Kansas volleyball prepares for Texas

By Josh Bowe

Friday, November 21, 2008

It’s officially gut check time for Kansas.

The volleyball team has only three matches remaining this season. Each against a team with a winning record. Each critical to the team’s slim chance of making it into the NCAA tournament.

The final stand starts Saturday, on the road in Austin, to face the No. 4 Texas Longhorns.

KEYS TO THE GAME

Saw ‘em off: Usually that phrase is reserved for the students at Texas A&M, but Kansas needs to hold that level of confidence to beat the Texas Longhorns. The season isn’t over, and while it can be intimidating to play in Austin, this could be a defining moment for the Jayhawks if they squeak out with a win. Sleeping giant: It’s natural for a team like Texas, especially after beating Nebraska, to overlook this Kansas team. If the Longhorns come out sloppy in the opening sets, the Jayhawks have to take advantage. Bechard said this team cannot fall down by five or six points on the road, especially against the No. 4 team in the country.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Kansas: Karina Garlington

The sophomore outside hitter had a poor match against Nebraska, hitting for only nine kills with a sub .200 hitting percentage. It will be interesting to see how Garlington rebounds against another elite team. If Garlington gets her groove back, look for the Jayhawks to be competitive.

Texas: Destinee Hooker

This one is a no-brainer. Hooker might be the most physically imposing player in the entire country. She stands six-foot-four-inches with an impressive wingspan. Her stature also translates into dominating the Big 12 conference. Hooker’s 4.28 kills per set tops the conference and she also boasts the sixth best hitting percentage in the Big 12 with .347. If Kansas can somehow control this phenom, then consider that a victory in itself.

“They’ll (Texas) put a lot of pressure on you with their serve and their attack and their block,” coach Ray Bechard said. “We’ve seen it before, but its how we manage it on our side of the net.”

At least the Jayhawks’ last match was against Nebraska, one of the premier teams in the Big 12.

Although Nebraska and Texas are different teams, Bechard thinks that the Jayhawks can transfer some of the strengths from last week’s match to Saturday night’s match.

“You see some of the same physicality,” Bechard said. “The speed of the game is similar, I think those opponents back-to-back do help you.”

Although it isn’t as sound in fundamentals as a team like Nebraska, Texas offers some of the best athletes in the conference. Texas just flexed its muscles against that same Nebraska team on Wednesday night.

The Longhorns punished the Cornhuskers in four sets. They accumulated 25 total blocks and junior All-American Destinee Hooker stole the show from Nebraska’s All-American Jordan Larson with 24 kills.

Kansas has to catch Texas sleeping after a huge victory, but sophomore outside hitter Karina Garlington doesn’t want to take that chance. She said the Jayhawks have to focus on their team, not the Longhorns.

“We have to focus on what we did really well,” Garlington said of the Nebraska match. “We worked on digging, and trying to convert aggressive swings off of that.”

A bye week certainly helps. The players received their first day off on Monday and were able to forget about volleyball, albeit just for one day.

“We finally get to see what other students get to do.” Garlington said with a laugh.

Garlington also mentioned the bond between her teammates. Even though the team had the entire day off, she said the team members were still together, hanging out and enjoying their break.

But the task at hand is beating Texas. Freshman setter Nicole Tate understands the importance of the match and knows what the Jayhawks have to do starting against Texas.

“We just have to stay after them, it’s a must-win match,” Tate said. “We’re ready to play them. They’re big, but they can go down.”

The players seemed cool and collected when talking about what’s in store for them to end the season.

But Garlington shared a sense of urgency with her teammates about the match against Texas.

“We know this is a doable deal if we just can create that kind of high level,” Garlington said. “We know that they’re going to make plays, but we can make plays too.”

— — Edited by Jennifer Torline

Comments

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.

Advertisement