With a scrimmage versus Trinidad Junior College and a hard-fought exhibition against the University of New Mexico under their belt, the New Mexico Highlands University Women's Volleyball team travels to Oklahoma this week for the Southeastern Oklahoma Classic. The Cowgirls will play two sets on both Friday and Saturday, Sept. 3-4.
The Southeastern Classic marks the return to action for the HU program as well as new head coach
Tom Duke. The Cowgirls have not played an official match since the fall of 2019 due to the shut-down of NMHU athletic teams last fall and coach
Tom Duke returns to the NMHU sideline where he last coached in 2007. Duke led the NMHU program from 2002 to 2007including an all-time best season record of 19-7 in 2005 and also two RMAC West second place finishes.
"I'm excited, everyone is excited," said Duke as he looked forward to the weekend tourney, "The last year has been especially tough on college athletes and we just want to play some volleyball again." The Cowgirls will face squads from Central Oklahoma, Southeastern Oklahoma, the University of Texas-Tyler and Southern Nazarene in the two-day Classic.
The Cowgirls return some outstanding veteran talent to go along with a sprinkling of newcomers heading into the season. "It's a little unknown right now," said Duke, "We are figuring out roles and rotations—but the women have worked really hard and done everything we have asked as coaches." The team returns both
Keegan Lopez and
Taley Ferrari who led the Cowgirl attack during the 2019 season as well as
Stacy Johnson—second in blocks behind Ferrari during the 2019 campaign. Also returning is
Elena Rivera who took time off from volleyball to win the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title in the high jump during the 2021 track and field season. "We have a good combination talent and real athletes on the squad. Putting it together and developing team chemistry is going to be the key," noted Duke.
Among the new faces is
Angelina Oliver— an all-state performer and one of the top prep players in New Mexico during her career at Cibola HS (Albuquerque, NM)—Oliver was recruited to HU for the cancelled 2020 season and has been waiting more than a year for her official college debut. New outside hitter
Terayah Stukes comes in after being named a junior college All-American during her career at Glendale CC in Arizona.
For links to tournament results, live stats and streaming visit:
2021 Women's Volleyball Schedule - Southeastern Oklahoma State University Athletics (gosoutheastern.com)
