Written by Hannah Beall
With a new setter in place, and a faster running offense, the upcoming season looks bright for the 2009-10 Lady Bison volleyball team. The girls got off to a good start and are currently 12-2. The team seems to have high hopes for the rest of the season.
Though there are not as many incoming freshmen as last year, the team is still fairly young, with only two seniors. Despite the small number of upperclassmen, this does not seem to be a hindrance to the team overall.
“Yeah, we’re a young team,” Head Coach Keith Giboney said. “But having this young talent makes me know that we’ll have greater talent down the road.”
The first tournament of the season was a success with the team beating East Central 3-1 and grabbing a 3-0 win against Texas Women’s in the Texas Women’s University Tournament. Returning outside hitter and senior Manuela Nesheva had her highest hitting percentage of the season with 27 kills in four sets in addition to 10 digs in the match against East Central.
“She can just do things that you can’t teach,” Giboney said.
The Lady Bisons also got their first shutout win of the season against Texas Women’s. Sophomores Emily Tate and Amber Parker led the defense with 11 digs each, and Nesheva again led the offense with 15 kills.
“The tournament [at] Texas Women’s University was where we started coming together as a team,” Nesheva said. “In the first tournament, we were starting to figure out what works and what [does] not on the court. It seemed that there we started becoming more consistent.”
Not only did the tournament victories encourage the team; they also showed the team what needed improvement.
This tournament was good,” sophomore setter Jessica Heimrich said. “We had a really good bench, and we got to see what we needed to work on.”
This year, Heimrich is a key player in the new offense. The team runs a 5-1 offense, which is where there are five hitters and one setter, who sets in every rotation. But because of the faster offense this year, it’s more of a glorified 4-2.
“I felt like a much faster offense was important for our team to be able to compete with other teams who do the same thing,” Heimrich said.
Adjusting to new players who have a major role in offense or defense can be a difficult task, but the Lady Bisons seemed to have no problem adjusting to a new setter.
“Jess worked really hard this summer,” redshirt freshman Jordan Smith said. “She’s more confident than last year, and she’s talking more. We’re really learning how to stay consistent throughout a whole game.”
Though the faster offense was definitely an advantage and made for better competition against opponents, it still took some adjusting to.
“It was a little bit harder for me specifically to adjust to the new style, but I see the benefits of it. Sometimes a play works just because it is fast,” Nesheva said. “I think the team likes the fact that we can be faster and more effective on the court.”
With a completely different strategy than last year, most of the girls adjusted well to a new setter who seems to be successfully carrying out this new offensive strategy.
“Everyone is stepping up,” sophomore Leshae Belt said. “It’s totally different than last year. It’s more fun, and we’re all more gutsy. I think that is because we do have a setter that takes more chances.”
This year, the Lady Bisons will host the GSC Tournament. Every year is different, and every team has as good a chance as any to win the tournament. The Lady Bisons seem to be on their way to doing just that.
“It seems like this year we communicate better on the court, and that is [a] very important part of the game,” Nesheva said. “We also make sure we encourage each other a lot, which makes practice and games more fun.”
