Pacific Index

The Reshaping of Pacific Volleyball

   As autumn’s vibrant red leaves return to the trees across Pacific University, a matching wave of red-uniformed players takes to the floor of the Stoller Center. This is, of course, the Pacific University Boxer Volleyball team, rostering ten new players (over half the team), including eight freshmen. They return four seniors, two juniors, one sophomore, and, of course, their beloved coaches: Rachel Renville, back for her second season as Boxer Volleyball head coach, assistant coach Sara Parker, and former player-turned-assistant coach Emma Wickett.

   After finishing the 2025 season with an underwhelming record of five wins to 16 losses and losing a large senior class, the question for the fall goes as follows: Will these young athletes be enough to give this program some much-needed success in the 2026 season and lead them out of the near bottom of the conference?

   The answer is still to be determined, as the team hit rocky waters early, facing some of the nation’s top D-III teams in week one. During their trip up north to the Puget Sound Premiere, the Boxers took on the defending national champions, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Titans and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls—and dropped all matches against the tough opponents. 

   Not much changed for the team during the Oregon Classic, as the Boxers fought in long sets against another pair of strong opponents. On the bright side, the squad was able to win their first sets of the year in a heartbreaking 2-3 loss to Hamline out of St Paul, Minnesota.

   Standouts in these games included 2025 NWC All-Conference selection Senior Emma Velchek, one of the Boxers’ strongest outside hitters during her career at Pacific. After four games, Velchek has already racked up 41 kills, leading the team, and 33 digs. In an interview with Pacific University Athletics, Head Coach Renville boasts about the confidence she has in Velchek to succeed. “I think she’s going to kill it, but I hope this year she has a lot more fun and just finds the joy of the game.”

   Alongside Velchek, Sophomore Callie Turner has shown a lot of promise for the Boxers, with 54 assists as one of their setters, and leading the digs category with 42 digs is freshman defensive specialist Kira Fujimoto. 

   Some other notable new faces to look out for on the court are outside hitter Quinn Freitag, middle blocker Makenna Ennes, and outside hitter Isabelle Darnell, all freshmen.

   The young talent of this team, combined with the experience the senior class brings, bodes well for the Boxers’ future. If this team continues to build strong chemistry on the court and improve as a unit, they can likely achieve a better conference record than in previous years, hopefully setting up this year’s freshman class for triumph throughout their four years of college volleyball. 

   Coming up, the Boxers take a short weekend trip to California to play Pomona-Pitzer, Occidental College, and Chapman University. Three teams that should be good matchups for the Boxers. Then the team will start conference play on the road for a while before returning to Stoller Center on Friday, September 25.