After the outcome of Friday's match against the Arkansas-Monticello Cotton Blossoms (10-13), the Triton Women's Volleyball team (12-8, 4-4 SSC) was hoping to gain another regional victory against North Alabama (14-11). Unfortunately, the Tritons were unsuccessful as they fell 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-19). Their loss is now in the past, as they move on this week to face St. Francis on Tuesday, and then back to two conference matches this weekend: Nova Southeastern (13-8, 4-4 SSC) on Friday and Lynn (17-6, 4-4 SSC) on Saturday.
Looking back at the match against North Alabama, Coach Courtney Draper was not happy with the outcome of the match but knows that the girls can pull it together this week.
“There were too many errors,” Draper said. “And our passing was not where it needed to be in order to run a successful offense. It was a disappointing game, and the girls hopefully learned some things from it, and will be able to bounce back for this week's matches.”
Despite playing three matches in five days, Draper only likes to take a one game at a time approach, but it is hard to do so when there are so many matches grouped together.
It will be hard for her team to prepare for the upcoming match on Tuesday against St. Francis as they are coming here from Illinois for the week to play a few matches in Florida. Luckily, Eckerd is hosting the match against St. Francis and Webber at 4pm on Tuesday, so Draper and her team will be able to scout the team's opponents in the match right after.
“Hopefully that [match] will be fresh in our girls minds, as we play them immediately following. Hopefully we will be able to pick up some tendencies and learn what's going to work.”
Although St. Francis is a non-conference, non-regional match, it is still an important preparation for the matches against Nova Southeastern and Lynn this weekend. With Lynn, Nova Southeastern, and our Tritons currently all tied in fourth place with a 4-4 record in the SSC, it will certainly be an interesting and eventful weekend, as the matches are extremely important for determining the rankings in the conference. Although the Tritons have already lost 3-1 to both Nova and Lynn earlier this season, they have yet to face these teams at home where we currently have a 6-1 home-court record.
Draper has already started preparing the team for the upcoming matches by watching film of the match against Nova and Lynn, where Nova Southeastern clinched a 3-0 win this past week.
“Right now we are really focusing on that, and picking up some of the things that they have changed since the last time we were able to play them,” stated Draper.
One way or another, the tie will be broken this weekend, hopefully ending up in the Tritons favor. Luckily, all three matches this week are at home, so hopefully fan support will help the Tritons obtain the victories they need in order to improve their standings in the SSC.
