Bernell DorroughThe volleyball team will begin its quest for a record eighth national championship this weekend. It is quite a feather in their caps, according to head coach Rich Luenemann, that the Bears have won their conference 15 years in a row and have again gained that automatic bid into post-season play. Washington University will host the NCAA Central Regional.
This home court advantage was not a sure thing, however. Regional sites are selected largely on an economic basis in order to choose the cheapest site for the teams to travel to. There were a number of different possibilities of teams that might have qualified for post-season play, and had several Iowa teams qualified, it would have been likely that the regional site would have been in Iowa. The team is excited about hosting the tournament this weekend.
“Certainly the NCAA is very cognizant of the fact that Washington University draws as well as anybody else does from the fan base,” said Luenemann.
Hosting the regional championship allows the players the luxury of maintaining the order of their daily schedules, sleeping in their own beds, and not having to travel by bus to off-campus locations.
“The lighting and structure of every court is a tad bit different, so we feel comfortable playing on our own court,” said Luenemann.
The team is happy to have the opportunity to participate in regionals within the friendly confines of the the University campus. The athletes hope that the home matches will draw a sizeable crowd to support the Bears.
“When we reflect back to the big crowd at the quarter-finals last year (about 1,500 people), the crowd was important in terms of our success,” said Luenemann.
In practices this week, the players are focused on brushing up on individual skill work. There is no one phase of the game that they are focusing on.
“By working on individual skills in practice, each person is becoming stronger and it’s helping the team out,” said sophomore Kara Liefer. “Hopefully all our hard work will show in post season.”
“We’re tying up lose ends,” said Luenemann. “We’ve identified the things that we need to tweak a little bit, and the players are focusing on those aspects.”
Wednesday and Thursday night, the Bears played competitive matches between the first and second teams in order to keep their game performance at an optimum level.
“Things are flowing really well recently; they are coming together for us,” said sophomore Nicole Hodgman. “We’re expecting everyone to play their best, so we’re prepared to bring our best game also.”
Sophomore Heidi Pfeiffer and junior Ishi Ballew, who had previously been sharing court time at one of the left side positions, found their niches during last weekend’s tournament.
“Both Heidi and Ishi have been incredible,” said Luenemann. “Over the weekend, Pfeiffer played front row; she attacked so well that she was named to the UAA All-Conference team. We asked Ishi to come in and serve in spot situations. She was our best server throughout the entire weekend’s play. She was serving balls that I haven’t seen people serve in a long time. Both accepted the roles that we handed to them and both excelled admirably.”
This weekend, Ballew will most likely get a few moments in the front row. The coaches feel very comfortable with the decisions that they have made in terms of who plays where and it’s very likely that the team will proceed with that lineup throughout post-season play.
One important factor in the Bears’ success thus far, and certainly a key to the team’s success in post-season play, is the bench. “Great kudos goes to the Bears’ bench because they’ve done an exceptional job of maintaining energy on the floor for our players and making the players on the court feel comfortable and relaxed,” said Luenemann. “They are another reason for our success – no doubt about that at all.”
The Bears hope that the University community will come out to support them this weekend. Play starts on Thursday with Fontbonne University vs. Rockford College and Lake Forest College vs. Wartburg College. The University, the tournament’s top seed, and Central College of Iowa, seeded number two, have automatic byes and will play the winners of these two matches on Friday, followed by the regional championship on Saturday.