Following last year’s success, the Ithaca College volleyball team has big plans for the fall 2023 season.
Last season, the Bombers won their first Liberty League Championship in program history with an overall season record of 25–5 and a perfect conference record of 8–0. The Bombers’ season ended in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament in a 0–3 loss against Christopher Newport University.
Head coach Johan Dulfer said he anticipates that the team will have many opportunities to learn and grow as they take on tougher opponents this season. The season begins Sept. 1 at New York University with an invitational at Massachusetts Institute of Technology the following weekend.
“I think you learn the most in life when you are on the edge of failure because the edge of failure is also the edge of success,” Dulfer said. “If you’re too comfortable on one side or the other, you’re not learning anything; you need to be right on the edge. We have to put a schedule in front of [the team] that is tough. … I want my players to constantly be pushed and be under pressure and to have to figure out answers.”
The volleyball team, while welcoming three first-year students and two transfers, will also be gaining their first full-time assistant coach in the program’s history, Camryn Bancroft.
Bancroft played volleyball for Springfield College for five seasons, one of them as a graduate student. She was the assistant volleyball coach at Springfield College from January 2022 until joining the Bombers in April 2023. Bancroft said she heard about Ithaca College from her former head coach.
“My coach [at Springfield College] said, ‘You’d fit in great there, [the program is] very successful, [it has] very similar core values’ … and I just like winning,” Bancroft said. “I knew that this program knows how to win, Coach Dulfer knows how to win, so I wanted to learn everything I could from him.”
After working with the Bombers during the spring semester, Bancroft said she is looking forward to learning more about the players on the team, seeing how they play and which players step up as leaders.
“I think that we’re going to be very good talent-wise. … There’s so many options of what could happen and who plays, all the fun stuff,” Bancroft said. “I’m just excited to get in the gym and see them play.”
Senior captain outside hitter Alexandra Montgomery said the team is eager to have Bancroft with the team for the upcoming season.
“We’re all super excited,” Montgomery said. “It’s going to be a little bit different from last season when we only had one full-time coach giving us any feedback, so [we are] making sure we’re really open to being coachable, learning new things and having a lot more feedback coming at us.”
Montgomery said she hopes the team can win the Liberty League again and make it further in the NCAA tournament. She said she expects hard work from the players so that they can all work together to reach team goals. Since so much was accomplished last season, Montgomery said that readjusting those goals will be vital for continued progress.
Both coaches and players said the team culture is a valuable part of a successful season. Junior setter Peyton Miller said she was able to stay motivated while conditioning by herself over the summer knowing her team was doing the same because they all have the same passion to meet team goals.
“I think we always strive to be a really successful program,” Miller said. “I think that we all are able to hold each other accountable and we all have the same goal at the end of the day to try to win championships. That only happens if everyone puts in the work; that really motivates me to do my part.”
Miller said the team dynamic is strong because of how much time they spend together on and off the court.
“All the girls in my year are my best friends,” Miller said. “The whole team, we all go out to dinner, we all hang out, we walk to classes together; I would consider them my closest friends and would do anything and everything with them and for them.”
Miller and Montgomery both said Dulfer is always pushing the team to improve their skills while also meeting with them individually outside of practices to better understand the team on and off the court.
“I know [Dulfer] very carefully plans every practice to make sure we’re working on what we need to and getting ready for the next opponent,” Montgomery said. “He’s trying to get to know everyone and make sure that he’s able to push everyone in the way that’s going to best help them in their needs with his coaching style.”
Following the Liberty League victory and losing two highly praised seniors, Dulfer said this season is a turning point in the program to reflect on where the team can go from here.
“I think this team is going to prove that the whole is going to be better than the sum of its parts. … I really look forward to helping prove that because it’s a really good life lesson,” Dulfer said. “If I’m right and we can do that, I think that it shows there’s a better hope for the world if it’s not about individuals and I don’t think it ever should be.”
Dulfer said that based on the progress the entire team made during spring training, he expects the team to take the next step and make it further in the NCAA tournament.
“I don’t know if we can beat 25–5, I think our schedule is too tough for that, but I think that we could potentially be a better team come NCAA tournament time than last year’s team,” Dulfer said.
With a taste of success, Dulfer said the Bombers understand greater challenges await them. However, the team will work on being less predictable, more passionate and having fun in their game.
“My hope is that the way we play this year is going to be really fun,” Dulfer said. “It’s part of our philosophy statement for this year that it should be fun for them to play the way we want to play, and I think it’s going to be really fun to watch.”
The team will open up the season at the NYU Invitational Sep. 1 in New York City.
