The Alabama volleyball team had a tough weekend after being swept by Ole Miss 30-28, 25-22, 25-23. Even though every set was hard fought, the Crimson Tide expressed disappointment after being swept in their Southeastern Conference opener.
“We’re bitter about it,” senior Kayla Schmidt said. “It was the little things that we weren’t doing right that made the difference in the game.”
Head coach Judy Green thought last weekend’s loss was due to the bad week of practice leading up to it.
“I don’t feel like there was one day where everyone came into practice fully ready to go,” she said. “There was a lack of focus, a lack of consistency. We need to adopt a mindset, that we always have to practice and play with a chip on our shoulder.”
The loss comes after success in the Bama Bash and the CenturyLink Premier. Alabama was 8-2 before the loss, matching their win total from last year just two weeks into the season. The Tide’s first game in SEC play got mixed reactions on the team.
“I think we got complacent,” Green said. “We were satisfied with what we had done up until that point and weren’t hungry anymore. We lost our mindset.”
Sophomore Kelsey Johnson said, “Ole Miss is definitely tougher than anyone else we had played, but they’re definitely beatable. We just had a bad day.”
As for this week’s practices, Green laid out the plan early.
“We have to work with what comes into the gym,” she said. “We have to give them our expectations early, establish confidence and focus on our players’ development.”
Improvement will draw a lot of focus from the Tide coaching staff this week.
“We need to play disciplined defense as a team,” Green said. “We need to work on our digs, too. We lost our rhythm there. We need to try and put together big scoring streaks. We were doing that well earlier in the season, and for some reason we couldn’t do that versus Ole Miss.”
As Green focuses on the big picture, the players are looking inward for personal improvement.
“I need to work on my serves and my communication with the rest of the team,” Johnson said. “As a whole, we need to keep that competitive energy going, we need to keep talking to each other.”
Schmidt said, “I’m always trying to improve. I’ll be focusing on my decision making. Who I’m going to set up, what plays I need to make and when. I want to be more energetic for the team, too.”
The Tide will play two home matches in the Cave this weekend, one on Friday versus LSU and the other on Sunday versus Arkansas. This Friday versus LSU will be Cram the Cave Night, as Alabama tries to break its attendance record of 1,227, set in 2006.
Not only is this Green’s last season as head coach, this will also be Alabama’s last season in the Cave, as the team will move to Foster Auditorium for next season. The first 500 fans in the door get free t-shirts.
“We want to break that record this weekend,” Green said. “It’s our last season here [in the Cave], and we have an SEC West opponent in LSU. It’s a must win.”
