The Alabama volleyball team will celebrate two of its seniors at the final home match of the season. Kelsey Melito and Andrea McQuaid will put on their white home jerseys for the last time Sunday afternoon in Foster Auditorium.
“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Melito said. “I don’t know if it will hit me until I’m walking out for senior night. It’s scary. Life’s hitting me pretty fast. I’m graduating Dec. 14 as well, so everything’s kind of coming to a close abruptly for me, but I don’t know. We have really good chance of making the NCAA tournament if we finish the way I know we’re going to.”
Melito has played at Alabama since her freshman year, with 162 sets in her career and recorded 155 digs in her role as a defensive specialist.
In her three years with the Crimson Tide, McQuaid has played in 287 sets and notched 567 kills as an outside hitter.
“I have mixed emotions,” McQuaid said. “I’m excited and sad as well. It’s just been such a long ride, and it’s just sad. … I’ve grown so much as a person here, and being something like this for me is definitely sad, but [I’m] excited for the future [and for] what is next in my life.”
The team has already recorded 21 wins this season. It’s the seventh 20-win season for Alabama volleyball since 1989 and the first since 2005. It’s Ed Allen’s second winning season since taking over the program in 2011. He said the two seniors are major contributors to rebuilding the team.
“Those [two] kids have played a huge role in re establishing the program, I should say building the program,” Allen said. “The roles that they’ve played both physically and emotional are pretty tough to replace in it all. The void they’re going to leave is pretty immense because it isn’t just physically the presence that they have that’s huge, it’s how they’ve helped us change our way of thinking.”
Alabama is looking to make it to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2007. Allen said experience and leadership from seniors help the younger players adjust.
“They played a huge role, just like I said before, just in their ability, how they think, how they approach things and the leadership they provide in here on a daily basis,,” Allen said. “The reason why they’re here and graduating is because they meet what the expectation is here, and they help hold each other accountable.”
