This season, Pacific’s volleyball team has high hopes for going to the playoffs, and sophomore Mariah McHolland does her part to achieve that goal.
McHolland, who has played volleyball for eight years, said she feels lucky to be part of a team that has great chemistry this year.
“I love our team here and the way we interact with each other,” said McHolland. “The girls are all pretty close and the coaches are great, know what they’re talking about and give good feedback.”
After quitting basketball to focus on volleyball, McHolland eventually found herself at Pacific to pursue the sport as a college athlete.
Having been on the team since she arrived in Forest Grove to start school in August of 2010, volleyball has been a large part of her experience at Pacific.
This year in particular their goals are close.
“Our whole team wants to go to playoffs,” McHolland said. “We’re extremely capable.”
McHolland said this year the team needs to keep the energy up and stay focused during training and games.
She thinks they have a good shot of going to the playoffs.
To go, the team will need to finish with the second or third place spot in the Northwest Conference and can do so by winning the rest of their games.
“We’re winning and it’s been really exciting,” McHolland said. “We’re a good team and we’re realizing it.”
The exercise science major from Renton, Wash. said she has always had good coaches, which has been a big factor not only in her success but also her love of the sport.
“I’m just really passionate about sports,” she said.
And after all these years, she still loves it.
“I love that feeling you get when you get a good kill or block and then your whole team comes in and everyone is pumped,” she said.
Being a college athlete however is not without its challenges.
McHolland doesn’t seem to have too much trouble balancing her sport with her academics. She has been able to catch up after missing quite a bit of class at the start of the semester due to traveling with the team and is looking excitedly toward the future.
This year she wants to go to the playoffs along with the rest of her team.
In the next few years, McHolland wants to continue to play volleyball, improve her skills, help head coach Lena Chan coach her club team, and to graduate and enroll in Pacific’s School of Occupation Therapy.
Volleyball plays Linfield Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. in McMinnville, Ore.
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