(Photo courtesy of Will Crew )
By John McCarty, Staff Writer -- mccarty12@up.edu
After spending much of the winter months in the weight room, the volleyball team shook the dust off at their first tournament of the spring season winning three of its four games.
The second annual Collegiate Volleyball Spring Tournament took place in the Tri-Cities, Wash. and featured Eastern Washington University, the University of Idaho and Central Washington University. As part of the semi-formal spring volleyball season, this tournament was the first in a series of four tournaments taking place throughout April. The final tournament will be in the Chiles Center on April 30.
"Spring is a different cat for volleyball, there is no rotation or substitution required so it's a little more relaxed," Head Coach Joe Houck said. "It's more for training than competition but at the same time they're still keeping score."
According to Houck, the spring season is more low-key, allowing players to return to the joy of playing volleyball while at the same time receiving more individual training.
"We've improved a lot as a team since the fall," freshman outside hitter Autumn Wedan said. "We're a young team but we're growing together and developing as a whole. Playing in the spring helps us work as a unit."
During the spring the volleyball team has a smaller roster of nine players and, according to Wedan, this means each player has the opportunity to play different positions.
"Being able to be flexible and move wherever you're needed is going to help in the fall season because it makes you more versatile as a player," sophomore outsider hitter Ariel Usher said.
According to Houck, spring competition allows for each player to grow, which makes a difference in the fall season.
"As a group we are capable of doing things at a high level but ultimately we are measured by our wins and losses," Houck said. "You have lots of fluctuation with younger players but we are focused on raising the baseline of play. We want to achieve that constancy of performance."
Prior to the spring season, the team was spending more time training in the weight room with Coach Bradford Scott. According to Usher, the weight-training regimen can be grueling with no competition to look forward to.
"The first six to eight weeks of lifting are brutal but I don't mind working so hard because it's worth it come fall," Usher said. "People don't really understand how hard we work but you can see it on the court — we're hitting harder and getting places faster."
"Its great to see how our (weight) training and what we worked on during the week translates onto the court," junior outside hitter Kati Hronek added.
Usher, Wedan and Hronek agree that the loss of senior libero Danielle Dupar has hurt the team defensively. They are focused on improving their serve and receive gameplay and blocking. According to Houck, recruits Bea Loper and Sam Moore are both very athletic and their presence in the net will make practice harder for hitters when they join the team for the fall 2011 season.
The Pilots are excited to host the final tournament of the spring session April 30, and they hope that students will turn out.
"We love playing in front of friends and family and come on, it's girls in spandex," Usher said. "What more could you want?"
