Under the helm of first-year head coach Ben Kazeta’s leadership, Northwestern State University’s volleyball team finished its 2025 season with a 1-29 overall record.
Julia Whitfield, a freshman business administration major and middle blocker, committed to NSU to be close to her family and fell in love with the community’s support for the university. Ever since she started playing for NSU, the team has been nothing but supportive.
“This team just gives me a high. Every day I walk in here [Prather Coliseum], I’m ready to go. I think we all share that same mindset, which makes it easier to come in here every day, even if we’re tired,” Whitfield said.
Whitfield’s favorite memory from this season is the bus rides with the team, and her favorite gameday snack is Uncrustables. “Instead of just one exact memory, the bus rides are my favorite. There’s so much stuff that gets shared, countless memories, we’re all in one place,” Whitfield said.
In the upcoming 2026 volleyball season, Whitfield shared that she is staying positive moving forward. “We have a new strength coach, and I think the overall vibe of this team just pushes us to work,” Whitfield said. “We’re looking forward to next season. I think it’s going to be a great year. I’m excited for what’s to come.”
Riley Schubert, a redshirt freshman radiology major and right side player, said that before she committed to NSU, she went to a school close to Whitfield. “Then, meeting Coach Ben. I really like what his coaching philosophy was and how he wanted to run this team,” Schubert said. “That’s what attracted me to the program.”
At the beginning of the season, Schubert broke her rib during the expedition match against Louisiana Tech University. “I was out the whole season, but I get a fifth year to play. I want to be the best for my teammates,” Schubert said.
Schubert added that the team has the game goal in mind going into the 2026 season, and the team’s dynamic is rapidly changing moving forward.
“We’re definitely all on the same page and want to work our butts off,” Schubert said. “We have a really good, diverse group of girls, and we have more girls coming in. I think we’re building our team from scratch. We have good leadership in order to achieve that.”
Originally from Tarragona, Spain, Elsie Sanchez Oliver, a freshman psychology major and outside hitter, wanted to study in the United States, and volleyball was the means to achieve this goal. “I chose this university because I love the campus, and I feel like people here were more welcoming than at other campuses,” Sanchez Oliver said. “I love the coaches in my experiences.”
Sanchez Oliver said that in the spring 2026 semester, everyone is working hard and putting in a lot of effort to improve. “I feel like we’re going to be ready for next season,” she said.
Her favorite memory from this past season was eating in Vic’s in the Friedman Student Union with her teammates. She said that they shared their childhood memories, and she loved hearing about other cultures.
Sanchez Oliver suffered an injury, so she was unable to play most of the season. She added that her favorite match-up of the season was against the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “We lost it, and I kind of hurt myself. I really enjoyed it because it was a high-level team,” she said. “I still went to the bench to support my teammates, and it was fun too.”
With veteran players graduating this spring, she shared that she’s looking forward to Fall 2026. “This season was a little bit hard, not just for me, but also for other teammates, and now our seniors are gone. I feel like we’ve built a lot of trust between my teammates right now,” Sanchez Oliver said. “We’re ready for next season, and we’re rocking it.”
