The women’s vol­ley­ball team will open its 38^th sea­son of var­sity play on Sept. 3 as the Bulldogs will host the Ferris State Invitational.

The team returns 13 play­ers from the 2009 squad, which earned a NCAA Tournament appear­ance for the 15^th time in school his­tory. While the team has many play­ers return­ing from last year’s team, only three were starters. Fifteenth-year head coach Tia Brandel-Wilhelm hopes last year’s suc­cess will help the new starters tran­si­tion into their roles as they know not only what is to be expected of them, but of the team.

“We lost a lot of good play­ers, but we are work­ing hard to be ready to com­pete,” said Brandel-Wilhelm.

The 15-player ros­ter con­sists of three seniors, three juniors, six sopho­mores, and three freshman.

One of the team’s four cap­tains, sopho­more Samantha Fordyce, believes that this team has a lot of poten­tial and said they have been work­ing really hard in the pre­sea­son in order to turn that poten­tial into fruition.

“A lot of the teams in our con­fer­ence are going to be very good, but I think we can be com­pet­i­tive with them and win some big games,” said Fordyce.

Brandel-Wilhelm believes the team will be excit­ing to watch and said it will def­i­nitely be worth going to sup­port them.

“We play with a lot of enthu­si­asm and energy, so we’re going to be a lot of fun to watch,” said Fordyce.

The team will begin its quest for another NCAA appear­ance on Sept. 3 in the Ferris State Invitational as reg­u­lar sea­son play begins. The Bulldogs will host Lock Haven and Glenville State in the first two matches of the 2010 season.

The team will look to get off to a fast start and set the tone for its sea­son, as well as look to achieve its coach’s expectations.

“We are going to play at a very com­pet­i­tive level and hope­fully be one of the best in the coun­try,” said Brandel-Wilhelm. n