TKC Volleyball Season Preview