First came the cancellation of a trip to Europe, then the entire 2020 season looked in jeopardy, all due to COVID-19. Things seemed to be falling back into place when the Sun Belt Conference announced the plan for league competition this season, and by the time Hurricane Sally hit the Alabama Gulf Coast last week, the University of South Alabama volleyball team was well-seasoned in mental toughness and overcoming adversity.

"Being honest with my team about all aspects of our program is something that is very important in my philosophy as a coach," Jaguar head coach Alexis Meeks-Rydell said. "I never want my kids to feel like they are being left in the dark. We have communicated everything to them and communicated honestly. I think because we have done this, their mental toughness has been phenomenal because they know the truth. 

"Yes, there have been times of disappointment and frustration, but we talk through those emotions with full vulnerability with each other and always come out with the positives of each situation. During these times, that is all you can do. Our team has already, and will continue to go through adversity as this year continues and I have no doubt they will handle it with grace and toughness as they always do."

"Our team is definitely good in dealing with adversity," Jaguar senior middle blocker Hannah Johnson said. "The team has been thrown a little bit of everything since Coach Meeks-Rydell got here. But the adversity trains us for pretty much any situation we're not ready for, and in the grand scheme of things I think it can translate into maybe a game that's not going our way or we're not playing in the gym we thought we were going to play in. I think just the idea of being able to adjust and still work through whatever we have in front of us, it teaches us to adapt whatever is thrown at us at this point."

Back in March, Meeks-Rydell and her staff were in the beginning stages of putting together a trip to Europe in which the Jaguars would face international competition. They had started fundraising for the trip and booking flights, but then the Covid pandemic hit and forced its cancellation.

"There are so many benefits to taking a foreign trip," Meeks-Rydell explained. "You get to bring your team back a little earlier than usual, and you get to have them in the gym practicing which is a huge jumpstart and booster for the season, especially for the freshmen. Along those lines, we were planning to play some of the best international youth competition we could find. We were planning to play a few different junior national teams, which would have helped us prepare tremendously for who we were going to be facing this season. 

"Also, just being able to travel and explore the world with your team and create those memories and bonding is irreplaceable in shaping your team dynamic. This is something I hope to be able to achieve every four years so that every student-athlete who comes through this program will have the opportunity to experience at least one international trip in their time as a part of our program. My staff and I are huge on creating experiences for our kids, because that is just another great part about being a collegiate student-athlete. It is so important."

"We were all super excited, and the more money we were able to raise, the more realistic it started becoming," Johnson said. "I have never been outside of the country, so it would have been a huge opportunity for me. When quarantine happened and travel was banned, Coach (Meeks-Rydell) came into practice and told us it wasn't possible anymore and may have to wait to the following year. As a senior, my first thought was just disappointment, because I didn't think I would get a fifth year where I would get an opportunity to go on this foreign trip. But it was a little disappointing."

As spring turned to summer and the team prepared to start its process of gearing up for another season, talk of NCAA fall sports being canceled began to surface. And as happened with spring sports last academic year, several conferences started canceling most fall sports. Once that happened, the Jaguars' 2020 schedule began changing rapidly.

"COVID threw quite the wrench in our schedule numerous times, approximately six or so," Meeks-Rydell said. "We were trying to be as conscious as we could to create a schedule that was beneficial to our team from a health and safety standpoint and a competitive standpoint. I truly felt a few times that the call was coming to shut the season down, and I honestly had mentally prepared for it, but I have to give massive credit to Dr. Joel Erdmann and all administrators who are making tough decisions during this time. We understand that no decision is taken lightly or made without careful consideration, and we will always support those decisions as a program. The biggest challenge of creating a schedule during COVID was that every conference was making their decisions at different times. We would schedule games with those who were still playing, and then we would get the call that a different decision was made. And this happened countless times. 

"It was a battle, but again, it is all working out the best way that it can. We are thankful to be playing."

South Alabama opened the 2020 season with a pair of matches at Louisiana on Sept. 11-12. The Jaguars dropped both matches, but prepared to return Mobile to host the Jaguar Invitational Sept. 18-19 to open the home portion of the schedule. But in another test of mental toughness for the Jaguar team, Hurricane Sally struck the Alabama Gulf Coast and forced the cancellation of the tournament.

"Oh, Hurricane Sally. We needed something else in the mix, right?" Meeks-Rydell asked. "The girls were disappointed we had to cancel our games last weekend, but they understood. It is part of the adversity we continually talk about and finding the positives in every situation. We all made it through safely, and this gives us a little longer to be able to focus on and attack the areas of weakness that we identified in playing the previous weekend. 

"I am very blessed with young women who are smart, patient and phenomenal. They have made coaching through this year easier than I thought it was going to be. As much as we teach them, they have no idea how much they also teach us in the process."

The 2020 season is unquestionably one that is unmatched thus far in NCAA volleyball, considering the vast changes that have come due to coronavirus. Numerous things across collegiate athletics have obviously changed due to COVID, forcing coaching staffs and support personnel to be creative in making the structure still feel the same.

"We are trying to keep the season as 'normal' as we can, but we have had to make a lot of adjustments to what we would normally do in the past," said Meeks-Rydell. "Our preseason was shorter this year, we have adjusted our practice times and slots for more rest time throughout the season and we are focusing a lot more on the mental and emotional side than we ever had, and it's been a great thing. Again, I think it comes back to acknowledging that we know this is not the same, and moving through the adjustments and changes openingly together."

South Alabama was picked to finish third in the Sun Belt Conference East Division this year in a preseason poll voted on by the league's head coaches. The Jaguars return seven letterwinners, including second-team all-Sun Belt Conference outside hitter Meaghan Jones, from last year's team that set a program record with 15 home wins in Jaguar Gym. But any expected results will be worked out by Meeks-Rydell's hopes of her team each day.

"My expectation for the team this season is simple, get better," she said. "There have been and will continue to be twist and turns throughout the season, and we are still growing as a program in only my second year here. With all of the rule changes that COVID has brought with allowing our seniors to return again next year and potentially to have the same team come back, we just want to get better this season at our weaknesses so that next season they are no longer weaknesses. Of course we want to win; we hate to lose and we will win, but we want the process to be the priority right now and not just jump through hoops to jump through them, but jump through them in the correct way."

"As a team, we're still treating this year like any other year," Johnson added. "Our goal is to still win conference. The NCAA does have a spring tournament that is supposed to be held, as of now, so we'll be able to play in the spring if we win the tournament. That's a big motivator now that we know that is a new opportunity, because before we were going for the (conference championship) ring, but now we're playing for the NCAA Tournament, which is always our goal."

The Covid pandemic seems to affect the fall sports schedule on a weekly basis, and a lot has been lost through those changes. But during that time, the Jaguars have gained in mental toughness and will be prepared for any more adversity they may come across during the 2020 season.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with USAJaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at Twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

Join the Rally Score Club, the volleyball specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All donations to the Rally Score Club go directly to support the South Alabama volleyball program. For more information on how you can join visit:  jaguarathleticfund.com/rallyscoreclub.