Volleyball serves up one win, two losses

Author: Nicole Lam

At this year's Beijing Olympics, Lang Ping became a star among the Americans as the head coach for United States women's national volleyball team. Known as the "Iron Hammer," Lang Ping does not joke around when she says she focuses on the team's offense and defense. Team communication is the key. These top-notch points coincide quite well with Middlebury's volleyball team.

The Panthers started out their season this past weekend with three matches at the Wellesley Quad. The team lost 3-0 to Amherst on Friday, but rebounded nicely with a 3-0 win against Eastern Connecticut on Saturday, Sept. 13. The games ended with the Panthers succumbing 3-0 to Wellesley.

"It's definitely a game about working together to get the job done," said Whitney Bean '10. "Defense and offense have to support each other to win a match," "The greatest thing we can take away from this weekend's play was our team communication and flow," added Jane Handel '12, one of four promising first-years on the Panther squad.

The idea behind team chemistry is that every small element that a player contributes in a game counts. This pushes everyone to give it her all.

"I have learned to push myself to play the best I can, and if everyone does that, that is when a team achieves great things," said Bean.

Against Amherst, Lindsay Patterson '08.5 had seven kills with Handel producing two aces. In the second game, Caroline Cordle '12 and Patterson each had six kills with Elissa Goeke '12 registering two blocks and Molly Elmer-Dewitt '10 hitting three aces. Finally, Josie Keller '09 scored three kills and Natalie DuPre '10 had 15 digs against Wellesley.

Both the offense and defense were focal points throughout the weekend, according to Bean. "I think the offense picked it up and started pressuring the other teams while our defense really challenged the big-hitters of Wellesley," said the junior.

However, given that these were the first matches of the season, mistakes were made as rotations became shifty.

"We went through many rotations this weekend so our starting lineup was different in each match," said Olivia Minkhorst '09.

But with the first game jitters behind them, the Panthers are hopeful. Each player knows which aspects of her game to improve and the necessary steps to take in improving them.

"We can take a lot from our first weekend," said Patterson, a co-captain on the team. "We got a look at what our competition will be and identified our strengths as a team as well as what it is we need to work to improve."

"I am hoping to really work out my control. I would like to become a more focused and exact player," said Minkhorst.

In addition, the confidence level builds with the emergence of four promising first-years.

"We have some very strong rookies who are already proving to be assets in the front row. This weekend Jane Handel, Caroline Cordle and Elissa Goeke proved they're ready to play volleyball at the college level," said Reisa Bloch '10, the other co-captain.

These additional players will help prevent mistakes that occurred last year.

"Last year due to injury we found ourselves very thin at the outside and at times were forced to play players who would never play the position," said Minkhorst.

Therefore, with each loss, lessons are learned and improvements are implemented.

Like Lang Ping, Patterson believes "working together will be the key to our success."