The Daly Dig
Oct 6, 2003 | Men's Tennis
Oct. 6, 2003
NEW ORLEANS, La. - Imagine this setting: it's 28-27 and our team is down in the third game against Houston on Saturday night. Nobody wants to go to four games with a team you have a chance to beat in three. It's these moments when a team's character comes out. Will someone swing hard to get a kill, or play it safe and tip the ball? Will someone want the ball to be served to them, or just stand there praying the other team will serve it out?
When placed in this situation this past weekend, our team showed fight and determination. Deva tied the game when Houston dug the ball over the net and she crushed it in front of the ten foot line. The very next play, Houston's outside hitter went up swinging hard, but was stuff blocked by Deva and LJ. A block like that at a critical point in the game is incredible, but to make it even better, Deva and LJ blocked the same hitter straight down on the very next play to win the match. It was an exhilarating end to the game, and once again, our team displayed our competitive character. We have developed a habit of winning the close games.
Now with a 15-2 record, some teams would start to think that everything is always going to go their way. But our team and coaching staff know that now is the time to work even harder. After every game, assistant coach Liz Kritza tells us the things we need to do to play better. Even after beating a team in three games, she keeps us striving to play sharper volleyball and beat teams quicker. In practice this week, I am sure that when we scrimmage, our coaches - Sam and Sinisa - will swing at us harder than ever. They would never go easy on us because we are winning, but instead they would expect us to dig and block more of their swings. Betsy always reminds us that as soon as a team thinks that they are good enough, that is when they are likely to get beat.
So now our team is looking ahead to next weekend when we travel to Birmingham to play UAB and to Tampa to face South Florida. UAB is a much better team than they've been in the past, and USF has historically been a top Conference USA volleyball team, winning 2002 regular season and tournament titles while going to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in the last 10 years. If we want to achieve our goal of a conference championship and move into the top tier in Conference USA, this is a critical weekend for us. We have to show that we can beat top teams on the road. Even with our 15-2 record and our eight-match winning streak, we still have a lot of hard work and tough games ahead of us. This weekend's trip is just the beginning.
