Chris Zollner Photo
Sophomore Emersyn Pannell knows how important team bonding can be and how time she spent with Centre College volleyball teammates at a summer camp was a valuable experience.
How valuable is it? She returned to Danville from her home in Texas for the camp in June to be with teammates to get a head start on the season that opens Friday when the Colonels host Asbury in the Colonel Invitational and then play both Washington & Lee and Wilmington on Saturday.
Pannell played in 28 matches and 108 sets in 2024 and the defensive specialist had 245 digs and 14 assists. The Colonels had their best season finishing with a 22-7 record, winning the Southern Athletic Association regular season championship outright for the first time and earning their first NCAA Tournament bid.
Pannell likes working with younger players who are willing to learn like those who attend coach Patrick Robidoux’s camp.
“But what I really liked about camp was our incoming freshman class being here. Especially last year it was so helpful for me to get on campus for a week in the summer and meet people,” she said. “Since I’m from Texas, I’m not able to be here on campus as much as I would like. So camps where I get to meet the team and just hang out is really nice. It lets everyone get comfortable with each other a lot quicker and easier and that helps us all when the season starts.”
She is one of two Texas players — junior Olivia Chojnacki is also on the team — playing for the Colonels. She’s not sure if she emailed Robidoux first or if he saw her first at a camp or tournament in Austin, Texas.
“Somehow he found me and it was kind of one of those things where I thought the program and school seemed cool. Once I was on campus and met the team and saw the culture and everything, it was something I knew I was going to like,” Pannell said.
Still, she lives right outside Austin, Texas, one of the nation’s most popular cities and a much larger place than Danville.
“I’m from right outside of Austin and it’s a great town. I love it, but I think I’ve always known that I’ve wanted to be somewhere in a different state, so Centre reaching out was perfect. I’ve always thought Kentucky’s gorgeous and beautiful,” she said. “Honestly, being able to be on my own was a big thing for me, too. Centre being kind of far from home was actually a definite perk for me when it was time to choose a school.”
She visited Centre College her junior year but basically knew no one when she came to Danville other than teammates she had met briefly at summer camp in 2024.
“I got close with everyone pretty fast during preseason,” Pannell said. “It was an easy group to connect with.”
Pannell was not surprised by Centre’s success last season because of the overall work the team put in.
“Now I was definitely surprised to start at the beginning of the season. I was not expecting that,” she said. “Everyone here is such a good player and that definitely tested my work ethic. Wanting to be better every single day is such a big part of our culture that it pushes you to really want to give everything you have all the time and that work paid off for us last year.
“I think we’re going to have a really good team this year. Honestly, I think the whole team’s super excited about the season. We had a great season this year, but every year is different for every team, especially because we had a lot of good players graduate. But I think we have a good incoming class, and we’re all super strong together, and we’re all just really excited about what is coming.”
She believes Centre has a strong freshman class to go with a solid group of returning players off last year’s NCAA team and knows everyone will have to “fight really hard” for a position. The Colonels have seven freshmen on their 20-player roster.
“It helps to have a deeper bench and allows a coach to do a lot of different things to see what works best when you have depth,” Pannell said. “The freshmen are all super fun and mesh really well with the team already.”
The Centre sophomore started playing volleyball in fifth grade and has always been a libero.
“I’ve always been the shortest player on my team because I used to play up (an age group) when I was younger,” the 5-foot-5 Pannell said. “I think my instincts from being around volleyball all my life help me a lot. My mom used to be a volleyball coach, so I’ve been around it, and volleyball IQ is a big thing for me. Being able to read the court well is something that I find really helpful and if you can read the court, I think you can do a lot of things well in volleyball.”
Even with her high school, club and college experience, Pannell said working a summer youth camp actually helps her.
“When you work with younger kids, you learn the value of patience but also the value of being super energetic and having fun and how much you appreciate the sport,” she said.
“Ive definitely grown up in a very competitive atmosphere. My club was super competitive and my family’s just naturally competitive. I was used to that when I got to Centre and I really valued how much we competed.”
Like most Centre athletes, balancing athletics and academics is not easy, especially as a freshman. Pannell is a biology major who took advanced classes in high school but said it was “nothing” like Centre’s academic load.
“I definitely learned a lot in my first semester, especially with us traveling a lot. I learned to ask for help and things in school, which was definitely a challenge for me. But after the first semester, I kind of started figuring it out and everything and it was not as stressful,” she said.
It helped that her roommate last year — outside hitter Delia Long — was from nearby Nicholasville and also was a sophomore in 2024.
“Delia lives super close so I was able to go home with her sometimes if I wanted a nice little home cooked meal,” Pannell said. “I’m super close with her family, so I would go to dinner sometimes there, and she has a pool which worked out great. We really enjoy each other’s company and just sitting around and doing nothing sometimes is just what I needed because we’re always going and doing something at school.”
