By Duane Cochran for FightingFalcons.com

After eight consecutive 20-or-more win seasons and not finishing any lower than fourth in the 12-team Mountain East Conference since its inception in 2013 Fairmont State's volleyball hit a rough patch so to speak in 2018.
 
Last fall the Falcons had a lot of youth in their program and at times that youth showed. Fairmont State finished 13-17 overall and 7-9 and in eighth place in the final regular-season MEC standings.
 
Needless to say coach Courtney Materazzi and her veteran returning players for 2019 weren't happy and since the end of the 2018 campaign they have set their sights on making Fairmont State's program one of the elite ones again in the Mountain East Conference.
 
"In a good way we lost our entitlement last season," said Materazzi, Fairmont State's sixth-year coach who is 104-57 as the Falcons' boss. "We understand we're not owed anything because of the Fairmont name on our jerseys. We have to work for it and we have to earn it.
 
"We were young last year and there were times when that youth showed. For several years we employed a certain style of offense and mainly that was to set up Mackenzie Harrison (the 2017 D2CCA National Player of the Year). With her gone last year we had to have people learn how to step up for us and navigate this new generation of a team. Now, that came with some bumps and bruises and at times it was a real learning experience for us. The good thing is this spring our players took things very seriously. They knew we had a drop off last year and didn't like it. They've worked very hard to get us to the point we are now as a team entering the 2019 season."
 
As Fairmont State prepares for its season-opening tournament this Friday in Ashland, Ohio where it will face Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference opponents California (Pa.) University and Bloomsburg University on the first day and Ashland University and Felician University on the second day, Materazzi says she likes the energy and feedback her team has been supplying during practices.
 
"This team has super high energy, which I think is great, and a lot of voices," Materazzi said. "That's a good thing. We ask our players to give us a lot of feedback and opinions in our drills and in practice in general and they're doing that. It's been fun, positive and good for us as a program.
 
"Right now I think we're confident, prepared, ready and accountable as we head into our season opener."
 
Fairmont State returns seven players from last season who saw action in 23 or more matches and has some talented players in its incoming freshman class.
 
Headlining Fairmont's returners are senior outside hitter Emma Mobley and redshirt junior middle hitter Rebecca Feeney. Mobley recorded 238 kills, 334 digs and 51 total blocks as a junior, while Feeney tallied 218 kills and 135 blocks last fall. Feeney ranked 19th in the country and second in the league in total blocks in 2018.
 
"Our goal is to get ourselves, as a team, back to the top of the conference standings," Mobley said. "We had a very young team last year with lots of inexperience in volleyball at the college level. The good thing is we have a lot of starters returning who got good experience last fall and a good freshman class, which like our veterans, is hungry and wants to restore our program to where we think it should be.
 
"As difficult as last year was at times I think we did learn from it and we did grow as a team as the season went on. We ended up winning something like nine of our last 14 games so we made strides and we've tried in the spring and this fall to carry on with that. I think we're anxious to get the season started and ready to play."
 
Feeney agrees.
 
"Last year hurt," Feeney said. "I'm not going to lie. We were not used to having seasons like that. Because of that I think this year all of our expectations for ourselves as players and our team as a whole are really high, especially for our returning players. Knowing the feeling we had last year and having expectations and not meeting them really motivated us this off season. We know we have to be better and we all want to be better.
 
"There's a hungry feeling on our team. We know now we're kind of in an underdog role. We were picked to finish seventh in the league. We'll take that, own it and we plan on doing whatever we have to do to work our way back to the top of the conference. As a team we can't say that wasn't deserved. We knew it was coming and right now it's up to us as a team to change that. Believe me we're motivated. The season starts this weekend and we're all looking forward to it."
 
In addition to Mobley and Feeney, Fairmont State also returns senior right side hitter Emily Suppel who ranked third on the team in kills last fall with 189 and sophomore libero and outside hitter Julia DiPaola, who finished the year with 149 kills, 329 digs, 28 blocks and 20 service aces.
 
Also back for the Falcons is junior middle hitter Taylor Wisniewski who had 105 kills and 99 blocks last year and sophomore setters Kelsey Moeller and Lily Keber. Moeller finished with 496 assists and 210 digs, while Keber, who can also play right side, had a team-high 548 assists and 182 digs.
 
Fairmont State has the unenviable task of playing its first 14 matches this season away from home. The Falcons' first home match is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 4 against perennial Mountain East Conference power Wheeling University at 7 p.m.
 
"To get going and play the teams we want to play in our region those tournaments are on the road so it is what it is," Materazzi said. "This season is a bit unique in that we usually have our first conference game at home, but that's not the case this year.
 
"One thing I think about this team is it will make the best of it. Our players, I believe, do a good job of understanding any gym is a gym. The lines are the same and no matter where we're playing we've got to give great effort, not worry about things we can't control, take care of the things we can control and just attack it that way. If we do that I think we'll be fine."