{"id":4017,"date":"2021-11-08T13:46:31","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T18:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/?p=4017"},"modified":"2025-01-28T09:18:23","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:18:23","slug":"a-fifth-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2021\/11\/a-fifth-year\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fifth Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
Amanda Rachwal \u201921 comes back for an additional year to cement her volleyball legacy.<\/em> <\/div><\/div>\n

By Shawn Fury<\/p>\n

Amanda Rachwal \u201921 has come a long way in the four years since she arrived on the Seton Hall campus as a standout middle blocker from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. A self-described \u201cdrill killer\u201d in her first year with the Pirates\u2019 volleyball team, by her senior season she served as the team\u2019s captain \u2014 a true leader on a young squad, someone who could help run the drills and guide the underclassmen in practice and excel during matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been told I\u2019m coachable, and I\u2019ve always taken a lot of pride in that because I always want to get better,\u201d Rachwal says. \u201cI\u2019m always soaking up a little bit from what each coach and even other players have taught me, so I definitely see an improvement with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

And because COVID-19 forced the world to experience a year unlike any other, Rachwal will get a fifth year on the court with Seton Hall. It\u2019s impossible to know who\u2019s more thrilled about that development: Rachwal or Pirates coach Allison Yaeger, who had the perfect seat to watch Rachwal\u2019s transformation. \u201cI\u2019m so happy that we\u2019re able to have her for as long as we\u2019re going to,\u201d Yaeger says. \u201cShe wants to leave a legacy for this program. She doesn\u2019t want to leave and I don\u2019t blame her because I think that we\u2019re going to be really good. And she will be a huge part of that coming up this fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachwal has been a major part of the Pirates\u2019 program from the start, a 6-foot-2 stalwart who \u201cis one of the best middles in the BIG EAST,\u201d according to Yaeger. \u201cShe\u2019s very tall, she\u2019s very physical and she does a really good job of connecting with our setters. … She has an opportunity to break some records, get into the top five, top 10 in all-time kills, all-time blocks for Seton Hall. She works her butt off, and when she has good games and we\u2019re on as a team, I think she\u2019s unstoppable.\u201d<\/p>\n

This spring, however, everything stopped for Rachwal. As the Pirates competed in an abbreviated season after the fall campaign had been called off because of the pandemic, Rachwal missed many matches when she tested positive for COVID-19 and dealt with the effects and isolation that followed. Physically she battled a fever and congestion and ended up \u201cwiped out and bed-ridden\u201d for about eight days. Emotionally she missed her teammates and coaches, especially since she was the only senior on the club and the team depended on her for guidance.<\/p>\n

The experience convinced her she had made the right choice months earlier when she decided to come back for that fifth season, taking advantage of the extra year the NCAA granted student-athletes because of the pandemic. \u201cWe have all the right parts, and I\u2019m really excited to see what kind of team we\u2019ll have,\u201d Rachwal says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much potential for this year.\u201d<\/p>\n