The Winona State Women’s Volleyball team recruited five new players to start off the season with a new energy. The team attended their Media Day photo shoot on Aug. 13, 2023, where they welcomed their new players.
The new recruits come from different places across the midwest. One is outside hitter Quinn Robak from Clarkston, Michigan.
When asked what brought her to Winona, Quinn noted her joyful history with the town, having traveled for the summer to visit the family she has here.
“When I was trying to get recruited, I looked at schools around here and I saw Winona, they had a very good program, nice school, and everything,” she said. “When I visited, the coaching staff and players were super nice and welcoming and it just felt like home.”
An interesting fact about these freshman girls is their average height. Only one stands at 5’9” and the rest are 6’ or above. This advantage boosted the average height of the team and will likely prove to be a huge asset on the court as well.
Unfortunately, pre-season matches did not go as expected for the Warriors, but they are confident about their upcoming ones.
“Our pre-season ranking is nine,” head coach Joe Getzin said. “I think we can do a lot better than that and be in the top four in the conference by the time we are done, but we have a lot of work between now and then to start putting those pieces together.”
Along with the five new recruits, the team will have the leadership of fourth-year Sidney Paulson from Jackson, Wisconsin. Sidney is confident that the new Warriors have already blended well with their fellow teammates and will help the team to reach the finals.
“I am really interested to see how they will gel with the team,” Sidney said. “It is kind of fun that there are five of them that are already close, so, I am hoping that we all get super close as a team and that we all welcome them in.”
The volleyball team has gained several strong individuals to hopefully create a powerhouse of a team, but it also takes strong leadership like Getzin and assistant coach, Kristine Fisch, a working mother, to maintain team moral and strong bonds.
Fisch particularly loves to bring her children to work for motivation.
“I just love bringing the kids around the gym so the girls can kind of see that they can have the career they want and the family that they want someday,” she said. “Some days are more chaotic than others. But really, our program is all about family, so it is not too hard to blend the two roles together.”
The team will face a real challenge as they start their conference matches on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, against the University of Sioux Falls (S.D.). They hope for a good start as they are having their first match at their home venue.
In the pre-conference this week they will be playing against Westminster College (Utah) on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023.
