The Pratt volleyball 2023 season has ended with the last game taking place on October 28 at Cloud County, resulting in a 3-0 loss. The Beavers finished 9-23 overall which is a two-win improvement from last season. The team unfortunately finished 0-16 in conference play but did compete and played better than what the record shows against several conference opponents.  

“Our record does not show how good we are. We were very competitive which was an improvement from last year,” said Head Volleyball Coach Brittany Urenda. “We still had our struggles, but with 14 freshman that is to be expected. There were a couple of games that only people we had on the floor were freshmen. We were a young team and some of the sophomores last year did not get the opportunity to play so it was first time on the court for a lot of people.”  

The team defeated Kansas Wesleyan (JV), Rose State College twice, Friends University (JV) twice, Independence, Bethany College (JV), Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, and Ottawa (JV). Sophomore Alyssa Hunter lead the team in total kills with 288 and averaged 2.88 kills a set. Hunter had 980 total attacks including 284 digs in 100 sets played. Freshman Lizzie Cisneros had 356 digs this season with an average of 3.52 digs a set. Leading the team in assists with 706 total and an average of 6.54 a set was Rylee Hallman. Hallman also led the team with 41 service aces.  

In 32 matches this season the Beavers averaged 9.57 kills a set, 9.15 aces a set, and 14.25 digs per set. In conference play, the team took two sets from both Garden City (1 set per match) and Cloud County this season. The coaching staff has already hit the recruiting trail this fall and will host spring practices with a few potential spring scrimmages as well.   

“We got three right now that will be signing and four that we are in the top of their conversations and so we hope those will come pretty soon,” said Coach Brittany Urenda. “Next year will be the first recruiting class that I will have all my players. The mindset of the freshman coming back is not what we want to do, but this is what we are going to do, and this is how we get there. They are all on board and even the freshman coming in are on board with changing the name and stigma. The way we were competitive this year in conference play I hope will turn into at least winning a couple of them next year.”