It’s difficult enough to play a ranked team at home, but it’s a completely different story to play on its court.
The Alabama volleyball team has done it before and is 7-2 on the road. The only two road losses this season have come to Missouri and Kentucky, both ranked. Both matches went to four sets, but the Crimson Tide isn’t playing either of those teams this weekend.
The Tide is busing out to Columbia, S.C., to play South Carolina before heading to Gainesville, Fla., to face No. 5 Florida. Alabama coach Ed Allen said he isn’t sure what sort of effect the travel will have on his team this late in the season.
“We’re going to get on a sleeper bus, and I’m not sure if it’s going to be a toll at all,” Allen said. “It [is] a pretty comfortable way to travel, and in some cases, a whole lot more comfortable than what it is to fly, but I’m not sure that being on the road is exhausting. It just depends on what the trip is, and we were pretty exhausted last weekend and we were at home, so sometimes being on the road allows things to somewhat slow down, because it’s not like you’ve got family around; it’s not like you’ve got friends around; it’s a much more controllable environment.”
The Crimson Tide has yet to face South Carolina this season but is 23-18 all-time against the Gamecocks. Even with South Carolina’s losing record, setter Sierra Wilson said the team is going in with the same mindset as it does in every game.
“Every SEC school is a challenge in its own right, so we’re not really going to take that different of [an] approach in practice,” Wilson said. “We’re going to take it like any other match, so we’re going to have to work hard, and it should come out in our favor if we do what we need to do.”
Florida, on the other hand, handed Alabama a 3-0 loss in early October at Foster Auditorium. It was the only time the Crimson Tide was shut out at home this year.
“We held our own,” Wilson said. “I think we’ve grown a lot as a team, so it’ll be nice to get a second chance and see how much we’ve progressed over the season.”
There are six matches left in the season. The team has already left a mark on the record books with its seventh 20-win season since 1989. Alabama tallied its 20th win after downing Arkansas in four sets last Friday night.
“I think we’re hopefully going to finish as strong as what we’ve begun the season and try to prepare in here on a daily basis,” Allen said. “It allows us to be somewhat fresh as it relates to competing on those Friday and Sunday matches that we’ve got over the next three weeks.”
