Marquette University Athletics
Laura Farina's Coaching Diary
10/6/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Every Wednesday for the remainder of the season, Laura Farina, Marquette University's head volleyball coach, will share her thoughts on the Golden Eagles' volleyball team.
OCTOBER 6
We had a disappointing weekend on the road. We took our first Conference USA road trip to Louisville and Cincinnati hoping to come out of that at least 1-1, but instead we came out of the weekend 0-2. We didn't play strong, at Louisville we fell flat. Both our passing and offense broke down. Our offense had been a mainstay and that was the first time we struggled and couldn't find a solution in time to pull out a game.
We improved at Cincinnati. It was a slow-moving game with a lot of rotating but little point scoring streaks. After game one, I felt the match could have gone either way. However, we did not capitalize on point-scoring opportunities.
I think that one thing that I learned as a coach is every team has a lot of learning to do, not just with volleyball, but also with how they conduct themselves as athletes. We have some growth ahead of us in both areas. We watched tape on the way home from Cincinnati and had an opportunity as a staff to pinpoint some areas that we wanted to focus on this week in practice. A lot of them are just basic movements, defense, blocking position, passing technique and obviously working on the offense. We don't want to repeat those mistakes from the past weekend. We had Monday off and yesterday (Oct. 5) we had a full practice that was good. We've got two more practice days before we take on UNC-Charlotte and St. Louis at home this weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing what we put out on the floor.
I expect both those teams to come in here and play hard. They both have played well in Conference USA. UNC-Charlotte has a setter who really moves the ball around well and finds the hitters who are going to be successful for her. St. Louis is riding high off a non-conference schedule that left them just one loss. We are tied with St. Louis for second place in the American Division so it will be an important match in that aspect as well.
I think that we'll compete well. We are a much different team at home than on the road. That's good but it's also disconcerting because half our Conference USA matches are on the road. I expect people step up to the challenge that is presented on Friday and Saturday.
One nice item from the past weekend is that Amy Levin, a freshman middle blocker, played and sparked us at Louisville and followed that effort up with a good showing at Cincinnati. She's a little unorthodox, but plays hard and that is something as a coach that you trust when someone is out there with all their effort and just going for it. I'm pleased with her stepping up in that position and giving us some offensive options.
Note: The Marquette women's volleyball team is 10-6 overall including 3-2 in the American Division of Conference USA, good for a second-place tie. The Golden Eagles will host UNC-Charlotte on Friday (Oct. 8) and St. Louis on Saturday (Oct. 9) with both matches starting at 7:00 p.m.
