Marquette University Athletics
Laura Farina's Coaching Diary
9/29/1999 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.
SEPTEMBER 30
Probably the easiest thing to talk about is last night's win over DePaul, and the team rallying behind one another and coming back from an 0-2 deficit to win the next three games solidly. The team played to win, which is something that we have been talking about since the start of the season. It is a lot better than playing not to lose. The mentality that we have tried to create in the practice gym is playing to win, and a lot of people contributed to the victory. I think that this goes along with how hard they have worked in practice, not only to improve in specific areas but also to improve upon the team chemistry.
Katie Watters did a magnificent job of coming in for Chris Curtain in the back row and passing really well -- stabilizing that area so that we could run our offense -- as well as doing some wonderful things defensively. Kelly Kaylor came in and sparked us with some tremendous digs and just played a great overall match. As the match against DePaul developed, we needed to have passing out there and Kelly came in and did it. She not only did that, she carried her weight in the front row, getting some kills when we needed it, using the hands off the block and also blocking balls. It was a good performance for her and good for her confidence as we go into the rest of the Conference USA season.
The crowd at Marquette Gym was fantastic and probably the neatest thing that occurred was as the match kept going on, even though we were down 0-2, the crowd was behind us all the way. Their support helped elevate our play and also made the atmosphere electric. We had the Golden Eagle running around, people were screaming and cheering, students were shouting through megaphones, and everyone seemed to be doing some sort antics. It was exciting and the way volleyball is supposed to be. As Conference USA continues, and we win at home, the crowd becomes more of a factor in how we perform and how we take the opponent out of their game.
What we have to look forward to is we are 3-0 in the league with road matches this weekend at Louisville and Cincinnati. I expect those to be hard places to compete. Marquette in the past hasn't been very successful down there and hopefully those ghosts from the past won't come out of their closet to haunt us. We are great at home and good on the road, and now we need to be great on the road. We are preparing to put our best effort forward and play to win.
Louisville was picked in the preseason to win the conference and I think that due to injuries and a tough non-league schedule, they have more losses rather than wins. I don't expect that to be any indicator of how good they are. I think that they are a very solid team. I've watched tape of them and expect them to hit the ball hard as they have always been able to do. Going down to Louisville's gym and trying to win is not an easy thing to do. They pack them in and it is definitely a home-court advantage. You feel like the enemy and we are going to have to be extremely focused and play our kind of volleyball rather than allowing Louisville to dictate the speed of the game as well as the crowd.
Cincinnati is having a phenomenal season. They have upset Louisville and just beat St. Louis. I'm sure that they are riding high emotionally right now. They have a pretty diverse offense and a good setter who moves the ball around. Cincinnati is a well-coached team -- they seem to know what they are doing and then execute it. We are going to have to play a solid match against them in all areas. We can't go through a rotation or two where we give up a lot of points or where we miss a lot of serves. We will have to be at our best all weekend in order to be successful.
I'm looking forward to our first Conference USA road trip. It's going to be a great time -- three days on the road with the Marquette volleyball team. I think that we know pretty well but road trips always seem to bring out the eccentricities that people have which often lead to funny stories. That's one of the best times that you have being a team member anywhere -- those off-the the-court memories and stories that go in your mind and get brought up year after year after year. I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to get to know them better and for them to get to know each other better. It makes for great team chemistry.
I should mention Vesna Grabvac, who was named Conference USA Player of the Week. Everyone around here was ecstatic and I think that Vesna was kind of shocked but at the same time took it sort of, "okay, let's move on and get ready to play DePaul." It's really a team effort and anytime one player gets recognized, you have to remember that you have the whole team who is behind that player. Any of those awards are really team awards as well. Vesna gets noticed, but it definitely a team honor on how we work and make each other better.
