Mishawaka volleyball has fast start to 2024 campaign with grad Randa Adams at the helm

MISHAWAKA — Randa Adams always envisioned leaving the Mishawaka volleyball coaching staff at the same time as head coach Steve Anderson .

When Anderson retired for a second time following the 2023 season, though, Adams knew she wanted to stay. Less than a month after Anderson stepped down, Adams was named the new head coach for a program that’s meant so much to her for her life.

The 1994 Mishawaka graduate now leads the Cavemen volleyball program, which is off to an 8-1 start this fall. They won their first eight matches before dropping a three-set battle to Warsaw to start Northern Lakes Conference action for both Tuesday night.

“I think when you’re a part of the program and you’re watching the girls come up from freshman year on or even eighth grade, you get to know them and really value them,” Adams said. “You want to see them succeed, so I felt like I was hoping to be the person to help them do that.”

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Adams' journey to becoming Mishawaka volleyball head coach

Adams played under Anderson during the golden era of the program. Mishawaka made the state semifinals all four years Adams played, which was part of a two-decade stretch that saw the Cavemen win three state titles, finish state runner-up four times and reach the final four on 15 occasions.

Anderson retired for the first time following the 2005 campaign, one that saw Mishawaka reach the Class 4A semifinals. More than a decade later, though, Anderson returned in 2016 to revitalize the Caveman program. He hired Adams as an assistant coach, who had spent nearly two decades coaching club volleyball in the area at that time.

Adams served in various roles during Anderson’s eight-season return, ultimately becoming the varsity assistant by the end. Anderson went 138-123 in his second stint to give himself a career record of 913-262

“I really thought we’d kind of finish out together, but things change,” Adams said. “And honestly, it’s been a blessing and I’ve really enjoyed it so far.”

Strong start to the 2024 season

Mishawaka started its season strong on the first day of competitions, winning all four of its matches at the South Central tournament to win the championship. Regular season wins over Mishawaka Marian, South Bend Adams, Elkhart and John Glenn followed, giving the Cavemen one of its best starts in recent history.

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“Normally, we don’t play this many matches that early,” Adams said. “That was kind of a different thing for us; normally we don’t have a tournament until after our tournament (this upcoming weekend). I feel like at the beginning of the season, everyone’s fired up. They just came off all the summer workouts and hard work they put in, and I feel like that gave us a really strong run in the beginning.”

It’s been a team effort for the Cavemen with different players stepping up in their respective roles. Randa’s daughter, Ellie, leads the team in kills with 79, but seniors Cianna Burton and Audrey Scott are right behind with 60 and 49 kills, respectively. Senior Ella Watford has a team-best 112 digs, while junior Cassie Creech already has 218 assists in just 25 sets played.

“Our culture is really good,” Creech said. “Randa is big about that, too, stepping into the head coaching position. She’s big on culture. … Volleyball is a team sport; it’s not just one person that can win or lose the game for you. The more you’re together as a team, the more you’ll win.”

Tuesday was the toughest test for Mishawaka so far against the defending NLC champs in Warsaw. While the Cavemen showed stretches of strong play in the first two sets, the Tigers had control for most of them. The third set was Mishawaka’s best, though, even building the lead to 24-21 before a 7-2 rally by Warsaw ended the match.

It was a good litmus test for a program hoping to get back to being one of the state’s best.

“We need a little more discipline with our defense and even a little bit with our offense,” Adams said. “Being aggressive, staying aggressive, not being timid — you’re going to make errors. Volleyball is a game of errors, so it’s about how you’re going to recover from those errors. We’re going to work on that a little bit more.”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Mishawaka volleyball has fast start to 2024 campaign with grad Randa Adams at the helm