ELON, N.C. – With a team that added seven newcomers this offseason, the 2023 Elon University volleyball captains have been tasked with leading a young squad to victory.
The Phoenix will begin its home CAA slate on Sept. 23 against UNCW. Rising Phoenix sat down with the team's two veteran captains prior to their CAA home opener.
(All stats updated as of Sept.17)
Jordan Gower - Libero - Raleigh, N.C.
Coming back for her fifth year with the Phoenix, Gower has been on the team longer than anyone else on the roster. She has been a staple on the back row as the team's libero since her freshman year. Gower is currently fifth on Elon's all-time digs list with 1,494.
Gower is majoring in sport management with a minor in business administration and completed an internship with the NC Courage this summer.
Q: What does it mean to you to be a captain?
Gower: It's an opportunity to set an example for the underclassmen and just be a leader for all of the newcomers. We have seven in total this year, so it's a lot of new faces. For me, I just really want to be a support system and be someone that the underclassmen can come to whenever they need help either on or off the court. Just trying to be there for my teammates is what I'm really trying to do this season.
Q: What is your favorite memory so far with the team?
Gower: Beating Towson last year in conference because they were undefeated at the time and it was a huge home game for us. Getting that win and battling with my teammates was awesome and just a lot of fun.
Q: What are you most looking forward to this season?
Gower: Trying to grow as a team this season, especially with seven newcomers. We kind of got off to a slow start, so we're trying to pick that up once conference starts. We're just trying to find our groove and trying to grow as a team. Our motto is to get 1% better every day. I think that if we continue to put in the work each day in practice, we will definitely shock some people in conference.
Q: What sport would you play if you didn't play volleyball?
Gower: I'm going to say gymnastics. I did competitive gymnastics for a while, up until I was around 10 years old and started playing volleyball. It was always super fun, just a huge time commitment.
Fun Fact About Gower: "I'm a triplet. I have a brother and a sister."
Sydney Love - Outside Hitter - Chesapeake, Va.
A junior, Love has been a constant at the top of the net for Elon the past two seasons. She was named to the CAA-All Rookie team as a freshman after finishing with 228 kills, second on the Phoenix. Love has tallied 519 kills in her career with her career-high coming in an 18-kill performance against College of Charleston last season.
Love is majoring in exercise science and wants to attend PA school after graduation.
Q: What does it mean to you to be a captain?
Love: My freshman season when I came in our captains were super helpful with making the transition from high school to college very easy, and I was always able to talk to them if needed. I wanted to fulfill that and be able to help the transition for our freshmen this year, to make it be easy and not as stressful and so they don't feel under pressure when they come into the gym and play. I wanted to make it feel like a home away from home for them.
Q: What is your favorite memory so far with the team?
Love: My answer is the same as Jordan's. Beating Towson that night was incredible. It was super fun to play in. It was a great game, we all were meshing together. We had great chemistry that game, having the crowd there and all of the other sports being there and supporting was great as well. Seeing all your friends and roommates in the stands, having parents there and professors and everybody that just came out to that game the next day was like, 'That was crazy. It was amazing, that game was so fun to come to.'
Q: What are you most looking forward to this season?
Love: This season, I am ready to grow into the team I know we will become. I think we work very well together. We are a great team. We have tons to build on. The fact that we are such a young team, I think we are going to shock and surprise a lot of teams in our conference. I know we, as captains, we're working hard in practice as well, trying to talk and figure different things out, especially with the coaches, on different things that we can do to help achieve that goal.
Q: What sport would you play if you didn't play volleyball?
Love: If I were to play any other sport, it would probably be basketball. I played for two years in middle school, and there were times I enjoyed it and times I did not like it at all. It's always fun, we will be in the gym and I'll shoot the volleyball a couple times just for the heck of it.
Fun Fact About Love: "I just got a new puppy. Her name is Kona, she's a rottweiler."
'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.
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