Northeastern women’s volleyball is set to kick off its season with the Holly Young Invitational Aug. 29 to 30 in Durham, N.H. The Huskies are slotted against Saint Peter’s University, Holy Cross University and the University of New Hampshire.
During the offseason, the Huskies announced that Brendan McGourn would be the team’s new head coach, and Jaime Snyder was named associate head coach for this season. The changes came after a difficult season for the Huskies, finishing with a 10-16 overall and 8-10 in the CAA and a missed CAA tournament.
In addition to new coaches, the Huskies are starting fresh with a completely different roster. Northeastern acquired seven freshmen, one redshirt freshman and one graduate student after six players from last season’s team graduated. Last season’s leaders in kills, blocks and assists are now gone, leaving senior libero Nadia Koanui as the only category leader in digs and service aces.
Graduate student outside hitter Svenja Rodenbüsch and redshirt freshman outside hitter Valentina Meirelles are the Huskies’ only additions with previous experience on a college court. Meirelles appeared in five matches for the University of California San Diego before missing the rest of the season due to injury. However, she showed promise, tallying six kills in each of her first two games. Rodenbüsch won two national championships in Germany and was an NJCAA All-American in 2022 before ending her undergraduate career at Fairfield University. At Fairfield, Rodenbüsch averaged 1.78 kills and 1.27 digs per set, as well as 53 blocks last season. In the first round of the NCAA playoffs for the last two years, Rodenbüsch led her team in kills.
Koanui, incoming sophomore setter Gabby Reeves and incoming sophomore outside hitter Brynn Smith are going to be key parts of the team’s success, carrying on their legacy from last season. Koanui was first on the team in digs with 459, first in service aces with 23 and third in assists with 96. Reeves ranked fifth in digs, fourth in assists with 72 and third in service aces with 18. Smith was fourth on the team in kills and fifth on the team in aces, with 168 and 13, respectively.
The Huskies begin conference play Sept. 19 at Stony Brook University and have their first home game Sept. 26 against Towson University at Cabot Center.
