Tuesday, August 18, 2009
There’s little doubt advancing to the NCAA Volleyball Tournament is the primary goal for most NCAA volleyball teams. For 12th-year Kansas volleyball coach Ray Bechard, that means starting strong in the preseason to get momentum to carry into conference play.
“We are trying to put some behaviors in place,” Bechard said. “For the newcomers, here’s how we approach things. Here’s how we are a good teammate. We get into the preseason matches, we got a number of high RPI teams that we have to be competitive with and win, which will build some momentum into the conference.”
Kansas will need some of that momentum because the Big 12 Conference is one of the toughest volleyball conferences. Last season four teams finished ranked in the top 20, including Nebraska and Texas, which both ranked in the top 5. Seven of 11 Big 12 schools ranked in the top 75 in the RPI. Last season Kansas had a record of 13 – 16.
“If you are in the top half of the conference, the chances to continue to play when the regular season is over with are pretty good,” said Bechard. “The conference we play in is a huge challenge, but also a huge assist because it elevates your play and also requires you to be extremely good night in and night out.”
Bechard said he felt things were going well so far in the preseason. He said there had been no major setbacks and thought the team was making progress and has added physicality from last year.
“We have good returning players that have a lot of experience and five starters back,” Bechard said.
Bechard said newcomers needed to make an impact as well as some of the more experienced players to expand their roles and be successful.
“Our main goal is really to get to the Tournament,” Paige Mazour, senior middle blocker said. “But all-in-all, we want to have a competitive season in our conference.”
Mazour said that she tried to do as much for the team as she could.
“I like to do whatever I can for the freshmen and get on the court whenever I can,” Mazour said. “I think everyone works really hard. We are very competitive for each other. We mesh well together. And we do work hard. We are a scrappy team.”
Mazour and Bechard both agreed that the preseason was going well so far.
“We are excited about where we are at to this point. We have a long way to go, but its been productive up to this point,” Bechard said.
— — Edited by Alicia Banister
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