Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Volleyball's Freshmen Making Positive Strides This Year
09/12/2003 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 12, 2003
By Dave Siegal
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - When a perennially consistent volleyball team begins a season with eleven freshmen, growing pains are inevitable. After all, the Salukis are 1-5 and have had difficulty closing out matches. But by looking more thoroughly, several of these freshmen are giving head coach Sonya Locke something positive by making an immediate impact.
Haley Hann was named to the all-tournament team at the Saluki Invitational nearly two weeks ago, while Holly Marita garnered similar honors at the Duke Classic at Duke University last weekend. Marita has posted three double-doubles so far (including one triple-double) and fellow freshman Ashley Saverine has posted two double-doubles herself.
With the majority of the team being freshmen, some of them have to become leaders immediately. "I never really thought of myself as a leader, I just want to be part of the team, but I do know I'm really loud and vocal," Hann says. "I think it helps everyone and I try to pick people up. I'm not totally satisfied if we're not winning but I try."
Hann was ecstatic about winning the first game and picking up all-tournament honors her first weekend despite her anxiety. "I was shaking. I could hardly set when I had to be the backup setter, but I was just really shocked. I didn't think I played that well but when I looked at my stats, I was amazed that I played that well. It was awesome to finally pull out the win because a lot of the matches we've played we couldn't finish."
Coming from the Denver area to Carbondale has to be somewhat tougher than coming from the Midwest region, but Hann isn't fazed by that. "It's totally different from Colorado but I love it and it's good for me to get out and experience a different culture," added Hann.
Making the all-tournament at Duke and getting that first win was a thrill for Marita. "We're definitely progressing. We showed a lot of character by coming from a 2-1 deficit last weekend but we have to take it one match at a time. I was really excited that I received such an award so early in the year and I think that gave me a lot of confidence, and now I come out and feel, I do deserve to be here and play at a Division I school. At the same time, it's not the biggest accomplishment. I know I still have a lot of things to work on and I know there's so much more about the game that I don't know about yet."
Being the team's setter, Marita is leading the SIU with 216 assists and is second with nine aces but is not afraid to admit she's still learning (she leads the Salukis with 10 serving errors). "At times I made good decisions and I got one on one with my hitters and other times I would set my hitter into a double block, and that's just learning the college level a little bit better. Sometimes, they're thinking ahead of me and I have to think ahead of my opponents. The game's a lot faster and the other team is thinking about what you're going to do, instead of high school where they just react to what you do."
Saverine has been inconsistent throughout this season and is looking to be more consistent from match to match. "I think I played better than the previous weekend and surprised myself a couple of times, but there's always room for a lot of improvement."
Saverine also enjoyed the journey to another setting at Durham last weekend. "It was awesome and a lot of fun. It was really beautiful there and nice to see a different gym, different setting." Saverine is impressed with her teammates effort and unity. "We all inspire each other and work together well. Hopefully I'm inspiring people because they're inspiring me." She is also looking forward to the Butler Invitational this weekend in Indianapolis. "I know we can be successful. We've been getting better and I feel this is our breakout weekend."
"I think that the chemistry is getting better. That's something I knew was going to take time, they need time together, especially with a new setter (Monica Laird) and many new hitters. Fortunately, we've had tournaments and matches before conference play, so that could help them develop a little more. We've recruited them specifically because of the fact they've played volleyball year-round and we knew they'd come in with more experience than the average freshman, but we also knew there would be a big adjustment period from where they were and where they are now," said Locke, who is pleased with her team's improvement.
"The speed of the game is faster and they play against players with more experience at this level. Volleyball at this level is more physical and more mental than where they come from, so they're performing to the best of their ability right now and that's all anybody can ask. They're very coachable. They've tried to do everything we've asked them to do and make changes we wanted them to make. It's frustrating sometimes because they're not being as successful as they want to be and I realize they're trying hard. Our record doesn't speak for the amount of talent we have, but it'll pick up every time we step out on the court."
Although SIU lost two out of three matches at Duke, getting their first win helped the team's confidence a bit, preventing that weekend from being reflected upon as a failure.
"We wanted that win to happen for their mental state versus anything. If we would've played a match like we did against Charlotte and lost, it would've been really disappointing for them because they worked so hard to come back. We just wanted them to experience a win and get them to understand and know that they are very capable of doing it and that they can close a match. Fortunately they did all the right things to get it done. They're learning to be successful at this level. You have to have a lot of discipline in everything that you do," said Locke.
The trip also served another purpose for the freshmen-laden team, helping them prepare and deal with a road trip as well as facing a high profile school in a historic environment.
"When we're traveling, we have meetings that we have to be at, a certain time to leave the hotel, and I think being able to travel for the first time with a college team and being able to go to a place that they've only heard about predominately through basketball and prove that you can play with teams with big names was a valuable experience for them," stated Locke.
The fact that there isn't a go-to player on the team and a number of freshman have stepped up has been a plus for Locke, despite their youth and inexperience.
"Our effort has been a team effort. There's no name that you're going to call out all the time. The combination of all of them (the freshman) makes us as good as we are right now. If we had one somebody that was outstanding and others that weren't up to par, we'd be in trouble. Collectively, they all have things that compliment the other one's talent and that's something we knew we had when we brought them in. As a group they are very talented, so we don't need one somebody to stand out, we need them all to improve so that our team is as strong as it could be."
