A week after splitting eight games against four opponents in an informal tournament at Duke, the volleyball team didn’t fare quite as well Saturday, dropping six of eight games against four foes at Wake Forest.
“It definitely wasn’t our best showing. It showed a lot of stuff that we need to work on,” rising senior Kasey Rhyne said. “But we’re coming along.”
The team split two games each with Radford and High Point, but lost two games apiece against Wake and East Carolina. N.C. State has been playing with only nine players this spring after losing two seniors and four other players from its fall roster.
Rhyne said the team gave a good effort, but still needed to improve its mindset on the court.
“We need to work on serving and some stuff like that, but overall, we played really hard and we played tough,” Rhyne said. “But we’ve still got some mental aspects to work on.”
Coach Charita Stubbs also said the team needs to improve its mental toughness, but that it isn’t getting worse at it.
“The only way that they can get better is to be put in those situations. So when you’re put in those situations, you’re either going to rise to the top or you’re going to stay in the middle or you’re going to fall down,” Stubbs said. “And the reality is we’re not falling down. We’re maintaining.”
Stubbs also said her team will start focusing more on blocking after honing in on other aspects of the game earlier this spring.
“We toyed with [blocking] in the beginning, but it wasn’t a major focus for us,” Stubbs said. “[Earlier] we concentrated more on defense and serve-receive because that’s where you’re going to win your games.”
She also said the team is looking to get better at serving. Meanwhile, she said her team’s knowledge of how to play the game is improving.
“One of our strengths is our ability to understand the game now,” Stubbs said. “We may not be able to execute perfectly, but at least they understand how it’s supposed to take place. And that’s something that we really didn’t have in the fall.”
The team hosts UNC-Greensboro on Wednesday in a scrimmage scheduled for 4 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum, and it plays in a tournament at Georgia State on Saturday. Rhyne said the busy week will give the team more opportunities to improve.
She added the team knows nothing is going to come easy in those upcoming matches.
“We know we have to work hard, and we know we have to work as a team in order to win every match,” Rhyne said. “We know we’re going to have to scrap for every point, so we’ve just got to pull together.”
Stubbs added having two-game days in the same week in the spring is a plus.
“These next two competition dates will be what we need to train ourselves mentally,” Stubbs said. “So it’s what we need, and we’re exactly where we should be at this point.”
