It was mid-morning on a Tuesday at Todd Park and members of the Austin volleyball team were hard at work. The Packers weren’t playing on their familiar hardwood home at Packer Gym, but they were putting in a big workout at the sand volleyball courts at Todd Park.

The workouts in Todd Park are just one of a few big changes for the Austin volleyball team as it prepares for the upcoming season, which will open up at Rochester Lourdes Aug. 24. Austin has a new head coach in Lauren Cost and it has a new amped up attitude after it won its first Big Nine contest since 2011 last fall.

“This summer’s been intense,” said Austin volleyball player Jenna Braaten, who will be a senior this fall. “[Cost] has been at all our practices and we have them three days a week. She’s been working with us a lot in our cardio and our jump training. I think that will help us a lot.”

Cost, who is originally from Fort Worth, Texas, has plenty of experience on the volleyball court. She is in the Kansas State University Athletics Hall of Fame for volleyball and she was named Big 12 player of the year in her senior year at KSU in 2003. Cost racked up 1,212 kills at the Division I level and she moved to Austin in 2012, where she coached Lyle-Pacelli for a few seasons. Now she’s taking her experience to boost up Austin’s program.

Braaten said the team has noticed Cost’s presence in many ways this summer.

“Every drill has a purpose,” Braaten said. “We’re not just doing busy work in practice. Since she played DI volleyball a lot of the times she can show us the skills and when she plays with us, she’s a lot better than all of us. It’s really good for us to play against someone who’s that good.”

Cost is still getting to know some of the Austin volleyball players and she likes the effort she’s seen from the squad so far. The team started its summer on a high note when it hosted a four-day camp, that featured Don Meitl the head volleyball coach at Towson University in Baltimore.

“[Meitl] was fantastic and it was a really good experience. We had four long days on the court training and we had a lot of good reps,” Cost said. “We’ve been doing some conditioning, court work and getting to know each other a little bit. We’re starting to implement some new things.”

Austin finished last year with a record of 4-22 overall as it lost quite a few close matches. The team is hoping conditioning during the summer will push the Packers to finish strong in the fall.

“[Cost] pushes us. She knows that we can be better than we’ve been in the past,” said Austin volleyball player Elly Tupy, who will be a junior in the fall. “She’s a pretty intense coach. She wants you to do everything one hundred percent and that’s how sports should be. She likes to push us, encourage us and she gives us helpful feedback. She’s super knowledgeable.”

With a few weeks still to go before Austin officially begins practicing, Cost is ready to get things going.

“I’m ready to get started full throttle,” Cost said. “They’ve been very eager to learn and try new things, which is great. They work hard and I’ve been very happy.”