After a strong performance at the South Region Crossover, the UT volleyball team is ready to finish up their regular season with seven conference games.
The team won all three of its Crossover matches, and nine out of ten games.
“It was nice to see us play together more times than not this past weekend. The mini-peak was exciting to watch,” said Coach Catanach. “We definitely played better overall in the tournament, the challenge is to keep it going and be consistent.”
Standout sophomore Danielle Selkridge, who is coming off SSC player-of-the-week honors, was satisfied with the outcome of the tournament.
“We played really well against UNA [University of Northern Alabama]. It was probably the best game we played all year. All of us played together,” she said.
Consistency has been the biggest issue with the team thus far. At 19-3 overall and 8-1 in the conference, winning has not been a problem for the no. 3 ranked team in the nation. The team won’t be able to get away with the same performance that earned some of their earlier victories as they come up against powerhouses in the Regionals or Nationals.
However, the women are starting to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together, and what better time to do it than down a stretch of conference games leading up to Regionals. Of the seven conference games left, five are at home.
“Our goal is to win the conference. Of course, we would like to win all [seven] games, but we need to take care of the five home games and win two or three on the road to lock it up,” said Catanach.
The Rollins game on Oct. 27 is surely marked on the team’s calendar after an upset led to a Spartan loss in their first game.
“I really want to win, we need to redeem ourselves for last time,” said Selkridge. “We’ve been using the Rollins game to push ourselves forward and keep motivation up.”
Catanach is also looking forward to facing off against the Tars for a second time. “Rollins was our only blemish of the season and I would really like vindication for it,” said Catanach. “We know we’re a better team, we just have to play like it.”
With Regionals in site, Catanach has stressed the importance of overlooking no one, because the team knows what can happen if they don’t take a team seriously.
“At this point in the season, I think Regionals are very realistic. I won’t even comment on the Elite Eight because I’m not going to look too far ahead,” said Catanach.
Selkridge is not looking past anyone, but is confident in the team’s ability.
“I think the Elite Eight is realistic for us. Last year people weren’t expecting us to make it and we made it. This year I think we can make it and hopefully go even further,” she said.
The Spartans will take on Rollins on Oct. 27 as they will be supporting Breast Cancer awareness month. Dig for the cure t-shirts will be on sale with proceeds going towards the cause.
John Hilsenroth can be at reached at jhilsenroth@spartans.ut.edu.