This past weekend we played the Manitoba Bison’s. They are presently ranked #4 in Canada and
are one of our provincial rivals. I
started to talk to our team Monday about rivals and what they mean. The rival matches are exciting for us and the
school gets rev’d up for them too.
In a study in 2006 Ku came to the conclusion that a rivalry is really something
that exists within the minds of competitor and media. The rivalry intensifies with prior interaction. It is also given that rivalry magnifies competitors’ psychological involvement and desire
to win independent of objective stakes, it may lead to departures from rational
or typical competitive behavior.
The Bison team is very close in age with our team. They are a young team that relies on young
players to be successful. They have
played club together for a long period of time and our really disciplined in their
systems. Our Bobcat athletes have played alongside the bison players on school,
club and provincial teams. They have formed strong friendships off the court
with the Bison players. This made last
week of training interesting.
The first noticeable reaction was Monday. We arrived at school to find that the
construction was still going on and they had a vehicle exhaust venting to the
hall of the gym. So they asked us to not
practice. The team was disappointed and
seemed a little concerned about the lack of reps they would get. Monday’s practice is used to just make some
small corrections from Saturdays match therefore it is usually very light. Second event happened during our video session
the athletes had a lot more information to give out about the individual Bison
players. The athletes also all asked more questions and wanted to see more specific
video of the Bison starters. (My hope is
that this preparation will soon transfer into a weekly event. ) When an athlete
gets into their 4th and fifth years they have competed against a lot
of the same players on all the oppositions.
They will have stories and remember what happened the last time we did
this...the opposition did that. Our first and second year players were feeding
a lot of extra information since they knew so much more.
Friday we came out flying.
Our serving game plan worked well.
We kept the pressure on them and that made it easier for us to block and
play defense around that. The first set
we would get a good lead and then the Bison’s would battle back we eventually
won the first set 25-23. The next 2 sets
went well for us. We were able to
control the match and won 25-17 and 25-18.
Tori Dakin had 4 serving aces and Shanlee Mclennan added two more. Shanlee is leading the nation in serving
aces.
We knew Saturday we would see a different team. The Bison’s are well coached and very
disciplined. They would make some adjustments and we would need to adjust. From the start of the match we seemed a bit
off. We fought the ball, the Bison’s changed their serving strategy and we
found it difficult to adjust. I feel
that we spent too much time evaluating our passes instead of playing off
them. If we pass a one we need to find a
way to score or put the opposition in trouble so we can get an easier ball back
and then be in system.( A little story to input here... In the 2008 Olympics the Brazilian men’s team
knew the U.S. team would serve tough.
They decided to use the U.S. block to help get them into a better
situation. The Brazilian team would
intentionally roll into the U.S. block and then cover that shot. They would then run speed off that play. It worked really well and helped them win the
match).
The Bison’s kept pressure on us the entire set. They won
25-21 that set was never in doubt. We battled back in the second set and
matched their score. 25-21. The third set we struggled again with ball. I also think this is the rivalry, we wanted
to win the second night so bad that when we weren’t winning like we were Friday
it was magnified. We talked in our pre-game
about playing in the moment. I played am
Asic’s commercial to help explain it. But doubt crept into our heads. At the
end of the set I tried making a couple of subs to relieve the starters and hope
the substitute could bring some energy.
The Bison’s won 25-19.
The fourth set the wheels fell off completely. We struggled at every aspect of the
game. As we made more errors we started
to set the ball higher and to call for a higher set. That played into their hands as they were
able to close blocks everywhere. We
decided to make a couple of subs. We put
Mary into the match to set for Kellie, Gillian went in for Shanlee and Larissa
went in for Lexi. The 3 subs played with a ton of passion and energy. WE called a time out down 14-6, and just asked
the group to compete just do what they can and have fun with it. What happened
next was really impressive. That group
battled hard dug some balls and went on a tear.
They caught up to the Bison’s and tied the game at 21-21. It was fun to watch them find different ways
to win and they celebrated each other’s success. We played hard, but eventually the Bison’s
came out on top 28-26th. The
Bison’s showed why they are 4th in Canada, but we grew in
confidence. We all learned that we have
a deep bench and the pressure for the starters to perform is off them. If they struggle which all do we have players
that can perform. It also showed us that
if we play with confidence and just play with whatever happens and find away to
cut down our red ball errors, like our team did in the fourth set,we can play
with the top in the nation.
A little side note, Brandon University Women’s volleyball is
#1 in Canada in hitting efficiency. (kills-error/total attempts) it is rare that a Canada West team is that
high. But we will celebrate that for
now. Shanlee added 4 more serving aces
to maintain her 6 ace lead on the next player.
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