Southeast Missouri State volleyball team confident as season approaches

The focuses for the Southeast Missouri State volleyball team's upcoming season already have been ingrained in the players' heads.

Everything coach Julie Yankus, whose fifth season at the helm officially got underway with the team's first practices on Monday, mentioned as focuses for this season were already uttered moments earlier by players.

"Can't emphasize passing enough," senior middle blocker Taylor Masterson said. "We have to really work on our passing still and then just the confidence, I think, overall. Since we didn't do as well as we wanted last year, I think, carrying into this year, we might not be as confident, but we know that we can do it.

"We're a very good team, and we obviously can compete with everybody else in the conference, so we just have to get that mindset and then once we get the mindset and then we have talent and once we put that together we'll be fine."

The Redhawks finished last season 11-20 overall and 7-9 in conference. They were eighth in the regular-season Ohio Valley Conference standings and were booted from the OVC tournament by top-seeded and eventual champion Murray State in the opening round.

Southeast returns nine players from last year's squad, including Masterson, an all-OVC selection last year, and sophomore middle blocker Nzingha Clarke, who was named all-newcomer last year.

The Southeast Missouri State volleyball team takes part in a practice Monday.

"Our confidence is definitely going to show because just already knowing this team and who we've got -- returners and the new people -- the team chemistry is there, so there's no animosity between players. There's not going to be any drama, so to speak," Yankus said. "And nobody's going to be afraid to make mistakes in front of a teammate or coaches and that is huge because if they just get over the mistakes that's confident-building right there. ... Volleyball is a game of mistakes, unfortunately."

Yankus is optimistic about the potential of the team's newcomers. She said freshman outside hitter Madeline Grimm and sophomore outside hitter Marie Less, an Arkansas State transfer, will compete for playing time and provide the ball control the team needs.

"That's huge for our conference -- it's a very ball control-oriented conference with lots of long rallies and exciting play, which is good," Yankus said. "We definitely have some players that are coming in that'll bring that side of it, which is exciting, so I think we'll have a lot of ball control which means all of our hitters will be available. We'll have a lot of fast pace. We're running things even faster this year as far as the offense goes."

"Since we are a little bit smaller on the outside, we need to be faster there so that they can have more opportunities to score," Yankus added, noting that new assistant Michael Runde has helped teach the setters to play at a quicker tempo. "Our middles are more experienced as well as on the right side so they're more comfortable running things faster."

The Redhawks led the conference in blocks, averaging 2.22 per set last year, and Yankus was pleased with the team's defense.

Members of the Southeast Missouri State University volleyball team practice, Monday, Aug. 10, 2015, at Houck Field House in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

"We're definitely focusing on putting the ball away," Yankus said. "The team that has the best hitting percentage is generally going to be top of the conference."

OVC regular-season and tournament champion Murray State had a conference-best .252 hitting percentage. Southeast was fifth with a .199 percentage.

"I think just for us it's just really hustling for everything and making sure that we're paying attention to the other side of the court and really finding what our weaknesses are for other teams," Clarke said of the team's areas of improvement.

Southeast hosts the Drury Hotels Redhawks Invitational on Aug. 28 and 29, facing Arkansas State and Saint Louis on Day 1 and Missouri-Kansas City on Day 2.

"Being home at the end of the month is going to be huge for us," Yankus said. "It's a great opportunity to get people in the area excited about us from the beginning instead of waiting a month into season, so happy about that tournament."

The Redhawks will then compete at the Gardner-Webb tournament, Arkansas State tournament and Bradley tournament over the next month, mixed in with an away game against regional rival Southern Illinois on Sept. 15. They begin conference play against Murray State on Sept. 25 at Houck Field House.

"Preseason tournament time we've got a very large variety of opponents as far as RPI and past history so it'll be interesting to see," Yankus said. "We'll compete with everybody. I think we'll have a decent record at that part and then going into conference I'm very hopeful. I think we'll definitely make a mark and we should be hopefully in that upper echelon of the conference."