Nearly one and a half years passed by before Chapman women’s volleyball got to play a competitive match again.

The last time they took the floor of the Harold Hutton Sports Center for a game was Nov. 9, 2019, with a 25-13, 25-23 and 25-17 loss to Claremont Mudd-Scripps in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) final.

Their April 27, 2021 match didn’t carry the same intrigue. It wasn’t a playoff game — far from it. In fact, the team wasn’t even playing another opponent; they were simply hosting an intrasquad scrimmage. Yet ultimately, it came as no less of a thrill. 

“It felt super great,” said junior Sophie Srivastava. “We’ve been practicing, but being able to have film was really exciting for all of us.”

The team has been working out within the Hutton Sports Center since late March. However, the April 27 scrimmage differed in that team members were finally able to don jerseys and parents were able to watch the game via internet broadcast. Srivastava said her family enjoyed being able to see the team back in action.

In addition to the refreshing return to something resembling normalcy, junior Jessi Lumsden noted the impact of scrimmages like these in helping freshmen get accustomed to Chapman volleyball — something that’s been difficult with athletics intermittently put on hiatus for the past year.

“Volleyball is definitely a very technique-oriented sport,” Lumsden said. “Making (the freshmen) feel comfortable to compete in the fall is what we’re focusing on in these weeks of practice. It also gives us an opportunity to form relationships with these freshmen, which is really fun.”

The simulated game setting not only served as an opportunity for head coach Mary Cahill’s returning players from 2019 to re-experience a semblance of normal competition, but also offered her freshmen recruits some in-game action. 

“It means a lot for my team to get together, but it (especially) means a lot for my freshmen,” Cahill said. “It does help out with the team chemistry on and off the court.”

For other indoor sports like basketball, the same opportunity to return to the Hutton Sports Center has arisen. But for women’s basketball, practices don’t have the same competitive feel. Junior guard Julianna Campas noted that some women’s basketball team members have elected to forego practices for pandemic-related safety reasons or because they’re living at home this semester. Instead, those who are back at practice are able to enjoy the opportunity of a bit of a return to normalcy.

“We started out with a bit of a shootaround: getting our shot back and getting used to being in the gym,” Campas said. “This week we started doing drills and team stuff with the people we have, because not everyone’s back right now.”

With the fall season on the horizon, athletes are looking forward to being back in action. To do their part to make that happen, Lumsden noted the team’s ability to keep each other accountable in order to maintain their ability to practice the sport they love.

“I think recognizing (how much they missed playing) pushed us all to perform at our best, because who knows what’s going to happen with COVID,” Lumsden said. “If things get worse, we want to be able to put it all out on the court.”