GREAT FALLS — In a program that's seen a good deal of success, Great Falls CMR volleyball underwent a coaching change after last season.
But new coach Danielle Woods has led the Rustlers to a 3-0 record so far in 2024. The team was able to adapt to her system quickly, according to seniors Ashyln Jarrett and Maryah Winn.
"(Coach Woods) brought her new things but also made us feel comfortable with letting us keep some of our old routines," Jarrett said at Tuesday's practice. "So she's been awesome."
"She is a really amazing person," Winn said. "We love going to practice. We love her energy — and that's the biggest thing about our whole team, like, we have to have that energy."
Woods said "it's been great so far" being the coach.
"We've only been together, what, four or five months now? But the crazy thing is, is it feels like I've been coaching them for two, three years," Woods said. "We just really connected right away. It's just been great."
In the team's three wins, the Rustlers have dropped a total of two sets. Jarrett and Winn — who were both a part of the 2021 Class AA state championship team — think this season could be special, too.
"I think it's going to be really good," Jarrett said. "So far our three games were awesome and we all had a lot of fun, and if we did find ourselves going down we came right back up. And so I think that the season can be very good. I'm very excited."
"We want to win," Winn said. "We have that driven mentality that we're like, we just want to win the state title. We want to be there, we want to win that."
Woods has seen the winning mentality, too.
"They just really want to win, so when they're out on that court, they're out there for each other," Woods said. "They trust each other, everyone goes out and does their job, and they just connect well on the court together."
The Rustlers will look to improve to 4-0 in their first match at home Saturday at 11 a.m. against Missoula Big Sky.
