Aces ready to compete under second year head coach

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — While the University of Evansville women's volleyball coach, Zach Weinberg wants to continue to build the foundation of his culture he also wants to compete in year two with the Purple Aces. UE welcomes a class of five new-comers this season including four freshman and one transfer. After a (6-22) season in his first year at the helm of the program he said he focused on adding players with a lot of success to the group to bring a more competitive edge. "We don't set out every single match to say alright, we're playing today let's go win," Coach Weinber said. "We set out to compete and the wins are a byproduct of that. But we feel like we're in a better position this year to win more matches. Our squad is deeper than it was a year ago, so for us it's about being more competitive more of the time and seeing those results translate to the court." Despite losing some star players from a season ago and accepting that there will be hiccups this year his team echoed the sentiment about wanting to play at a higher level this upcoming season. Middle blocker Sabrina Ripple said, "There were a lot of games last season where I think we just took ourselves out where we didn't compete. I think, and I think this feeling is shared throughout my team we want to compete. Like we want to play, we want, if we get beat we want to get beat, we don't want to lose ourselves. Like we want to compete and play with these teams." Evansville will take on Lindenwood in an exhibition Saturday, August 22nd, at 3 p.m. in Meeks Family Fieldhouse. Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW).