Volleyball
Team Working Through Difficult Times
By Jamie
Frankel In
what became another long week in the season, the Oberlin College
volleyball team struggled to close out opponents once again and
dropped all three of their matches.
After this week’s matches, Oberlin now has a season record
of 1-20 and is 0-3 in North Coast Athletic Conference games.
On Saturday, the team traveled to Wooster to compete in the Wooster
Quadrangular, where solid competition awaited the Yeowomen. From
the outset, the Yeowomen were ready to play hard and put forth an
intense effort on the court.
Oberlin’s first opponent of the weekend, Bethany College,
was a team that Oberlin was rather familiar with, having seen them
play earlier in the season. In the back and forth match that ensued,
Oberlin managed to win the first game 30-23, but then dropped the
next three games to lose the match 3-1.
“I think our team loses the second or third game because we
are tired and we are hesitant to take risks that we have taken in
the first games and thereby stop playing with the intensity that
we had in the first or second games,” junior Darci Leonhart
explained.
After a short break, the Yeowomen took the court once again looking
to end their 10 game losing streak against tiny Point Park College.
After another two games to zero lead, the Yeowomen could not hold
off their opponents and fell in a fifth game 15-11.
“There is no doubt that we are all fighting together to produce
more wins. We definitely have confidence and faith in ourselves,”
Leonhart said.
In the final match of the day, Oberlin faced conference opponent
College of Wooster, but failed to play up to their expectations
and fell in three straight games. Due to illness, Oberlin played
the weekend’s second two games without the services of All-Conference
player junior Amber Coleman.
In what has been seen as a problem on the court this season, the
issue of leadership or lack of it has been raised by many supporters
of the team.
“I would say that we all have our roles as far as leadership
goes and what we bring to the team. I am trying to help everyone
to have confidence in our team and themselves and keep attitudes
up,” Leonhart said.
Heading
into last night’s match with Heidelberg College, Coleman was
leading the team with 1.9 digs per game, while senior Christina
Morgan was leading the team with 36 blocks on the season.
Against Heidelberg, Oberlin again was able to hang close, fighting
to a tie score during every game, but Heidelberg pulled away in
each one, to win in three, 33-31, 30-23 and 30-23.
“It was competitive,” Morgan said of the Heidelberg
match. “We’re improving. We just need to get over the
hump. Nobody’s blowing us off the court.”
Looking
ahead to next week, Oberlin has four home games, which have been
a rarity this season. In this weekend’s action, Oberlin will
face Wittenberg University and Wooster in NCAC matches.
On Monday, they will travel to Cleveland to face the Spartans of
Case Western Reserve University and then will turn around and face
conference stalwart Allegheny College on Wednesday night. Oberlin
will be looking to gain the respect of their conference opponents.
As for the rest of the season, the Yeowomen are intent on turning
it around and picking up some hard-earned wins.
“I think the rest of the season will look better. We got a
lot of things sorted out this weekend. We will win another game,”
Leonhart said.
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