Koalas Volleyball gears up for 2018 Season

The Columbia College volleyball team will return to campus August 12th looking to build in their second season under Head Coach Keyaira Stevenson in 2018.

With the addition of CIU, there are now 15 teams in the Appalachian Athletic Conference for women’s volleyball, meaning a large majority of the games for the Koalas will be conference games. In addition, the Koalas will host their first home volleyball tournament, The Columbia Classic, on September 1st at Godbold Gymnasium.  

Columbia College ended the season early due to injury in 2017 and although the circumstances were unfortunate, the team is looking forward to the upcoming season a with a total of 21 team members. Coach Stevenson commented, “I am super excited about this season coming up. I think I’m mostly excited about the team being able to come together and play the game that we love. We have some young, raw talent on our team this year, and I’m anxious to see how we compete!”

The Koalas will return many familiar faces while also adding in a great mix of newcomers to populate the 2018 roster. Seniors this year are Shanae Hughes, former softball player Taylor Rawl, and Michaela Taylor who is returning from hip surgery. 

Junior returner Hunter LaFrage is joined by newcomer Skye Shaw, while two fellow juniors, Alicia Carlson and Lauren Walters, will unfortunately miss the season due to injuries. 

Sophomores for the Koalas include returners Thalia Watkins and Edlyan Rodriguez, former CC track and field team member Elizabeth Chrisley, and a transfer in the form of Shalyn Goodloe.

The biggest class of the lot comes in the form of the first years, as a group including Brianna King, Kaitlyn Wall, Jalyn Pace, Iyceiss Drayton, Rebecca Lorimer, Zahria Thomas, Cassidy Jacobs, Taj McDonald, Emily Lotts, and Diamond Moore will look to help the young but talented Koalas compete in the AAC. 

The Koalas open their season with their home tournament, the Columbia Classic, on September 1st, and for information on the tournament or anything else to do with the volleyball page, please contact Head Coach Keyaira Stevenson at kstevenson@columbiasc.edu