BY: Brandon Barker
The third season of AUM’s volleyball team was officially kicked off this weekend. Big changes have happened for the program this year and it’s important to get off to a great start. The volleyball team won their first game of the season. There was a massive division switch for the Warhawks, a couple of coaching changes, and a bunch of new players added to the roster.
The Warhawks have recently been granted full NCAA Division 2 membership. This was a long process that started for the Warhawks a couple of years ago. AUM is one of four schools that were recently approved to join the division with Biola, Davenport, and Purdue Northwest.
This weekend gave us our first look at the new head coach of AUM’s volleyball team, Flavia Siqueira. She was announced back in January, and it is nice to finally see her team in action. She was the coach at Lynn University in the two previous seasons, and before that she was the coach at the College of Central Florida.
In addition to the hiring of new head coach Flavia Siqueira, last month she announced the hiring of a former professional volleyball player. Karine Guerra was added to the coaching staff as a graduate assistant. She has played professionally in Brazil, South America, and Switzerland.
The Warhawks almost look like a completely new team, adding ten new players to the squad. Only five players are left from last year, as most of the team graduated. Among the ten newcomers, two were named as top newcomers of the year by the GSC. This will add some much-needed experience for the Lady Warhawks this season.
The season did start this weekend, and the Warhawks finished 1-3 during those games. Their lone win came against Arkansas Tech University. Winning 3-2, volleyball was officially AUM’s first sport to win a game in Division 2. The three losses were against Missouri S&T (0-3), the University of Arkansas at Monticello (1-3), and University of Arkansas Fort Smith (0-3).
This was not the way the Warhawks wanted to start the season, but they have a chance to turn it around with two consecutive home games. On Tuesday, September 10, the squad takes on Erskine College at 4 p.m and Huntingdon College at 6 p.m. at the Athletics Complex.
AUM students, faculty, and staff get in the games for free. Adults are $5, and children 12 and under get in free.
