As the season approaches, the Colonel Volleyball team will start the season under new head coach TeAna Tramel.Tramel comes to Nicholls by way of Washington State University, where she served as an assistant coach from 2008-2010. In three seasons, the Cougars saw a dramatic improvement in the Pac 10 Conference.

“It’s going be an interesting season,” Tramel said. “We got a really late start, obviously the best situation would have been to be here in the spring and start training. This first season I really want to get my system implemented, get the girls used to that and then kind of just build on that.”

In the few weeks that Tramel has been here, the Colonels are improving greatly. “Our middles are already better than what they were. Just in a new system they are all in a better place to be successful in their position,” said Tramel.

With a new coach in place, the Colonels are now concentrating on learning the new system that Tramel has brought with her.

“Practice has been really good, the intensity dropped off a little bit due to soreness and fatigue.” Tramel said. “Right now we’re past that initial phase of being sore and tired and they are really pushing through and actually learning the system really quick which is something I wasn’t quite sure that they were going to be able to do.”

Also joining the coaching staff will be graduate assistant Jaye Loyd. Loyd comes to Nicholls after playing college ball at the Division One level.

“It’s a great fit for our staff. She’s (Jaye) got experience as a defensive specialist at Tennessee and she played at Tulane.” Tramel said. “It’s a good balance on our staff, she will be working with our defensive specialist and our ball control aspect of the game. Nicole (assistant coach) will be working with our setters and I will be specializing with our hitters.”

The Colonels open the season on Aug. 27 at the Southern Miss Tournament in Hattiesburg, Miss.

“I’m really looking forward to how people prepare for us, I don’t know that people are going to take us serious.” Tramel said. “I think we’re going to shock some people because we’re going to outwork just about everyone were going to play. “

To all Colonel fans, Coach Tramel said she was excited about the upcoming season. “Come out and watch us.