MITCHELL HORUCY
Special to The Leader
Graphic By Dice Yandow
Freshman Rachel Bayer has been playing volleyball for almost her whole life, but now she plays for the women’s club volleyball team at Fredonia. Bayer talks about the transition from high school volleyball to collegiate-level volleyball.
Bayer, a double major in sport management and public relations, has been playing volleyball since the third grade. She was on her middle and high school teams, and she mentioned that she played year-round as well.
The Pittsburgh, P.A. native has been a middle hitter for the team but had to make the switch to setter due to injuries on the team.
When talking about some of the biggest differences between high school and college-level volleyball, she was quick to talk about competitiveness.
Another difference she mentioned is how independent the team is.
“It’s a lot more independent. It’s kind of like a student-run [operation],” Bayer said. “So we kind of run whatever plays we want, whatever rotations we want because we don’t really have a coach. So it’s definitely a lot more free.”
Despite liking the new structure, Bayer said that was one of the harder things to get
adjusted to.
“Not having one specific coach and kind of just having a student-run program [is different], but it’s definitely a good thing,” Bayer said.
Being a club team, it can be hard to find the balance between competing, but also having fun.
The team tries to accomplish that with the way they structure their practices.
Bayer said that they will usually start practice with a hitting or passing drill. They will then end off practice with a drill that can still help them get better, but it’ll be fun.
They also try to stay disciplined as a team. In practice, if a ball hits the floor, they’ll do burpees or some sort of exercise as a sort of punishment. They want to keep it disciplined but not to the point where it’s overlaying stressful.
The team also believes team bonding is very important. Bayer mentioned that a team with good chemistry typically tends to play better together on the court. She also added that the team as a whole is really close.
Some of the things the team does to bond are just as simple as going over to one of the player’s houses and hanging out.
The team also usually gets food together before games, practices and tournaments.
When asked what she’s learned from any upperclassmen on the team since joining, she named many things but emphasized that she’s learned a lot from current club president Taylor Potter.
She’s helped Bayer learn how to manage her time with volleyball and schoolwork and how to balance the two.
Being on the team has also helped her adjust to college and being at Fredonia.
Bayer said some of her closest friends are people that she met on the team. It’s also helped her meet tons of new people even if they aren’t best friends.
She spoke about how it’s nice to walk by someone that she met through volleyball and just said hello.
Bayer said her favorite memory on the team is probably when they found out they were making playoffs at their tournament at Brockport.
“It was a rough season. We’ve had a lot of injuries and stuff like that like taking out key players,” Bayer said. “So when we found out we were playing in the playoffs, we were super excited.”
Despite the season being well underway, the team still has goals. Bayer mentioned that they don’t have anything super specific, they just want to keep improving as a team this season.