Volleyball is Set for a Successful Season with Captains Julia Torre ’25 and Ellie Gordon ’26

Annika Dyczkowski ’25

Executive Sports Editor

Women’s volleyball is warming up to an exciting season with a handful of successful performances in non-conference play. The Tripod had the opportunity to sit down with this season’s captains, Ellie Gordon ’26 and Julia Torre ’25, to discuss their accomplishments thus far, the keys to winning and the team’s ultimate goals as the season progresses. 

Gordon, a Sociology major and Formal Organizations minor from Los Angeles, Calif., transferred to Trinity last fall and has already proved her impact on the team with her leadership skills and dominance on the court. In addition to representing the Bantams as the volleyball captain, Gordon also spends her time working for the Watkinson Library. Gordon is a right-side hitter where she blocks and hits in the front row.  

Torre is a Neuroscience major and Formal Organizations minor from Cape Elizabeth, Maine and is a defensive specialist (DS) and libero for the Bantams, playing in the back row where she is responsible for defending and receiving serves, or digs. When not playing volleyball, she spends time doing research with Professor Raskin of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Playing a fall sport, the team arrived on campus for preseason two weeks before classes began. In addition to practicing multiple times a day, Torre described this time as the team “mostly getting to know each other and building a connection outside of volleyball.”

Gordon attributed their early successes in non-conference play to their new preseason practice structure, stating, “We did a lot of formal scrimmages this year in different groups and having that mix up every two days forces [us] to be more adaptable.” She continued, “We don’t have a formal scouting report for most out-of-conference teams, so that allowed us to be prepared and adjust to other teams that we might not know that much about, especially in these earlier games.”

Both captains elaborated on the importance of their preseason practice structure, stating that the key to success is figuring out individual strengths early in the season and capitalizing on them in games. “We have 19 girls on our team, which is the most that we’ve ever had,” said Gordon. “We’ve realized that if there’s something maybe one person can’t do that well, there’s always someone in the mix who can do it.” Practicing their individual strengths has allowed the Bantams an advantage over their competition, most notably in their 3-0 sweep against non-conference teams in the UMass Boston Tournament Sept. 6 through Sept. 7.

This weekend, Friday, Sept. 20 and Saturday, Sept. 21, the team will face their first NESCAC matchups against Williams College and Middlebury College, respectively. Regarding preparation for conference play, the captains are hesitant to prepare too soon. 

“We haven’t been preparing specifically for them and they’re not really on our radar yet, because we have other games to worry about,” says Torre. She pivoted, however, stating “usually what happens when that time comes is we’ll figure out what system they’re running on their side and then replicate those things in practice.”

Gordon continued on preparing for conference play, “It’s mostly about polishing things on our side of the net. We were successful against Williams last year because we didn’t let up at all, whereas with Middlebury we didn’t really see that.” She concluded, “It’s less of a change in preparation or changing our game and more of getting better about what we do.”

In addition to acknowledging individual strengths, both captains agreed that team culture is critical. Torre stated, “Our team culture is one of the reasons we’re doing so well right now.” She continued, “Everyone gets along really well and has established relationships outside of volleyball which really helps us to be confident when playing.”

“I completely agree,” Gordon added. “Even when we have a bad stretch of practices Julia and I are talking about what we can do as a team to get better together. I would describe our team culture as very close-knit and supportive.”

Torre even shared that her favorite part of being on a team is the people. “You have a group of people who you know are going to support you all the time. Coming in as a freshman and having immediate friends and people you know you have something in common with is nice.” Gordon added, “Volleyball is challenging mentally and physically, but you know there’s always people around you who are also being challenged and it brings us closer together.”

Gordon also addressed how every team member plays a role, where recognizing that role is crucial for the greater good of their success. “Obviously, no one would be a college athlete if they didn’t want to play on the court, but we have a common understanding that our goal is winning NESCACs… [which] we feel like that’s a really achievable goal for all of us.” She finished, “We support [our] coach for putting whoever on the court who will get that done.” Torre shared a similar sentiment as Gordon, adding that “having such a close-knit team is so important for us because we cannot play the sport without all six people on the court really relying on each other.”

The Bantams’ next game is away at United States Coast Guard Academy on Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 6 p.m., and their next home game is versus Worcester State University on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 11 a.m. Tune in online at bantamsports.com or attend their next home game in Ray Oosting Gymnasium to cheer on your Bantams!