They are about to return.
The volleyball and mens and womens soccer teams from North Carolina Wesleyan University will begin their respective seasons this weekend.
The volleyball team under head coach Vicky Gentile will take to the court for a scrimmage in Everett Gymnasium against Pitt Community College. Match time is 6 p.m. on Friday. The Bishops’ season openers will be Friday, Sept. 6 against Hollins (2 p.m.) and Roanoke (6 p.m.) in Salem, Virginia.
The mens soccer team will travel to Mary Washington at 5 p.m. on Friday for its season opener, while the womens squad will face Bob Jones at 6:30 p.m. at Meredith College’s Athletic Field and Track Complex.
The womens soccer team will play Wisconsin-Lutheran at 4 p.m. on Saturday at Meredith, while the mens soccer team plays at Randolph-Macon at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Next week, the womens soccer team will have its home opener at 4 p.m. on Wednesday (Sept. 4) against Guilford and will play at LaGrange at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6, and at Salem (Virginia) at 10 a.m. and Randolph at 2 p.m. on Sunday (Sept. 7).
The mens soccer team opposes Bethel at 5:30 p.m. in Wheaton, Illinois.
VOLLEYBALL
With 11 returners off last year’s team, the Wesleyan spikers are hoping to change their fortunes this season after going 8-23 last season, including 5-13 in the USA South Conference.
The leader of the returners is senior setter Sloan Martin, who had 269 kills, averaged five-plus assists per set and reached the 1,000-career assist mark for her career last season on her way to earning USAS honorable mention.
She is joined by senior Hannah Byrd (11 kills, six digs), senior Josie Bravo (82 digs as a junior), juniors Emily Foraker (63 kills) and Amber Pearce (103 digs in 88 sets), sophomores Fiona Egan (183 kills as a freshman) and Alayah Vazquez (159 kills and 122 blocks), juniors Lauren Martin and Makayla Simmons and sophomores Jen Pilkenton and Camille Gibson.
The roster is filled out by the addition of eight freshmen: Chloe Baggett (Nash Central High School), Akrie Williams, Shay Lunsford, Brooke Mandozzi, Jadyn Smith, Brooklyn Covic, Alexis Pope and Reagan Harris.
The USA South released its 2024 preseason volleyball poll and the Bishops are picked to finish ninth in the league. Voted on by the head coaches in the conference, Wesleyan received 22 votes.
WOMENS SOCCER
Wesleyan head womens soccer coach Beverly Biancur has a wealth of experience returning (16 players), and the Bishops are hoping to improve upon last season’s records of 3-13 overall and 1-8 in the USA South Conference.
Samantha Dell, a junior midfielder, is the leading returning scorer from a year ago as she tallied eight goals and had three assists on her way to being named the team’s most valuable player and well as second-team all-conference by the USA South.
Other returners include senior Caitlyn Butler (three goals), junior Mia Scherber (two goals, two assists), junior Eden Whiteside (one goal, two assists), junior Nicole Yagi (one goal), senior Alicia Harp, senior Mackenzie Stalfire, senior Alaska Evans, senior Madelyne Edwards, and sophomores Kylee Casola, Sophia Adame, Kaileigh St. Louis, Makenzie Thornton, Makayla Farrow, Olivia Dyjewski and Mathilda Smith.
This year’s team is rounded out by 11 freshmen: Grace Walls, Nicole Goodwin, Makena Meyer, Rachael Denis, Brynne Snider, Kaylee Summerlin (Nash Central High School), Riley French, Mary Chambers, Peyton Staub, Olivia Fanning and Masion Berrios.
The Bishops are picked to finish seventh in the USA South Conference this season in a preseason vote by the league’s head coaches.
MENS SOCCER
The Wesleyan mens soccer team is hoping to live up to the lofty pick by league coaches as the favorite to win the USA South Conference championship this season.
Head coaches can’t vote for their own teams in the balloting.
Wesleyan received 45 total votes and four of the possible eight first-place votes after placing second in the league last year with a 5-1-1 record and a 9-6-4 overall mark and advanced to the tournament championship match before falling in penalty kicks to Brevard.
Head Coach Mark Boseman has 56 players on this year’s roster.
Among them are several key returners: senior Bastien Dechamps (nine goals, nine assists), senior Osei Darko (seven goals, one assist), junior Tiago Feler (six goals, three assists), senior Justo Esponda-Neuss (three goals), sophomore Daan Post (one goal), junior Lucas Marangos (one assist), sophomore Adriano Peloni (one assist) and junior Bautista Melilo (one goal).
Also returning is senior Rafael Farina, the Bishops’ starting goalkeeper. Farina recorded 66 saves last season.
The rest of this year’s roster is as follows: Elias Barnaud, Facundo Boismoreau, Wessel Eldering, Augustin Cardaci, Jordy Donan-Cordon, Joel McGuinness, Carson Evans, Mohamed Macalou, Rafael Weinberg, Milson Morales, Silas Hartkaemper, Jordi Rodriguez, Pablo Cornejo-Jimenez, Gianluca Nanni, Santiago Lovera, Finlay Evans, Nicolas Sautuz, Allesandro Rongoni, Xavier Barnes, Samuel Zaitoun, Omar Guadiaby, Santiago Castilla Sastre, Benjamin Eckell, Jose Del Vecchio, Jonathan Donan-Cordon, Sebastian Morera, Matias De Miguel, David Goossens, Max Diaz Elizarde, Julian Gamboa, Tom Roantree, Stav Shaham, Joaquin Goldman, Corentin Solitaire, Hakon Jin Szetu, David Luebbers, Kars Meirink, Tobie Smith, Harry Coggins, Adolfo Jorge Rospide, John Hassan, Christian Rosenberg, Duuk Hoeks, Nicolas Robatto, Jaden Delos, Cole Sheehan and Jacob Westermark.
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