But the 2020 season was played in the spring and ended last April, giving coach Allie Matters’ players little time to regroup and get reenergized for 2021.
“There was very minimal recovery time. You can talk about it physically, but from a mental standpoint, you usually have five, six, seven months off before you have to play again,” she said.
That could explain the rocky 8-6 start. The Raiders weren’t ready to match the intensity of their opponents and needed time to get fully engaged.
That’s not a problem now.
“We’ve had quite the journey. We were picked first in the preseason poll and lost a couple matches, and we have the 3 seed in the conference tourney,” Matters said.
“To be honest, I’m looking forward to working our way up to the championship match. Our team looks good. We feel good. And we’re excited to go to Milwaukee and raise some heck.”
The Raiders (23-7, 14-3) face sixth-seeded Oakland (15-14, 9-9) at 5 p.m. Friday on champion Milwaukee’s home court, while fourth-seeded UIC (17-11, 13-3) plays fifth-seeded Green Bay (15-15, 10-8) at 8 p.m.
The top-seeded Panthers (22-8, 16-2) and No. 2 seed Northern Kentucky (19-7, 15-2) have byes into the semifinals Saturday. The finals are 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Raiders have a six-match winning streak and split their two meetings with Milwaukee and NKU this season.
“It is anybody’s ball game. When everyone is good, it’s anybody’s match. No one is blowing anyone out of the water this year,” Matters said.
The Raiders picked up some league accolades again Thursday.
Senior Jenna Story was named defensive player of the year for the third straight season, while Nyssa Baker, Callie Martin and Lainey Stephenson were named second-team all-league.
Baker, known as a “super senior” because she’s taking her COVID year, is the reigning league player of the week after registering 33 kills in a pair of matches last weekend.
“Nyssa has really picked it up in the last couple weeks,” Matters said. “Right now, she’s our best weapon offensively. She just looks really good and confident.
“We’re in a good place We don’t just have one player who scores all the points for us and gets all the kills. We have to play well collectively as a unit if we want to win a championship.”
The Raiders have made startling progress under Matters, who took over in 2018. Before then, they went 10 years without even qualifying for the six-team league tourney.
But they won the program’s first regular-season titles in 2019 and 2020 and look primed to make more noise.
“It was different in 2018 when we got the sixth seed and were just happy to be there,” she said. “We still have to kind of remember where we came from, and how hard we’ve had to work to put ourselves in this position.
“There’s pressure this year, but there’s confidence at the same time. I’m just glad to have as much seniority as we do. We don’t have anyone out there who has never been in this type of moment that we’re about to be in this weekend.”
Athletic director Bob Grant is grateful to have Matters in the fold.
“What Allie has done with our volleyball program is nothing short of miraculous. It was a program that was largely irrelevant in the Horizon League. Think about that. And she has them now as the bully on the block in the league,” he said.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: First-year coach Kari Hoffman landed four players in the early signing period, including two with local ties.
Bella Cassoni, a 5-6 point guard from Waynesville, averaged 13.3 points as a junior last season. And Macie Taylor, 5-9 combo guard from Troy, has started since her freshman year and has averaged 17 points and six rebounds for her career.
MEN’S SOCCER: Sophomore forward Reece Allbaugh, who had 17 points in 15 matches this season (including a hat trick), and fifth-year senior midfielder Harvey Slade were named second-team all-league.
Carroll High School product Conner Osterholt and Brock Pickett each were named to the all-freshman team.
The Raiders finished 5-10-1 overall and 4-5-1 in the league.
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