Written by John Mark Adkison
Within the past two weeks, Harding’s volleyball team has participated in four “play days” as a part of what the NCAA calls the Non-Championship Segment. These play days are opportunities for college volleyball players to get time on the court and play other teams within and outside of their division. The matches are purely scrimmages and timed at 50 minutes.
NCAA volleyball teams are allowed only four play days and Harding hosted two of them, the first on Tuesday, April 5, and the next one on Tuesday, April 12. They participated in the University of Central Arkansas’ play days on Friday, April 8, and Saturday, April 16.
“The purpose of spring games is to keep our team’schemistry strong and to keep our volleyball skills in shape because we won’t play again until August,”junior volleyball player Bailee Graham said. “We will spend all summer conditioning and staying in shape for preseason. It is nice to play some volleyball in the spring to see how other teams are looking, to get a feel for what it is like to play without that fall’s seniors, to see what needs to be worked on in the fall, and to keep us in volleyball shape.”
Volleyball Head Coach Keith Giboney said the NCAA allows the volleyball team to work out only five days a week before spring break, during which time the players swim, lift and run on the track, and are allowed 24 days on the court.
“It was great playing as a team again; after our initial spring games we picked it up and were playing very well together,”Graham said.”Our offense was executing andour defense was digging up balls consistently. Our team has great chemistry on the court because we get along so well off the court.”
The team has already recruited a few new players, such as Kayln Helton, who was originally committing to the University of Tennessee but had a change of heart and decided to sign with Harding on Wednesday, April 13.
“To have a good opportu- nity to go to a [Southeastern Conference] school and then come to Harding — that is a quality gift for us, and [Helton will] make us better right away; she’s a strong player,” Giboney said. “[The incoming class] is a really good class, but I feel like we are returning as strong a group as we’ve ever had.”
Giboney said he was look- ing forward to next season, especially since it will be the Harding athletic program’s first step into the new GreatAmerican Conference.
“We’d love to be the first ones to win in this newconference’s inaugural year,” Giboney said. “The conference regular season championgets to host the conference tournament; that is always the goal, and I know we have a legitimate chance to win the conference our first year, and from there who knows?”
