Nearly one year ago, a 3-2 loss against New York University in the University Athletic Association (UAA) championship final cost Emory University’s volleyball team their 11th UAA title. Heading into the 2024 UAA Championships, which will take place in Rochester, N.Y., from Nov. 15 to Nov. 16, Emory’s No. 6 ranked team is poised to compete once again, hoping to bring another title home to Atlanta.
Despite losing in the conference final last year, the volleyball team ended their 2023 season with a 26-3 record. Under head coach Brianna Jones, the team made it to the NCAA Division III Volleyball Regional Finals and was ranked as high as No. 4 by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Additionally, senior right-side hitter Alana Dawson was named a College Sports Communicators Academic All-America team member. In the final stretch of the 2024 season, the team is working towards an even better finish this year.
This year’s team consists of most of last year’s players and the addition of only one freshman, hitter Maria Flynn. The familiarity paid off: The Eagles clinched the No. 1 seed at the 2024 UAA Championships with a 7-0 conference record and a 23-2 overall season record. The team avenged their conference final loss as well, defeating NYU 3-0 on Oct. 27. Junior setter Olivia Rabinowitz attributed part of the team’s success to strong foundational relationships.
“Having the same team plus one additional player from last year was a strength because we know what we need to work on and we can focus on that instead of learning new people,” Rabinowitz said.
Dawson said Flynn has been an important addition who added “a lot of depth” to the team. She also noted that there is an advantage of having an upperclassmen-heavy team.
“Our ability to continue building upon the team chemistry and our flow of the game and just our knowledge of each other from last year has been helpful,” Dawson said.
Between Sept. 7 and Nov. 8, the team maintained a 17-game winning streak – the sixth longest in program history, which was only broken by No. 10-ranked Washington and Lee University. Despite this success, senior setter Sarah Luong said the team takes the season one game at a time, especially during a winning streak.
“We don’t really talk about a winning streak at all,” Luong said. “We take each weekend and each game as its own, and we know that every day we show up, we’re going to have to fight. … We have a target on our back very often, and that’s something that is such a privilege — that other teams will give us their best game when we play them.”
Heading into the postseason, the Eagles know competitors hold high expectations of them after consistently ranking as one of the best teams in the division. According to Rabinowitz, the team is determined to prove that they are deserving of their success every time they face a new opponent.
“We all have the mindset of wanting to prove the name we wear on our jerseys,” Rabinowitz said. “When we wear Emory volleyball, we know that every team we play, they’re going to want to beat us just based on previous years and our winning streak. So I think that it pushes us to really show the teams we face why we have the record we have.”
Off the court, the team uplifts and pushes each other to be better. Dawson said that having deep relationships with her teammates has helped her understand them better as players.
“Because we’ve been together for so long, we can all very confidently say that we understand what the person next to us needs to be successful,” Dawson said. “We are able to cater how we talk to each other, how we interact with each other, how someone will best respond. … That just goes back to how much we care about each other and value being able to do that for each other.”
Rabinowitz said the team brings a competitive energy to practices that encourages it to improve constantly.
“What’s so special about our team is just everyone is such an amazing player,” Rabinowitz said. “So when we go into practice and we’re able to scrimmage each other, we really push ourselves on both sides of the net.”
Equally as important to the team’s confident atmosphere is the encouragement and motivational energy the coaches bring. Luong said her coaches empower her to trust her abilities.
“It’s a very good feeling to go into games knowing that your coach believes in you and that they have full faith in your ability on the court,” Luong said. “That’s been very helpful for us as a team – just going into big matches knowing that we have confidence in each other, from our coaches and in ourselves.”
From creating a comfortable environment for the players to making every practice fun, Dawson said her coaches do their best to set a positive example and offer support.
“All of our coaches in general do such a good job of instilling confidence within us,” Dawson said. “They place a lot of emphasis on that and I think that comes from how much work they put into being available for us.”
Ahead of the UAA Championships and the upcoming national tournament, Rabinowitz said the team is confident in their ability to achieve postseason success.
“Every practice, we’re working our butts off and slowly improving, and the end goal is going to be playing in a national championship and winning,” Rabinowitz said.
