The Alabama volleyball team will travel to Toledo, Ohio, this weekend to compete in the Rocket Classic for their final nonconference games of the season.
The Crimson Tide will compete against three teams, including No. 25 Ohio State. Head coach Ed Allen said facing such a tough team would be a good way to end nonconference play.
“We haven’t been tested like this,” Allen said. “This will be a good way to gauge our growth as a team.”
The weekend will be a grueling one for the Tide. Alabama faces off against Toledo on Friday night, followed by two matchups Saturday – Ohio State at 11 a.m. and Pennsylvania at 4 p.m. The schedule doesn’t play in Alabama’s favor, and the disadvantage leaves some concern for Allen.
“We don’t quite have the depth to survive that many hard hits with such a quick turnaround,” Allen said. “If we play at the level we’re capable of, we’ll have a good shot.”
With such a quick turnaround required this weekend, senior Stephanie Riley said being ready to play isn’t just about practice at the gym.
“Aggressive practices are important, but we’ve also got to stay in shape to get the job done,” Riley said. “We’ve got to take care of our bodies and make sure we’re getting plenty of sleep and eating right all week long.”
After dropping two out of three in last weekend’s tournament, Riley said the team is focused and hungry for a win.
“It really plays more to our advantage,” Riley said. “Coach Allen helped us see how to learn from the experience, and everyone’s really bought into that. We’ve approached practice well and have worked in new things to this week’s practices.”
Sophomore Andrea McQuaid echoed Riley’s sentiments.
“We’re going in with a winner’s mentality,” McQuaid said. “We need the go-and-get-it attitude and not play to not lose, but play to win.”
After the Rocket Classic, Alabama begins SEC play against LSU in Tuscaloosa. Allen said the team is not where he wants it to be at this point in the schedule.
“We need to be hungry to continue to improve,” Allen said. “We’ve got to be prepared to practice to get better. Execute. Stay hungry. Execute and do their job. At this point, we should be getting better every week.”
Allen’s words aren’t falling on deaf ears; Riley agreed getting the fundamentals down was important to the team.
“We’ve got to get our consistency down,” Riley said. “We all need to work on consistency with our own skills. We need to get better at trusting each other, the person beside you on the court, and become one unit. With that, it will really help us take the next step. You can’t go anywhere until that’s fixed.”
McQuaid said consistency was the most important thing.
“He keeps hammering it into us that we’ve got to get consistency,” McQuaid said. “That’s the golden nugget of wisdom. It comes with practice and putting time in at the gym. When we get that down, we’ve got it.”
