Amid all the hype, amid all the predictions, amid all the lofty expectations, junior outside hitter Kelly Reeves had just one thought on her mind going into this season.
“It’s just volleyball,” Reeves said.
With its first preseason matches against Notre Dame and No. 4 Nebraska approaching on Friday and Saturday respectively, the UCLA women’s volleyball team is finding ways to ignore the pressure that accompanies defending a national title.
“I think people are going to have really high expectations for our team, but we’re not going to set those expectations, because we’re just worried about ourselves,” senior outside hitter Rachael Kidder said.
“We’re not going to try to prove everyone else right. We’re just going to do what we want to do for our team and not let that stuff get to us.”
UCLA will start the preseason atop the national rankings, and Pac-12 coaches predicted them to win the conference in a preseason poll.
In order to ignore the outside anticipation for their season, the Bruins are acknowledging that their past success is behind them.
“There is zero holdover or carryover from last year. We are a brand new team,” said coach Michael Sealy.
Sealy isn’t just talking about resetting the mentality of his players.
With the loss of five seniors from last year, two of whom started, the Bruins truly are a new team and are still building their team chemistry.
“We had an amazing first team and second team and were very competitive in the gym (last year). We’re getting there now, but we’re working and creating the identity of this team,” Sealy said.
These first two preseason matches will be an opportunity for the Bruins to see how their new team is progressing and what that new identity is.
“I think right now in the preseason we’re not looking for wins, it’s just getting our connection going and making sure we find our offense and our rhythm and what’s going to work best for us during the season,” Kidder said.
While winning may not be imperative in the preseason, the Bruins have certainly put themselves in a position to do so with their efforts in practice.
“Our goal is to be the hardest working and that’s what we’re going to do,” Reeves said.
With key players returning from last year’s championship run and a continued level of motivation and effort, UCLA is in prime position to live up to the hype they’ve built for themselves.