The Alabama volleyball team’s performance in the Hampton Inn Bama Bash was not what head coach Ed Allen was looking for. Winning the team’s second tournament was great, he said, but the team didn’t play to its potential.
The Crimson Tide only dropped one of the 13 sets it played, but it fell behind too often for Allen’s liking.
“We’re more than a little concerned about the consistency in which we play from point one to point 25 right now,” he said.
Alabama improved to 8-2 and went 4-0 in the tournament. The Crimson Tide outscored its opponents 326-224 with the help of some timely kills. Early in the final set of the tournament, the Crimson Tide overcame a five-point deficit to beat UT-Martin in three straight sets.
“That was encouraging, but we tend to play better behind than we do ahead,” Allen said. “We watch leads evaporate on a fairly regular basis, which is a little bit discouraging right now with where we’re at. That’s something that we’ll work towards as we move through the season.”
Despite the inconsistencies, three Alabama players made the All-Tournament Team: Krystal Rivers, Katherine White and Kryssi Daniels. Rivers received her second MVP award of the year. She hit .527 throughout the entire tournament and averaged 3.46 kills per set in the four matches (45 total on the tournament). White hit .467 over the weekend, and Daniels had an average 3.15 digs per set in the four matches.
“Krystal’s been very solid for us offensively all year long,” Allen said. “I think she hits on the season pretty close to .500. We’re getting offensively the consistency, and she’s getting better defensively. We’ve challenged her to become as strong a blocker as she is an attacker, and when she does that, she’s going to help our defense tremendously.”
She wasn’t the only member of the Crimson Tide to contribute kills. Sophomore Laura Steiner added 46 from the tournament to her already impressive repertoire. She has a total of 122 kills, two more than Rivers. Freshman Brittany Thomas had 26 digs and 42 kills, including a career-high 16 against UT-Martin.
“Brittany’s a player that’s up and down in terms of her production offensively,” Allen said. “She had a great match here in this one [against UT Martin] but has been all over the map as you would expect most freshmen to be especially given some of the circumstances that we put her in.”
Even with his dissatisfaction in the team’s performance, Allen said that it is improving. He pointed to setter Sierra Wilson’s performance as the team’s catalyst. She had 159 assists and 22 digs in the four matches while playing with an ankle sprain.
“This is the healthiest she’s been for a month … and we’ve seen her turn the corner this weekend,” he said. “We’ve seen the team turn the corner consequently. I think our best match was against Arkansas State in the 7 o’clock match yesterday. We’re looking to build on that and really have the same type of consistency that we demonstrated throughout that match.”
