Racer volleyball clinch regular season title, OVC Tournament ahead
Story by Kelsey Randolph, Sports Editor
After clinching the regular season OVC title, the Racer volleyball team went on to win one more time against Morehead State Saturday.
After a day of honoring the seniors, Head Coach David Schwepker said the team is preparing for new competition, however their regular season win is just a thought in the back of their minds.
“It’s done – we can think about the win after the season is done,” Schwepker said. “It means nothing for what’s going to happen this week. Everything we’ve done up until this point means nothing. They have confidence, but the regular season win means nothing in the tournament.”
The Racers, who have a 25-2 overall record and an 8-0 home record, take on the Morehead State Eagles, who have a 10-20 overall record and a 2-8 record on the road.
Schwepker said the practices haven’t changed and the anticipation isn’t to win, but it’s for the team to try its best and he said, “what happens … happens.”
“The team had several notable accomplishments over the season,” Schwepker said. “We’ve just got to get out there and do our thing. We don’t change for any team. We just try to get out there and do better at what we do. We’re not going to make any changes at this point. We’ll see what happens. We talk about not worrying about the outcome, just the process.”
Emily Schmahl, senior outside hitter, jumps the net and blocks the ball.
Junior libero Ellie Lorenz and senior setter Sam Bedard hit the 1,000 dig club. Senior outside hitter and defense specialist Taylor Olden and junior outside hitter Scottie Ingram both reached 1,000 kills.
The team also had a long set-winning streak of 36 which dated back to Oct. 25, 2014. Now, the team has won every game at home for two seasons in a row.
The Racers currently hold the most wins for volleyball in a season in the history of Murray State.
Opening their non-conference season in North Carolina, the Racers won in a three-game invitational before traveling to Seattle to compete against No. 7 University of Washington and the University of Buffalo. Though taking a loss against the Huskies, the Racers have a perfect finish on the non-conference play.
The Racers won eight games before taking a loss against Eastern Illinois State in a five-set match.
Not letting the loss affect the Racers, they went on the road for a long trip to Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky before returning to Racer Arena to continue their winning streak once again. The Racers clinched the regular season title against Austin Peay State on Nov. 11 in a swept game.
“I still can’t wrap my head around it because it’s phenomenal,” Schwepker said. “It says a lot about what they’ve done. There’s matches that could’ve gone either way but they pulled it out. That’s how much they want to win, that’s how willing they are to fight hard and fight all the way through to keep their heads on straight. To have a season like this again, which will probably never be duplicated again, Division I athletics is insane. My hats off to these young ladies who are outstanding and have done so much.”
