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Rams favorite to win 13th straight conference title
Cornell head coach Jeff Meeker won this 500th match when the Rams started 3-0 at the Grinnel Invitational at the end of August
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MOUNT VERNON — The out of conference win-loss record may once again appear pedestrian, but that has never told the Cornell volleyball story.
The Rams traditionally play a rugged non-conference slate in order to prepare for the Midwest Conference, a league they have won an astounding 12 years in a row. In the MWC Preseason Coaches Poll released Aug. 27, Cornell was an overwhelming favorite to extend its streak to 13.
“We just work really hard at it,” longtime Cornell Coach Jeff Meeker said after the Rams were ousted by rival Coe in five sets in another challenging non-conference match Wednesday night at Small Athletic and Wellness Center. “We’ve got great kids. They work hard. We have kids who teach the culture and pass that on year to year, so it’s about a tradition that we worked really hard at to build for a long time. We just want to be great this year. We’ve earned those other ones and this year is a new year.”
So far this season, half of the six opponents for Cornell (3-3) have either been ranked or receiving votes in the NCAA Division-III volleyball rankings. The same can be said for four of the next seven foes on the Rams’ schedule.
“I definitely love having a competitive schedule,” Cornell libero Ella Becker said. “Because I feel like it pushes us every day to get better. It shows us what we need to work on, especially in losses like tonight.”
Becker was a first team all-conference selection last season, but now she is one of just two seniors on a roster with 15 freshmen and sophomores.
“This year, we just have a lot of depth on our team,” Becker said. “We have a lot of new girls and they are really stepping up. It is really cool to see.”
While Becker and junior setter Nia Howard — a former Springville athlete — provide the veteran leadership, the standout underclassmen include freshmen outside hitters Ashlin Nottestad and Hannah Cantwell — a West Delaware graduate — plus two right side hitters in freshman Selia Stein (from Cedar Rapids Washington) and sophomore Mia Tubbs. Another sophomore, 6-foot-2 middle blocker Ally Olmstead, returns after a standout freshman campaign in which she piled up 214 kills.
“Our fight in games, sometimes it’s hard when we’re down to push back,” Olmstead said. “But we all come together. We have really good team chemistry, so all it is is just coming together and having each other’s backs.”
Meeker is now in his 24th year at Cornell, which opened the season Aug. 29-30 with three wins at the Grinnell Invitational.
One of those victories was No. 500 for Meeker.
“The milestone was great,” Meeker said. “Honestly, it was more exciting to go 3-0 opening weekend. What keeps me plugging away are the women in this program. The student-athletes at Cornell. I love the game of volleyball, of course, and have a passion for that. But just being able to make an impact and try to help these people believe they can be better than they think or that they are capable of more than they think. That is what keeps me going.”
Cornell has eight more matches before the pursuit of a 13th Midwest Conference title in a row begins Oct. 3 at Lawrence, which already has a top-20 win this season.
“This will be maybe our toughest challenge yet,” Meeker said. “We’ve got four or five teams that I think are really good. We will have to work hard. Nothing comes easy.”
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