Though their record may not show it, the Virginia volleyball team has been making great strides in the past few weeks. The young team has continued to improve in the wake of numerous tough losses, many of which have come by just a couple points.
“People don’t see the adversity we’ve had to overcome in the gym,” freshman defensive specialist Kelsey Miller said. “We lost seven seniors and have six new freshmen on the floor. It’s frustrating that we have the record we do because it doesn’t reflect what we’ve done to improve.”
Coach Dennis Hohenshelt is pleased with the team’s recent performance on its road trip.
“We played extremely hard last weekend,” he said. “We’ve played hard all year, but we just haven’t been very precise, and part of that is that the freshmen are still learning as this goes on.”
Through all of the hardship they’ve faced this season, Hohenshelt lauded the team for staying resilient and bringing the same work ethic every day.
“I like this team a lot — this team works,” he said. “They have not quit, and I expect them to come out and play hard again this weekend.”
The Cavaliers’ (4-16, 1-7 ACC) willingness to improve is clearly evident. To figure out what they must improve on, the team often watches film to go over positives and negatives of plays in their previous games.
“We look a lot at how the other team is able to score on us, and why we’re not able to make the change to stop them,” Miller said. “We go over positioning to make sure that we’re in the right spots and plan drills to try to counteract the mistakes we make.”
Steady improvement has been the mantra for the young Cavaliers this season. Based on the close matches they have been a part of this season, Miller said that the team has been focusing on game-like situations to improve on finishing in crunch time.
“We’ve just been working on staying up when we’re up and going hard for the full time we’re on the court,” she said. “We’ve been doing a lot of 18-on-18 drills this week to try to do that.”
Hohenshelt detailed some of the personnel improvements the team has been working on as of late. He mentioned the team has been getting into a good rhythm with freshman setter Jennifer Wineholt setting the ball, which has been taking a lot of pressure off of senior outside hitters Jasmine Burton and Haley Kole to get touches.
“We’re definitely making improvements as a team,” Hohenshelt said. “We’re trying to improve on [game days] by making sure the girls know what’s going on on the court, so as a staff we’ve been picking things to improve on that will make us better on the court.”
The team’s improvement will face tough tests this weekend from two Floridian teams traveling up to Charlottesville. The Cavaliers will first play red hot Florida State (15-3, 8-1 ACC) Friday night before taking on Miami (8-13, 2-7 ACC) Saturday night. Florida State took down Miami 3-0 in both team’s most recent match.
Hohenshelt said this week’s practices were all geared towards preparing for their next opponents.
“Miami has the player who leads the league in points in attacking percentage, so we need to figure out a way to stop her,” he said. “Florida State is a little more balanced with three main attackers. We’ve really just focused on what they’re going to do.”
Despite their record, Hohenshelt still has the same mentality as he did to start the season.
“We’re going to go out and try to win every game for the rest of the season,” he said.
The Cavaliers will once again take their improvements and winning mentality on the court this weekend to try to get two big wins. First serve against Florida State will be 7 p.m. at Memorial Gymnasium Friday.
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