Expectations Still High for Young, Inexperienced UMD Volleyball Squad

This year's team could go through some growing pains early on with more than half of their roster made up of freshman.

DULUTH, Minn. – Some things in life are inevitable. Death, taxes and the UMD volleyball team making the NCAA tournament. In fact, they’ve done that 17 times since head coach Jim Boos took over in 2002.

The Bulldogs come into this season with high expectations as they were picked to finish 2nd in the NSIC. But this year’s team could go through some growing pains early on with more than half of their roster made up of freshman.

“With us being so young this year, I think it’s just going to be all about touching those balls and playing 110% every single day in the gym. But also being able to team bond,” said setter Madison Gordon said.

“Obviously, you don’t want to temper what your expectations are in terms of what you’re potentially capable of. At the same point in time, we have to be realistic about the fact that we are so young and we are going to be very inexperienced at a lot of key spots. And I’m really hopeful that the team that we see on the floor the first week of September is not the same team we see on the floor later on in November or December,” head coach Jim Boos said.

The lone senior on the squad is Kate Berg, who is back for her fifth year with the Bulldogs. She led the team in kills back in 2019 and was named UMD’s “Player to Watch” in the NSIC.

“I even had to become a leader starting my freshman year, just being on the court. But I’ve definitely grown over the past few years and now I’m able to take all of the underclassmen under my wing and teach them how we do things as a UMD volleyball team,” Berg said.

UMD is set to open the 2021 season on September 2nd at Michigan Tech.