The 2007 Bakersfield College volleyball team will rely on the strength of their returning players.
So far, it seems to be working, as the Renegades have shot out to a 4-0 record.
According to volleyball head coach Carl Ferreira, some of the notable returning players are Emily Ermigarat and Haylee Varner, who Ferreira says does a good job of leading by example.
Other notable returning players are Karlie Thompson, Lindsey Thompson and Jennifer Brite.
This year’s team will have two new setters, Rachel Cox and Tricia McGowan.
“All of the first-year players are looking for guidance from people that have been in the program,” Ferreira said.
“So I will always say that people I have spent the last 365 days with are always strength in helping you establish the standards of what you want to do within a program.”
Some of the first-year players are freshmen Heather Liles and Katie Cronk.
Ferreira says that the goal for this year’s team is to be successful, but he adds that success is defined in two different ways, “As an athlete, success can be defined as winning. Athletes want to be successful. A perfect example of this is an Olympic gold medalist,” Ferreira said, “As a coach you don’t want to wait until the end of the season to determine what success is.”
Ferreira says that the team’s approach will be to take it one match at a time, “You take your season and divide it up into entities. This is a player’s time of year. You are just trying to manage the year for them. I have a saying: let them go, watch them grow.”
Ferreira stated that this year’s team will be a lot better defensively and have good point scorers on the court.
“Volleyball is the sport that you have to score points in order to be successful. How you create point scoring opportunities is critical,” Ferreira said.
“You have to be able to manage the game by scoring points and staying away from unforced errors. Victory favors the team that makes the fewest mistakes.”
The Renegades started their season Aug. 30 with a win against Porterville College.
The Renegades defeated Porterville by winning all three games with scores of 30-21, 30-28, and 30-14.
The Renegades followed their Aug. 30 victory with two wins in the BC tournament.
The first tournament win was against College of the Sequoias, in which the Renegades won in three games by scores of 30-21, 30-24, and 30-23.
Then, BC beat College of the Desert by scores of 30-18, 30-22, 24-30, and 30-18.
The Renegades scored a victory at East Los Angeles, winning all three games by scores of 30-13, 30-14, and 30-12.