Bronco Talk
Women's club volleyball outside hitter Justine Schiele talks to The Santa Clara about the team and how she got into volleyball.
TSC: How has the team performed so far this year?
JS: Good. We have a lot of new girls, so it's been adjusting to how they play.
TSC: What are the team's strong points?
JS: We are good. We have good chemistry. We just play well together, it's not any one particular thing that we do. We adjust to teams well. We don't have the biggest, tallest hitters or strongest blockers, but we're all very competent and we all just get the job done.
TSC: Do you guys spend a lot of time together off the court?
JS: Yes, we do. I'm actually social chair, and we do a lot of bonding, bowling nights. We all hang out after games. We're pretty tight. We do a lot of stuff with the guys team too, because we have a lot of the same tournaments as them. So we all hang out.
TSC: What do you think the team needs to work on?
JS: It varies. Passing is a big part of the game because that helps you run your whole offense. We do struggle with that at times. Defense has been a bit of a struggle.
TSC: Do you feel the competition at the club level is good?
JS: Our league isn't as strong. We usually find most of our competition when we go to tournaments. We go to a tournament in Davis, which brings some other California teams that are good, like USC and UCLA. Las Vegas is a huge tournament for us. Nationals is where we see most of the teams since our league isn't very strong compared to us.
TSC: How did you get into volleyball?
JS: I've played volleyball year-round since fifth grade and all through high school. When it came time to play in college, I was getting offers and was going play, and then decided I wasn't going to do that.
I picked Santa Clara because I liked the school and I knew a girl here who played on the club team. I lived down the hall from some guys on the club team as well, and they convinced me to come play.
TSC: What's your favorite thing about Santa Clara club volleyball?
JS: The girls. I love my teammates. I think that if I didn't like my teammates, I wouldn't be playing. As much as I love volleyball, they make the experience that much better.
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