Photo by Cassie Reverman
Despite the inconsistent rough patch, the University of Indianapolis volleyball team is trying to overcome its obstacles and focusing on finishing strong for the rest of the season, according to senior right side hitter Teigan Flaws.
The Hounds were 0-2 this weekend after battling the University of Missouri St. Louis on Nov. 3 and the University of Illinois Springfield on Nov. 4.
The Hounds celebrated Senior Day on Saturday where they honored seniors: Flaws, senior middle blocker Kailey Kleinert and graduate student outside hitter Alexis Waugh.
After the celebration, the team lost to Illinois Springfield in three sets with scores of 25-22, 25-20 and 25-22. Waugh added 17 assists to give her a total of 585 this season. Junior middle blocker Lauren Koopman recorded eight kills, her career high in a single match.
Despite Jena Davis’ career high of 25 digs, the Hounds lost 3-1 to the Tritons on Friday. UMSL dominated the Greyhounds until the third set. The team took the match 25-22, forcing them to go in a fourth match. However the Hounds fell short in this match, 25-21 allowing the Titons to take home the win.
Prior to the weekend games, the Hounds battled the Bellarmine University Knights on Oct. 31, and fell short 25-19. Despite the loss, made an effort with 10 kills and four blocks, followed by sophomore outside hitter Anna Fehribach with four kills and sophomore outside hitter Rachel Irbe with eight digs.
In the first match, Bellarmine recorded a .109 hitting percentage and took the win, 25-19. In the second set, the Hounds kept up with the Knights with kills from Flaws, but lost again with the score 25-20. The third match started off with six kills from Flaws and Irbe, which gave them a .233 hitting percentage, but the Knights caught up and ended the match 25-22.
Despite playing with different competition in every game, Head Volleyball Coach Jason Reed said that the team focuses on playing their own game and refining their skills in preparation for every match-up.
“We haven’t prepared any differently depending on who’s on the other side of the net. We have plenty to work on our side and are really just trying to keep getting better with each of our players,” Reed said. “We’ll watch film and get an idea of what our opponents are doing in practice, but we don’t spend a great deal of time preparing for our opponent, we worry about us.”
Reed said that the team is not where they want to be at this point, but are working on overcoming the slump and moving forward to make the end of their season successful.
“We’re not getting the results that we want and that’s a challenge, but we keep moving forward,” Reed said.
At the beginning of the season, Reed said that the team’s goal was to win 20 matches. The Hounds have refocused and are shooting to win the Conference Tournament in order to make it to the NCAA Tournament.
“That’s really our main goal, everyone wants to make it to the tournament,” Flaws said.
Earlier in the season, Reed said he was trying to switch up the practices and so the girls were not getting tired of the same thing for every practice.
“We’ve really worked on player development and developing the skills and from that standpoint we’ve done a really nice job,” Reed said. “Right now we’re still working on consistency and we need to transition into a little more competition.”
Next, the Hounds will travel to Romeoville, Ill. to battle Lewis University on Nov. 11 at 4 p.m.
