2nd Weekend: USF Tourney

Go ahead and call us the Cardiac Kids. There seems to be no deficit we can't come back from to either win or make a score close at the end. This past weekend at the USF tournament we found ourselves in a lot of trouble situations early on in nearly every set of each match we played. We left the weekend knowing that we can fight our way back into matches and bring our play to a different level even during matches we are not playing our best volleyball. We also learned that we need to develop a killer instinct during every point of a match and to value every point we score as well as give up.

We started off the weekend with a noon match against Waldorf College. A very much undersized team in comparison to us but a team with a lot of defensive fight in them. I realized it was going to be an interesting weekend from the opening set when we committed 16 errors to give them an easy first set win, 17-25. After a regrouping of our composure we went out in the next two sets to absolutely dominate play and come away with 2 easy set victories (25-14 & 25-15). We then decided that the 2 easy set wins were enough to finish the match easily, but our opponent wanted nothing to do with it. We didn't have the killer instinct to finish them off and they took the 4th set 25-21 and stole the momentum of the match right from us. So we headed into the 5th set playing a completely inferior opponent in size and athleticism but with more confidence, a clear danger zone. The 5th set started off with us jumping out early and again relaxing thinking the lead was safe. It turned into a back and forth battle from the 8 point switch with neither team backing down. I think we pulled from our previous match experience with Black Hills State, in which we went 5 sets but lost, and learned a lot about ourselves. The experience paid off as we closed out the match barely with a 16-14 win for the first match win of the season. It wasn't pretty (we committed 43 total errors in the match) or exactly as we had hoped but we got the job done. Good teams find ways to win even on bad days. There were a few players that stood out with solid games to help lead to the victory, Ashley Kley had 14 kills while hitting .344 and 9 digs; Sarah Stahlke had 9 kills while hitting .368 and 7 digs; Carina Fesenmaier had 43 assists and 10 digs; and Kayla O'Connell, getting her first ever varsity college playing time came in and had 14 digs, she was a pleasant replacement for an injury that came up during the week of practice heading into the weekend.

The second match of Friday was against Valley City State, with a new head coach who is the best friend and former teammate of my wife while at MN State-Moorhead, this match had a different feel for me as a coach. I enjoy beating my friends the most, LOL. So after winning a tight match just previously and not coming out with fire or a sense of urgency in the that previous match, one would think that you next match in that same day would be an opposite start. Well I hate to say it but I think it got worse; no emotion, no heart, no desire, and no fight to start off the match. Valley City, a team that lost to us last season in 2 heartbreaking 5 set matches was out for revenge. They played with so much passion and energy that we didn't even know what had hit us for the first 2 sets (18-25 & 13-25). It had the feeling of us just lying down and taking the beating with no resistance. The 3rd set started off and there wasn't much of a change, we committed errors and made a lot of defensive positioning mistakes; it was rough for us. I remember looking at the score with one timeout remaining (I used the first one in the first 5 points of the set) and seeing us down something like 13 or 14 to 19 or 20, some score that you normally pack it up and go home when down 2 sets to none. Yet we put together a small 3-4 point run, then sided-out quickly and put another 3 point run together. They then put a small run together and i look up and its 24-21, we are looking at 3 match points in the face and we have just finally put some passion and pride into our play. I told my assistant at this time that if we win this set we will win the match, WATCH THIS!!! All of sudden our front line decided that they would begin to own the net and or the next 3 points we had 2 stuff blocks with about 4-5 other touches at the net during that span along with a great counter attack swing from Meghan Cronberg and we have put our nose in front at 25-24. VCSU sides-out and then scores on a quick transition play to put them up at 26-25 with another match point. Normally this is the time when a some random fluke play wins the match for the team that had been playing the most consistently throughout the match. However, we found something within our blocking scheme that just wouldn't allow them to get the ball across the net easily and put together the final 3 point run to take the 3rd set. It was amazing we only played well for the final 12 points of the set and somehow extended the match. We then went on riding such an adrenaline rush from that 3rd set to just pound them in the 4th 25-12 and then carried it over to the 5th and win the match 15-6. Our blocking, emotion, and energy only showed up in the last 2 1/3 sets of the match but it was a great way to finish the day.

Saturday came rolling around and I was personally pumped for it; we just came off of some high emotion matches and great wins to prove that we are never out of a match. We faced Grandview, a very solid team that is athletic and well coached. Oh and they also have this OH that can hit every type of set and to any area of the court without you thinking that she can, she is very good and powerful. As the match starts, we come out flat again (Deja vu anyone). However, this team was not going to give anything to us. They did a great job of keeping the ball in play when they couldn't get it to their main hitters and when they did get it to them, they play was for sure over with most of the time a point going to them. They ran away with a match that was neither easy nor difficult for them. We made some runs in each set at them, of course late in each set but it was always a little too late.

Our last match of the tournament was against SD school of mines. We again came out flat to open the match. However this time we figured it out quicker that we need to pull ourselves out of the hole quicker. We were down late in the first set 22-20 or something and found a way to close out the first set 25-23. I was thinking to myself, here we go we figured out how to have the sense of urgency, that killer instinct. Set 2 was fought out well by both teams, SDMT showed some resiliency to come back and win the 2nd set after dropping the first when they probably could have taken it as well. The 3rd set comes around and 4th set and eventually think to myself that I might have spoken too soon about us getting that killer instinct as we eventually dropped the final two sets of the match but not with putting together final runs in each of those sets to put the pressure on the other team. It was a heartbreaking match and one that we won't get the chance to revenge, we let it slip away from us and we all feel it.

I think we were relying on our ability to make comebacks too much in these two matches. We talked about having that passion and emotion from the first whistle. Have sense of urgency and understand that every point does matter. We are capable of coming back but more times than not in rally scoring you will always come up short in the end when you try to do it too often.

We had some great learning moments over the weekend and made some strides as a team. The quality of playing with passion and purpose everyday and having that killer instinct has not been a part of the history of this program. It has to begin somewhere and with one group of athletes. These are the athletes that it will start with, they too are going through the growing pains right now of learning how to handle the pressures of being that group that did it first.

We look forward to this week and Tuesday we face top team Northwestern on their home court. A huge test for us. Which teams shows up? The one that waits for the end or the team that controls the match from the very first whistle. If we can dominate the net blocking and force Northwestern to have to play longer rallies because of defensive attitude then the advantage will be with us. We will just have to go out and put it all on the line and play with Pride, Passion and Purpose.

- Coach V