Week #4 - A Refocus on Performance

Hello everyone,
This was one crazy week, with a complete collapse in our conference match with Sioux Falls on Wednesday and then taking a set away from Morningside on Friday, it is still plain to see that we are still searching for that consistent performance.

The week didn't start off very well as we approached the match on Wednesday vs. Sioux Falls as a rivalry match. The entire 2 practices leading up to it we talked about bringing every bit of energy to the match and stay focused. Unfortunately we didn't get either one throughout the match and very simply got embarrassed on our home court. After that match we had a lot of things to figure out and it seemed as some doubt may have started to creep in to the minds of the team. We began to squash that mentality right away with our focus on our responsibilities and performances on the court and not worry so much on the end result.

It seemed to pay off as we entered the weekend tournament at Morningside College on Friday with our first match being against #10 in the nation Morningside. I am not going to lie I was very nervous about this match and how the team would respond after the debacle on Wednesday. The first set of the match however, was not so great as we came out flat and seemed uninspired and again quiet on the floor and went on to lose the game 25-11. For the second set some lineup changes were made and there was an instant lift in morale on the court as went on to just dominate the game from the start to a 25-16 win. We continued to play very well the last two games of the match and the game scores don't reflect the true level of the match due to us not winning the long rallies that happened in those games and some very questionable referee calls that ended a lot of long rallies in Morningside's favor (it had to be at least 5 -7 calls per game that were questionable and went against us) but no excuses because we still made our fair share of mistakes and had quite a few hitting errors that really hurts you when you play a top ranked team. We felt good about ourselves knowing that we do have it in us to play like a Top 25 team, we just need to find the consistency in our game to extend for 3 games and not just 1.

Our 2nd match on Friday was against York College. Who we played 3 times last year and won 3-0 each time. This year was no different story as we put out one of our best team hitting performances on the year with a .340 percentage. All 15 players who travelled got into this match and made very good contributions to the great PERFORMANCE. Kalissa Wade came off the bench to add 5 assists and a service ace. Amanda Aman provided 3 kills and Cassie Brinker added 2 digs in her time on the court. We looked to continue the momentum from this match to the next morning as we looked to play Missouri Valley in our last pool play match.

We knew coming into our morning match that it was going to be a well fought match as we saw Missouri Valley the night before take Morningside to 4 games and competed with them in almost all of the games. We came in knowing that we would have to defend the middle attack extremely well (something we had not done well the entire season leading up to this match). Our focus again was just on our performance and taking care of individual responsibilities. Both teams came out ready and full of energy for the match as the points just kept trading back and forth up until we finally put our clamp on the first game with a good 4 point run to finish off the 1st game for a 25-19 win. The 2nd game saw MV take the game with a 22-25 win with a better defensive performance and them putting down a few more balls in the middle. We again refocused on defending the middle attack and we pushed to win the next two games to win the match. We got a fantastic attacking performance as a team with a .285 percentage and defensive effort that held MV to only a .085 hitting percentage. This was a complete offensive and defensive match for us. Jen Miner lead the way with 19 kills and hit .548 and 12 digs, followed by Ashley Kley with 14 kills and a .285 percentage with 14 digs. Kacie Sanderson and Jayna Morrill had quality matches as they had 5 and 8 kills and each took part in at least 3 blocks. We got the first double digit dig match out of Carina Fesenmaier with 11 digs as she also totaled 45 assists in the match. Defensively Polly Gill and Brooke Warne were fantastic with 10 digs a piece.

Once pool play was over we found out that we were going to be playing Hastings in the 3rd place match. I liked our match-up heading into this game knowing that they were much taller than us on the right side and in the middle but they play a majority of freshmen and sophomores. I felt that their lack of quality serve receive would put them in trouble and have their young players have to make big plays in tight situations. We served very well and had them out of system quite a bit but our defense against their hitters was not overly aggressive as we only forced their hitters into 9 total errors and we committed 24 hitting errors. It was the complete difference in the match, they kept plays alive and we gave away points. It was surprising after the quality offensive decisions we had had the previous 2 matches to drop back down under a .100 hitting percentage. Yes Hastings was a higher quality team than the other two but our focus on performance was better in the other matches. We're learning and still finding that comfort level with each other.

All in all it was a very good weekend for us after the shocking disappointment from Wednesday. We are truly learning more and more about ourselves everyday and continuing to get that everyday improvement. I want to congratulate Ashley Kley for making the All-Tournament Team which was voted on by the other coaches in the tournament.

We have a short week next week as we face Dordt on Tuesday and Mt. Marty on Friday. With a true focus on Performance and never say die attitude we could very well go 2-0 for the week and put ourselves back into a good place with the conference standings.

Get Better Every Day

--Coach V