With fall just around the corner, the Quinnipiac volleyball team looks to make its first trip of the season on August 29 to start non-conference play. While the team will open its season against UT Arlington in Chicago, the preparation to dominate on the court began months ago.
“We’re competing at a really high level, and we’re getting better consistently,” said head coach Kyle Robinson. “But for me, none of that is fun if I don’t want to be in the gym with these people, and I love being in the gym with this crew.”
Robinson had a busy recruitment season, bringing in five new players to join the team. This includes first-year middle blocker Asia Belli.
“Picking up Asia Belli, who’s very good [and] in my opinion she’s a big step up from Bailey [Brashear],” said Robinson. “I think people will be impressed with her skill level. She’s a very, very good player, a very smart player, a very aggressive player, which we like.”
In addition to Belli, first-year outside hitter Vittoria Tonelli, first-year setter Klara Olszewska, and Turkish twins Azra and Sahra Ozbiltekin will all join the team this season.
“When you add five new players, I think it’s important to see the cohesion,” said Robinson. “That feeling like we’ve been playing together a long time now. We’ve only been (playing together for) a few weeks, but I want to see us just kind of consistently gain more momentum when it comes to cohesion.”
One of the biggest struggles the team faced last season was a lack of depth on the roster. Now with the new additions and a healthy team, they have a chance to play at full strength again.
“The depth helps in two ways, the competition in the practice gym, where we have girls on each side that are really going at it against each other, and then it gives us some relief in all these tournaments that we don’t have to play certain people all the time,” Robinson said.
While all of the new recruits will help with the team’s lack of depth from last year, one of the biggest reinforcements comes from somebody who was already on the roster. Ginevera Giovagnoni will rejoin the lineup after her season-ending injury during their fourth match of the year.
“When you can have that caliber of a player back competing, it’s huge,” Robinson said.
During her time as a Bobcat, Giovagnoni has recorded 457 kills, 393 digs, 48 service aces, 42 assists and 28 total blocks. She has already been named to the Preseason All-MAAC team, along with senior setter Damla Gunes. Last season, Gunes was named the MAAC Setter of the Year for the second straight season, earning 867 assists for the year. In the past three seasons, she has recorded 591 digs, 109 aces, 87 total blocks and 71 kills.
In addition to Giovagnoni and Gunes, Elena Giacomini was named the MAAC Preseason Player of the Year after earning MAAC Player of the Year last season. She was second in the MAAC with 434 kills and 509.5 points.
“We have Ginevra and paired with last year’s Player of the Year, Elena, and then the set of the year, Damla, it’s huge,” said Robinson. “You’re trying to piece together as many great players as you can.”
With the roster set, the Bobcats will start the season with four non-conference tournaments.
“We don’t play cupcakes,” said Robinson. “We go out there and find teams that we can compete with, but that are also going to challenge us. So these next four weekends are important.”
After that, they will begin MAAC play with two of their Connecticut rivals, Sacred Heart and preseason favorites, Fairfield.
They will then have one more away game at Merrimack College before returning home for the first time this season to play against Canisius and Niagara.
“Our team’s been working really, really hard,” said Robinson. “These young ladies have been putting in an unprecedented level of work and that’s kind of impressive, because we have so many new people that are here now. I’m very happy for them, and happy with what they’ve been doing.”
With Quinnipiac picked to finish second in the MAAC Preseason Poll, time will tell to see how the Bobcats fare this season.
