by Nick Dill, Student Reporter
The Northwestern volleyball team is preparing for a season in the spring. The team is taking it day by day and trying to get better every day.
Unfortunately, the Great American Conference suspended all fall sports through December 31. The Ranger Volleyball team will hopefully have a chance to begin playing games in the spring.
Fred Aubuchon, head volleyball coach for the Rangers, is keeping his players focused this semester despite all the changes.
Aubuchon said his goal for this semester is to take it slow and take everything one day at a time. He said they are doing a few hours a week of practice and trying to mix in weights and conditioning.
The season getting postponed can be looked at in a positive way though.
“Our focus is not trying to rush the spring semester to get here,” Aubuchon said. “We want to take our time and hopefully allow the girls to focus on other things such as academics, social life, on-campus activities and take advantage of the slower time.”
Aubuchon said that practice is going good and the newcomers are starting to get adjusted.
“It’s about getting them accumulated to our style of doing things,” Aubuchon said. “My veterans have been incredible. They are such good leaders about what we try to do as a team, and they set a good tone for the new players.”
Although Aubuchon said there is a tremendous difference in the format of practice this semester.
“Even for us coaches having a mask on is difficult,” Aubuchon said. “When we have to speak to our team, we have to back away and pull the mask down, so they can hear us. If we get close then obviously the masks do help for that.”
Some new protocols are put in place to help the athletes stay safe.
Aubuchon said that they have plastic on the net. He thinks it helps, but is not sure if it makes a difference or not.
“We’re trying to be cautious and do everything as safe as possible,” Aubuchon said. “It’s definitely hard to feel normal when things aren’t normal.”
Aubuchon said the latest update on the season is that the Rangers will have a ten-game conference schedule. He said they will play everyone on the Oklahoma side of the conference twice, but that’s still not 100% finalized.
He is hoping for more games though.
“It is our hope to play more matches and not just ten,” Aubuchon said. “We’re still waiting to get the word from the commissioner, as well as from our own university with Dr. Cunningham and Brad Franz.
We’re not at that position just yet as being able to make those decisions or add those other games.”
The NWOSU volleyball players are disappointed in the season getting postponed, but are still working hard for the season in the spring.
Avery Osburg, a senior on the volleyball team said it sucks that the season got postponed. She said she wishes that they could play in the fall. She said there are some positives though.
“We have all of the fall to prepare for spring,” Osburg said. “It gives us a whole extra semester to get the freshman in here and integrated.”
Madison Dehlinger, a junior, is optimistic about this semester.
“It’s not what we hoped for, but we can’t do anything about it,” Dehlinger said. “We just have to work with what we got time-wise and how many hours we can get in the gym.”
The team is facing adversity with this situation. She said it’s not fun playing with a mask and having to clean and everything like that.
“Obviously nothing good ever comes easy,” Dehlinger said. “So we’re doing the best we can.”
Maggie Peterson, a sophomore, looks at this situation as a chance to grow.
“For me, I didn’t play as much as I wanted to last year,” Peterson said. “Having this time in the fall is giving me a lot of time to get reps in and build my confidence.”
“We can look at this situation as a positive because it gives us bonding time that we don’t usually have,” Peterson said.
The Rangers plan on working hard and staying ready for the season in the spring.
“Our focus is refocus and let’s focus on what we can do,” Aubuchon said. “Which is play in the spring.”