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Volleyball wants more of the same
By Ben Dunsmoor
This was the game that changed the Huskies’ volleyball season.
The scenario was an Oct. 18 evening in Mankato. The Huskies were down two games to none in their match against NCC rival Minnesota State, Mankato. Did the Huskies give up in the third game? No. They played together, had fun and pulled out a tight 31-29 win over the Mavs. The Huskies eventually lost the match 3-1, but according to them, that was the turning point in the maturation of this team.
“We started gelling and playing together as a team,” sophomore setter/defensive specialist Megan Hardy said.
“It was a huge turnaround for our team,” junior setter Kari Turkowski also added about the match.
“Everyone’s just been stepping it up so much more and it feels a lot different on the court,” junior hitter Jane Backes said. “There’s a lot more trust and confidence now, and you need that to win.”
The Huskies are hoping that the match against Mankato tonight at Halenbeck will be just as successful as the previous, but with the outcome going in their favor.
The Huskies will face another NCC foe for the second time when they travel to Sioux Falls, S.D. to play the Augustana Vikings Saturday.
The first Vikings/Husky match Sept. 27 had a similar look to the Mankato match. The Huskies won the second game of the match 30-18, but the Vikes won the three other games.
Backes feels that the second, not the third, time around will be the charm against these two teams.
“The second time around we’ll know a lot more about them,” she said. “We’ll know what we have to do a little bit better than we did before.”
With the Huskies change in attitude about the season, they have been improving. They have improved in every match and they hope that it will show both tonight at Halenbeck, and Saturday in South Dakota. The one thing they don’t want to do is start sliding down that proverbial hill.
“The past four games we haven’t taken a step back,” Turkowski said. “The only way we can go is down or up, and right now we’re going up. We’ve been losing in three games, and now we’re pushing teams to that fourth game. It’s a battle for who’s going to win.”
Tonight’s match against Mankato will be an exciting one. The teams are evenly matched, and for some reason the Huskies get fired up for the Mavs.
“We’re very excited to get in and play them again, because it was such a big turnaround for this team,” Turkowski said.
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