August 4, 2021 – St. Louis, MO –
After a successful 2020-21 season, Missouri Baptist University is gearing up to begin the next one as the number one seed in the NAIA. The Lady Spartans were able to bring home a national championship in the previous season, defeating Midland University in the finals 3-2. This was the first national title the team had ever won. Along with this, Coach Chris Nichols won National Championship Coach of the Year, and then senior Manuela Vargas picked up the award for MVP. The ending record was 26-4, but the question is, can they do it again? Coach Nichols is optimistic about the upcoming season, and how the girls will perform. As for the players, how many will return for an extra year? Due to COVID, the NAIA granted players an extra year of play. Many athletes have decided to use this, are any of his players taking advantage of this? “The whole team is coming back, we lost 3 that were role-players, but all of the starters are coming back.” He explained that as soon as the previous season ended, they had to jump right back into the next season due to the season ending later in the year.
The team is set to play Midland again, now moved up from 12th rank to 2nd rank, at the beginning of the season in a tournament. “We play midland every year during this tournament, we have a lot of fun doing it, and it’s good competition for the team.” He explained that, along with Midland, there are other teams that play every year in this tournament. “The teams have all been to a couple of final 4s. The kids are super excited to play them again, our kids always want to win every game, it’s always good competition to see where we’re at, they love the competition.” Along with midland, they have a good schedule lined up for the year, with some top teams in the lineup, “Kieser will be a tough team, and you never know what will happen in the beginning of the season.” He said that they are trying to play the toughest schedule that they can. The coach says he wants to make every season better than the last, “You have to start fresh. The biggest challenge is turning the page and leaving last year. You can’t go back to that mindset, you have to start over and create a new path.”
The season kicks off on August 16 with a scrimmage vs Mineral Area College at home. The rest of the schedule is available on the official Missouri Spartans athletic website.
