Heading into the 2016 season, the men’s club volleyball team looks to build off of a strong performance last year after it finished fifth at Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky.

Vice president Nick Shirley is very excited for the upcoming year. Shirley is entering his third year with the team.

“I really like the organization we have,” Shirley said.

Shirley enjoys being on the team because he can teach new players how to play the game of volleyball and eventually hope they will love the game as much as he does. Despite losing a lot of players, it gained a handful of new players.

“[The new players] can really help out the team this year, really interested to see how the year moves forward,” Shirley said.

The team practices on Tuesday and Thursday of every week and attends a tournament approximately three times a semester. The team consists of 12 men including Shirley. The team scrimmaged against Duke Sept. 17.

Just as the men’s team, the women’s club volleyball team is excited for this upcoming season as well after earning a fifth place finish in the gold bracket at Nationals last season.

Club president Hayden Lundahl will be entering her third season with the team.

“I love the leadership role not only as president, but as captain and coach too,” Lundahl said.

Along with vice president Victoria Vucich, they are both ecstatic to hold leadership roles. Vucich is entering her second season with the team.

“I played volleyball for a while then had an arm injury,” Vucich said. “Once that healed, Hayden talked me into joining the team.”

Being vice president she describes how she feels as though it is very important to make sure that you are a peer to the players as well as a coach. Both Lundahl and Vucich are excited to see what the year will bring as they look to capitalize off last season’s stellar performance.

“We have a lot of good freshman this year,” Lundahl said. “All around have a lot of good experience and [the players] works well as a team.”

The team practices two times a week and will enter into a few tournaments this year. The team consists of over 12 players including Lundahl and Vucich. It will open up its season with a home tournament Oct. 22.