ITHACA, N.Y. –  For nearly 300 days, the Cornell volleyball team and head coach Trudy Vande Berg have dreamed of getting back on the court. A promising 2021 season was derailed as injuries and bad luck saw the Big Red drop 12 of its final 15 matches.

Cornell, which took third in each of its previous three Ivy campaigns, dropped to seventh a season ago. Vande Berg and her entire team will have waited 294 long days to begin proving themselves again. That journey commences at the Kent State Invitational beginning on Friday, September 2.

The Big Red will host the Cornell Invitational on September 9-10 for the home openers, and then hit the road one last time to the South Florida Invitational before conference play kicks off on Saturday, September 24 with a home match against Columbia.

Vande Berg, the Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach of Volleyball, enters her eighth year at the helm. She has helped lead the Big Red back toward the top of the Ivy League, including a 17-win season in 2019. She expects her team will rebound this year. 
 
"I am incredibly hopeful for this season. As a staff, we truly enjoyed this preseason and how competitive and intense it was, even if it was such a short amount of time. The team has come together quickly and I can't wait to see them play as a unit this weekend." 
 
Vande Berg is confident in her freshman class. She feels the new recruits will add some much-needed depth to the team. 
 
"We had three all-Ivy players graduate and we need a lot of young players to step up this fall to achieve our goals. They have done an incredible job learning the system in the last couple of weeks."
 

Meet the Big Red

Cornell volleyball returns 12 players to the court this season, all of which were letter winners in 2021. Vande Berg adds seven newcomers to the roster to round out the team. The Big Red's roster consists of five sophomores, four juniors, and three seniors.

Liberos
All five of Cornell's liberos are returning from the 2021 roster, including Jackie Baker, Rylee Baptiste, Megan Bickel, Evan Reich, and Kate Stration. Baker returns as the team leader in digs with 242 across 68 sets played. She will be instrumental in the Big Red defense this year, as she recorded double-digit digs 14 times in last year's campaign. She opened her playing career earning back-to-back-to-back double-figure kills at the Crown Plaza Albany – The Desmond Hotel Volleyball Classic. She recorded her career high digs (20) last season in a five-set thriller against Columbia. Baptiste, who was classified as a setter in 2021, is no stranger to the defensive side, registering 99 digs in her 44 sets played.

Bickel, who had a team-high reception percentage of .965, will hit the court again this week, along with Evan Reich, who has returned for her senior season. Stration is recovering from an off-season injury, but returners as the team leader in service aces, boasting 23 last fall.

Setters
Of the three Cornell setters, two are new comers. Lone returner Emma Worthington is coming off a team-high 562 assist season. She followed closely behind Stration in service aces with 21. At the conclusion of the 2021 regular season, Worthington had the fifth-best assists per set number in the Ivy League with 8.2.

Freshmen Doga Ozalp and Joy Liu join the squad to help round out the position and add some depth. Ozalp joins the team from Istanbul, Turkey, and Liu follows in the footsteps of her sister, Joanna Chang, creating the third sister dynasty in Coach Vande Berg's career at Cornell.

Middle Blockers
The Big Red has five middle blockers on the roster, including returners Sydney Moore and Camryn Carlo, who combined for 92 blocks in 2021. Each averaged more than a block per set, and Carlo recorded just one blocking error across 41 sets played. Carlo also had a hitting percentage of .344 last season while averaging 1.68 kills per set, good for fourth in the Ivy League.

Alexa Orent and Sammie Engel also both return to the court this season, alongside a new face, Judy Uyanne, who was a late addition to the Big Red roster in August.

Outside Hitters
To round up the roster, the Big Red tallies six outside hitters, including four who double as right sides. Joanna Chang returns as the lone senior outside after notching 149 kills across 19 matches last season. She also recorded 16 aces and 17 blocks.

Brooke Cooper is the other returner at the position. She found action in 22 sets across 11 matches, recording 25 kills, 17 digs, and six blocks. Cornell adds four freshmen at the position - Meghan Gaffigan, Eliza Konvicka, Nicole Mallus, and Jordan Walker.