Notre Dame-Belmont happy to be back on the court

“That was our cheer [Monday], ‘We in the building!’” Notre Dame Belmont head coach Jen Agresti said.

NDB students returned Monday as the school officially reopened for in-person classes. Students are divided into two groups — one attends classes Mondays and Tuesdays, the other on Thursdays and Fridays.

Volleyball varsity standout Abby Miller is the latter group and will not set foot in a classroom until Thursday. But the senior was all smiles behind her protective mask Monday setting foot in Moore Pavilion.

“Just being on campus, it’s definitely different — same thing with volleyball — but I think just the chance to be here has definitely carried into the gym,” Miller said.

Whether or not NDB will actually play a season has yet to be determined. Athletes are only allowed in the gym because the practices are defined as workouts, and the number of players in the gym remain under 10% of the facility’s maximum capacity. The players are not engaged in actual competition. The drop date for the volleyball season, as per the California Interscholastic Federation, is March 15.

“Looking back this will be the hardest year of club coaching and directing, and high school coaching that I’ll have to face,” Agresti said. “Because the cancelation of tournaments, and the dropping of this and that, it has been exhausting.”

Agresti and Miller, however, have had their fun the old-fashioned competitive way thanks to Agresti’s volleyball club Rage Westside. Rage 18U returned from Atlanta last month with a silver medal at the Beast of the Southeast 18s Qualifier, punching a ticket to the Junior National Championships later this year in Columbus, Ohio.

Navigating Atlanta proved to be one of Agresti’s most exhausting tests of the past year. The Feb. 19 weekend had Rage Westside originally scheduled to play at a tournament in Houston. But when weather closures due to the Texas snowstorms forced the Houston tourney’s cancelation two days before the team was set to fly, Agresti jumped into action to secure another place to play somewhere — anywhere — else.

Agresti drew up a list of several dozen tournaments to apply for and reserved herself for a long day of making phone calls. But the third call she made to the Beast of the Southeast organizers answered her prayers, having one spot remaining on the schedule. It wasn’t the primetime Open Division, but the second tier — the USA Division.

“It was cool,” Agresti said. “It happened for us. These kids are going to be able to go to the Junior Olympics, at least at the USA level. Maybe they qualify in Open. We’ll see from there.”

Miller — who is bound for University of the Pacific on a full athletic scholarship in the fall — is one of an array of San Mateo County players on roster with Rage Westside. The NDB senior teams with Emma Spindt (Menlo-Atherton); Paige Mountanos (Nueva School); Maddie Gleason (Sequoia); and Audrey Gilbert (Hillsdale) with the club.

And, yes, the entire team was able to make the trip to Atlanta.

“I was super, super excited, and I’m so grateful that Jen just threw us in where she could,” Miller said, “because I think just a chance to play was something we were looking for, no matter where that was.”

Rage will have three chances to punch its ticket to the Junior National Championships Open Division, with three qualifier tournaments scheduled for later this year, starting in Las Vegas.

But, perhaps Rage’s most impressive feat is already behind them. Flying out of the Bay Area Feb. 18, the team arrived in Atlanta at approximately 7 p.m. EST later that night. Their wakeup call the next morning? An early 6:30 a.m., which Agresti stressed an equation to 3:30 a.m. PST. They were on the court an hour later for a 7:30 a.m. opening match.

“So, we lost our first game to 25, and I think it was against seed No. 40,” Agresti said. “And I was like, ‘Uh-oh!’ And then we just went on a win streak after that.”

Further disadvantaging Rage was the fact the team, being from California, hadn’t played competitively since March 2020. Now, they were in an altogether different environment, one where masks weren’t required to be worn by players. Miller said Rage made an executive decision, however, to all wear masks throughout the tournament.

And many of the teams Rage faced had plenty of recent playing experience.

“This was their third, fourth tournament; for us, it was our first time playing in like 11 months,” Miller said. “So, them having that upper hand was a little bit intimidating going into it. … So, we had to get the rust off a little bit to start off with. But after 11 months, what are you going to expect? But once we got into the swing of things, it ended up working out really well for us.”

Now that she’s back home, Miller is once again down for the just-want-to-have-fun cause back at Moore Pavilion, happy to be playing after a year that has so severely limited the scholarship athlete’s playing time.

“It’s definitely been limited,” Miller said. “The unique thing about club is it’s a lot more individualized. You can find ways to make it work in a safe way, so that’s been awesome, kind of having that pretty consistent. … But I think the biggest thing for me has been training and getting stronger … because I can depend on that through and through. And I definitely think that’s something that’s going to be super important for me next year.”