After a 3-0 loss to North Carolina on Tuesday night, the volleyball team will be taking on Maryland Friday.
Tuesday’s practice consisted of watching film from the match against Carolina, rather than a physical practice, according to coach Charita Stubbs.
“Because we played [Tuesday] and then we played [last] Friday and [last] Saturday, I know it’s kind of hard on the girls,” Stubbs said. “Just kind of took a physical break, just did some mental training today.”
Sophomore outside hitter Chrissy Zirpolo said watching film actually allowed the players to see how the team performed on Tuesday.
“We watched film, and we thought it was really good for us because we got to see the errors that we made and what we need to do to fix them,” Zirpolo said. “To see it visually, rather than just having us been told that.”
Stubbs said having her team watch film wasn’t a punishment. She wanted to be able to teach them as much as possible.
“Typically they’re like ‘Ah, I don’t wanna really watch the film because I don’t wanna see how bad I did or relive how bad the situation was,'” Stubbs said. “We actually watched the first match from [Tuesday] against the Tar Heels, and initially they thought the first game was OK, not bad. And then [Wednesday] they thought it was awful, and when they actually watched it, they realized that once you break it down, it’s not as bad as it looks.”
Stubbs said she pointed out to players why the team gave up points at certain junctures.
“Just because someone scores on you, blocks, those types of situations, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are at fault as a result,” Stubbs said. “Sometimes you take a good swing, and the ball just goes out of bounds. I’m trying to help educate them on that so that we can hopefully stop making those same errors over and over again.”
As for the offensive and defensive play of the team, senior middle blocker Ashley Wallace said in her mind, defense wins games.
“Other than defense, both need to play well for us to win,” Wallace said. “You can’t have one without the other. But overall, we’re looking pretty good.”
The team has also been picking up on improvements, mostly things it has been practicing on, Stubbs noted.
“They all agree that it isn’t happening enough, but they can see the carry over, which is good,” she said. “You do want the things that you are working on in practice to carry over into the match.”
The Pack will be taking on the Terrapins at 7 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum on Friday. Of what the Pack knows about the Terps, Wallace kept her statement short.
“They’re an up-and-down team and definitely beatable,” she said.
Zirpolo said one of the strongest assets for the Terps is they’re very physical, but the Pack must come in with the right mindset to beat them.
“As with every game, our goal is to work hard and go to five games,” Zirpolo said. “And just say that, we can walk out of the gym and be like, ‘We gave it our all.’ Regardless of what the outcome is in five games, we want to know that we gave it our all and that every single person on the team can say that.”
