Mixed Bag of Veterans & Rookies Make Up 2024 UMD Volleyball Team

UMD's season begins on September 6th at the Texas A&M Kingsville Invitational.

DULUTH, Minn.- The UMD volleyball team is coming off another successful campaign in 2023, which resulted in the team’s 2nd straight NCAA tournament appearance.

Monday, marked the beginning of the road to trying to make it a 3rd straight appearance as the team held their first practices.

The Bulldogs return a lot of experience from a year ago, including four seniors and four graduate students.

Head Coach Jim Boos also brought in five new faces. He says it’s all about trying to find the perfect puzzle when meeting the old with the new.

“It’s new blood, it’s new energy, it’s a new dynamic, it’s a new chemistry and that’s exciting to build around and rally around. So it’s finding that balance between learning for the young kids but also training and really polishing up on what we worked on last spring with this group that’s all coming back,” said Boos.

“Everyone is going to play a role on this team. But I think just making sure we work on good communication, learning on how to play next to each other, pushing each other, stuff like that,” added graduate Cianna Selbitschka.

With the team having 12 players who saw time last year back, it’s raised the level of expectations.

“Last year we made it to the first round of regionals. Obviously a very big accomplishment but this year we are trying to go further. We have eight seniors this year graduating so this is a program that we’ve been building the past four years. I think we’re ready to take that next step,” said senior Samantha Paulsen.

“We set the standard that we’re going to work hard, we’re going to put in the extra time when necessary. I think that’s going to be a big component of who we are this fall,” added graduate Kaylyn Madison.

UMD’s season begins on September 6th at the Texas A&M Kingsville Invitational.