V-ball takes one of four

Although the scores were less than stellar, the women's volleyball team came out of last weekend's home-hosted Oberlin-Travelodge tournament feeling like they had accomplished something.

They lost to Otterbein College 2-15, 3-15, 3-15, then to Westminster College 6-15, 3-15, 4-15, and then to Thiel College 13-15, 12-15, 6-15, before beating Bethany College 8-15, 15-9, 15-12, 1-15, 15-9. In spite of these scores, the tournament and especially the Bethany win did much to improve the Yeowomen's self-image.

"Our first win was earned, it was not a given," Coach Suzanne Garland said. "The team's confidence level is much improved. With four returning players and thirteen on the team, it's hard to gel."

"By the end of the tournament we were finally gelling as a team," first-year Ruth Draper said. "We pulled together as a team to win a match."

The team has had problems with their newer players getting used to Garland's flexible, use-your-own-initiative, serve-receive pattern. If one person is having a bad passing day, she is expected to move forward while someone else fills in.

"What's been frustrating us from moving on to the next level are the number of new players who aren't used to the serve-receive pattern," Garland said. "It becomes frustrating to the players when our time-outs are spent talking about our problems instead of the other team. Now we're getting our stuff together on our side of the net so we can start thinking about the other side of the net."

The tournament opened on Friday with the Yeowomen facing powerhouse Otterbein, who went on to win the tournament. "They were very cohesive," Garland said. "They were very big and hit the ball hard. I predict they'll be a top team in the region. They're really looking good." Oberlin was destroyed in spite of Draper's .571 hitting percentage and setter senior Cerissa Tanner's 17 assists. "Cerissa is getting better every time she plays," Garland said.

Next the team went up against Westminster who was running a much more advanced rotation system than the Yeowomen were used to. "They also had some big players," Garland said.

Saturday started with a disappointing loss to Thiel. "We should have won that game," Garland said. "We had 11 team service errors that we usually don't have. We sided-out well but couldn't get the points with those errors." Junior Katie Ruth hit .421 for the game.

Service errors were not a factor in the fifth game of the Bethany match when the Yeowomen got up 8-5 during the rally. "The key thing during a rally game is serving consistency," Garland said. "My strategy in rally is to play the same way as always. Don't play cautious and keep the pressure on. We won by playing confidently and not holding back. This is a good sign of growth."

This weekend the team will travel to the Great Lakes Conference Association tournament at Kenyon College where they will play Kenyon, Kalamazoo College, DePauw University, and the College of Wooster. "It should go well if we keep our heads screwed on," Draper said. "Talent wise we can compete with anyone. If we play like we played against Bethany we should do all right."