College volleyball: UTPB bolsters roster with five freshmen

Injecting young blood into any team almost always means a team has to go through a few growing pains.

Before a team can take off, the thinking goes, that young blood has to mature a little.

The UTPB volleyball is looking to buck that trend. Coming off of a fourth-place Heartland Conference finish, the Lady Falcons lost four of their top five attackers, including All-Conference opposite Molly Atnip.

UTPB head coach Steve Aicinena isn’t worried.

By bringing in five freshmen — one of the largest recruiting classes in UTPB’s history — Aicinena believes he’s replenished the Lady Falcons’ talent better than ever.

“We will have to develop and mature as a team,” Aicinena said. “We’re young, but these kids have been getting better each week.”

All five members of the freshmen class—Ariel Fralick, Keeley Brogdon, Cydney Stayton, Terra Peil and Melissa Lusk — are expected to start in a rotation surrounding the Lady Falcons’ lone senior, Mica Lamprecht, a former hitter who is making the move to defensive specialist for her final season.

Lamprecht, who has had two shoulder surgeries, no longer has the power in her shoulder to consistently swing the arm through, but she’s always been a good passer.

According to Aicinena, Lamprecht was the squad’s best passer last year.

“I love defense,” Lamprecht said. “It’s like my favorite part of the game, so it wasn’t too much of a change.”

Lamprecht’s passing ability should consistently put Fralick, a setter from Puyallup, Wash., in position to distribute the ball to her high-flying, talented teammates.

Lusk, a 6-foot-2 tweener who can play both the middle and outside, has been the Lady Falcons’ most consistent hitter. She is headed for the outside.

Brogdon, Stayton and Peil will fill the opposite and middle hitter spots.

Under normal circumstances, bringing in a bunch of freshmen to take spots from established players would tear a team’s internal chemistry apart.

But UTPB doesn’t seem to subscribe to conventional wisdom.

“There is a lot of chemistry, actually,” Lamprecht said. “For the beginning of the season, it’s kind of shocking. Normally, it would be pretty rocky, but it works.”

Part of the Lady Falcons’ chemistry stems from the freshmen, a group of girls who bonded together almost as quickly as they arrived on campus.

UTPB hasn’t scheduled any out-of-the-ordinary team-building activities to bring this squad together.

Living with each other brought this freshman class together.

Fralick, Lusk, Brogdon and Stayton all share a room. Ever since they got to campus, the group has been almost inseparable.

“I really like rooming with them,” Fralick said. “We’re all on the same page, freshmen coming in, being nervous, being the new girls, so I think it helps that we’re all going through the same thing.”

Chemistry matters.

Both Aicinena and Lamprecht mentioned that this team’s chemistry level is higher than almost any team they’ve been around.

And the Lady Falcons are expecting big things from a young group.

“We’re excited,” Lusk said. “All of us are pretty strong. We can handle it.”