2020-21 Season Preview for UD Volleyball; Crusaders will open Saturday vs. Colorado College
IRVING, Texas – The University of Dallas volleyball team looks to begin its 2020-21 season on Saturday against Colorado College. The doubleheader will have game one at 12 p.m. and game two at 5 p.m. These matches are the first of the campaign for UD after wintery weather cancelled the opener at Southwestern University two weeks ago.
UD is playing a conference only schedule this spring after games in the traditional fall season were cancelled due to COVID-19. The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) features nine teams, which are slated to play each other two times. Unlike traditional pod schedules, the teams will play just one head-to-head matchup at one location and have a doubleheader that day.
Dallas will be home three consecutive weekends starting at the end of the month versus Colorado College (Feb. 27), Austin College (March 6), and University of St. Thomas (Mar. 12).
Dallas will then go to Trinity University (Mar. 20) and Centenary College (Mar. 27) to end the month. The team then hosts Schreiner University on April 3 to finish up its home slate. The regular season ends at Texas Lutheran University (Apr. 10). The SCAC Tournament is scheduled for Apr. 16-17 at Trinity University.
The Crusaders are led by head coach Kelli Trautmann, who enters her fourth season at the helm. Trautmann guided her team to a 17-19 record and 9-9 mark against conference foes. They have spent the past two seasons in a logjam in the middle of the league standings, but have been tabbed the fourth seed in each year of the tournament due to holding tiebreakers. The team was picked seventh in this year's preseason coaches' poll with 33 points.
Dallas returns 13 players from the previous roster.
Highlighting this bunch are juniors Abigail Porras (El Paso, Texas) and Dayjah Whyte (Round Rock, Texas), who are two-time all-conference selections. Whyte was the 2018 SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year. The duo have won multiple United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) All-Americans. The pair were the only members of the team to shatter the 300-kills mark with 381 and 366 by Whyte and Porras, respectively. Porras led the team in service aces and ranked fourth in the SCAC.
Sophomore setter Larissa Ramirez (San Antonio, Texas) is also back after an impressive rookie campaign. She wrapped up the trio of USCAA All-American winners in 2019. She posted 1,132 assists and ranked third in the conference with 8.14 assists per set.
Check out the 2019 Season Statistics.
Other key returners to watch that are part of the junior class include: Ellise Anable (Phoenix, Ariz.), Isabel Garcia (San Antonio, Texas), and Savannah Walker (San Antonio, Texas).
Gillian De La Cruz (Lewisville, Texas) and Rachel Firm (Hesperia, Calif.) represent the seniors on the team. Wrapping up the returners for UD are Chloe Ilagan (Sugar Land, Texas), Paiten Baesa (Rockwall, Texas), Andriella Wagner (Round Rock, Texas), and Ingrid Stading (Austin, Texas).
Additions to the roster are newcomers: Moriah Delgado (Fort Worth, Texas), Abby Medico (Tulsa, Okla.), Faith Daniels (San Antonio, Texas), Cassie Dyoub (Frisco, Texas), Mary Aumen (Omaha, Neb.), and Lauren Vasquez (Wylie, Texas).
Keep up with the latest schedule updates on udallasathletics.com. At this time no spectators are permitted at any SCAC sponsored events.