The Gopher volleyball team starts it's 2025 campaign Monday night, across the border in Sioux Falls, South Dakota as part of the AVCA First Serve.

Head Coach Keegan Cook is now on his third year with the program; the previous two seasons ended with a lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament. But he thinks the next chapter of Gopher volleyball has started.

"Hopefully I remember these early years as the good that precedes the great," he said. "Transitions are are pretty precarious now in college athletics, especially coaching transitions. So I feel good about the work that we've done reestablishing a foundation, and now I think it starts to get good."

One of the few players that stayed through the coaching transition is senior Julia Hanson. The 6-foot-1 outside hitter has become the Gopher's go-to terminal player and she was one of 30 players in the country to be named to the AVCA Player of the Year watch list.

Cook said that there were "some signs" of her potential early in his tenure with the Gophers, when he was still figuring out who the team was.

"Often times she wasn't on the starting side in practice, but she would make the starting side's life miserable for long periods of time. And that was our first clue that there was something there," Cook said. "Didn't take long, when she got her opportunity to really jump on it. It was probably her fifth or sixth match with 20-plus kills when you realize you're watching somebody change their life."

This year, redshirt freshman setter Stella Swenson and a turnover in the middle blocker position has changed the look for the Gopher's offense.

"That started with getting better at serve receive," Cook said. "To build an offense on a foundation of  receiving the ball at a higher level. Twelve weeks and a damaged nerve in my arm later, I think we are a better receiving team."

Minnesota is ranked 11th in the preseason poll, and Cook is aware of the expectations put on the program to reach new heights.

"Fans are always a little impatient but not as impatient as coaches," he said. "We're three years into this, or entering our third year, and the urgency is high to get this program back where it belongs."

The Gophers take on No. 9 Texas A&M at 8:30 p.m. Monday.