Loyola’s volleyball team is set to defend last year’s Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Championship title and looking to take the top spot in regionals.

Keelyn Henderson, international business senior, is one of the returning players from last year’s team, and she is the team’s defensive specialist.

She believes the team will be successful this season. “I think we can definitely win conference again, and we were second in regionals last year, and we would definitely like to be first in regionals this year,” Henderson said.

This year the team added some new players to fill in the gaps. Gina Gill, Megan Matthews and Amanda Oldani joined the squad this year, and the players agree they are performing well.

“They’ve got great potential. Amanda is a great hustler, Gina’s got killer arms and so does Megan. I feel they all will have a big impact on the team,” Henderson said. The ‘Pack is confident going forward with the already proven players and the rookies who seem to possess the right qualities.

Coach Tom Harold is expecting his team to work hard and improve. He was hesitant to say that he expects the team to win regionals this year. “This is a new team, with a different group of girls, so we’re trying to improve from where we are now to where we are at the end of the year, and the results usually take care of themselves,” Harold said. The team is taking it one step at a time, hoping it will diminish the pressure and successfully lead them to their goal.

He seems optimistic with this year’s team. “The new members of the team are coming along well. We’ve got some very talented girls. Right now their big key is learning our system and learning how to learn,” Harold said.

Eduardo Gonzalez can be reached at [email protected]