The Cornell volleyball team need not worry this season about finding senior leadership. It can instead be concerned with more pressing issues such as winning the Ivy League tourney.
Senior middle hitter Robin Moore, — named to the All-Ivy League volleyball first-team and honored as team MVP last year — will once again be the Red’s shining star and offensive catalyst.
“I feel really good about being a team leader,” Moore said. “I have worked towards it and feel confident that my teammates look to me and lean on me.”
Moore comes into her final collegiate season making a bid for the record books. A three-time letter winner, Moore tied the school record for kills in a match last season with 31 against Dartmouth. Later in the season, proving she didn’t just tie it against a team having a bad day, Moore claimed the record with 32 kills in a 3-2 win over Colgate.
An towering offensive and defensive presence on the court, Moore averaged 4.18 kills per game while hitting .266. In addition to holding the record for kills in a game, she has 808 career kills, which ranks her fourth on Cornell’s all-time list. She is seventh on the career attack attempts list with 2,076.
Defensively, Moore helped the team with 3.66 digs per game last season and had a team best 45 blocks (16 solo, 29 block assists). For her Cornell career, Moore ranks eighth on the all-time blocks list with 158, ninth on the solo blocks list with 48, and seventh on the block assists list with 110.
“Every year has been different. My first year I really spent learning a new game. Volleyball in college is much faster paced than in high school, so I had to adjust to that,” Moore explained. “I was physically stronger my sophomore year, so the game was a little easier and I could focus on my role on the team.
“In my junior year, I felt my play picked up and I looked at how I could be a leader,” she continued.
“This year everything is really coming together. I am strong physically and I know the game at a higher level. I want to get better and better and contribute on the court,”
Moore reflected, “I want to motivate people in a positive way and take my leadership role in a positive way as well.”
A Spanish language major in the College of Arts and Sciences, Moore is the first Cornellian to be named to the All-Ivy First Team since 1995. Last year, she led the Big Red to a 9-14 overall record and a 1-6 record in Ivy play, impressive considering the 1999 squad featured just three experienced upperclassmen.
This year, Moore is joined by another three-time letter winner in senior right side hitter Lindsey Cross. The two seniors are joined by five juniors, two sophomores and the fifteen-member squad is rounded out by six strong freshmen.
Moore elaborated on her preseason opinion of the team, saying, “Everyone gets along really well. The returners are playing really well and are all in great shape. The freshmen are all really good and they feel well adjusted as a group.
“We scrimmaged Cortland State a few days ago, and although they weren’t as good as we thought they would be, the match showed us we are still inexperienced in game play. The match also really showed us we have a ton of potential and that we need to get down to business.
“I really want the team to play up to its potential. We are always striving for that and to play well on a consistent basis,” Moore ended. “If we do that, we can gain some respect in the League, and finish at least in the upper half of the standings this year.”
Moore and the rest of the team will open the season on the road next weekend at the Stetson Invitational. The Ivy League season starts September 30th with a match at Columbia.
Archived article by Katherine Granish