The Alabama volleyball team put up 10 blocks against Mississippi State Friday night, but it wasn’t enough, sophomore libero Kryssi Daniels said.
“Blocking is something that we definitely need to continue to get better at, considering we’re in the SEC and you have a lot of good teams, particularly talking about Florida – they’re offensively driven so you have to be able to block to be able to help people on defense like me,” Daniels said. “The last match [against Mississippi State], it wasn’t the best, but I think with the way Coach is, we’ll continue to get better at it.”
In SEC play, Alabama has put up double-digit blocks three times. On the season, the team has done this seven times in 24 matches.
“I think we’re getting better in recognizing what is being run in front of us, doing a better job in mechanically executing the skill,” head coach Ed Allen said. “And because of that, really since the last month, those numbers have slowly but surely elevated over what we began the year with, and it’s probably the skill that we do the least effective of all the skills that we execute.”
The Crimson Tide has averaged 1.75 blocks per set, while opponents have averaged 2.24 blocks per set. Being out-blocked makes the defender’s job difficult, Daniels said.
“When they have an effective block, the defensive players have to be ready to cover basically,” Daniels said. “When you have a good blocking team, you can’t just expect us to put the ball away because you are going to get blocked in that level of play. You can’t take anything for granted, and you have to be ready.”
The blocking has primarily fallen to Krystal Rivers and Katherine White, who have put up a combined 42 of Alabama’s 50 total solo blocks. Rivers just came off her second consecutive SEC Freshman of the Week award and third of the season. Rivers and White average .87 and .80 blocks per set, respectively.
With Alabama’s final non-conference match of the season against The University of Alabama at Birmingham tonight, Allen said he hopes the team will continue to work on its blocking along with its other skills.
“I think just continue to get better, number one, and I think hopefully execute at a very high level both defensively and offensively, and see the level of consistency that we’ve developed over the course of the last month continue to improve, and probably be able to match the emotion and intensity that they’re going to bring in playing The University of Alabama,” Allen said.
