Success isn’t determined by wins and losses this year at McLin Gym for the women’s volleyball team. For first-year Head Coach Susan Clements, success is measured by meeting goals.
Goals this year have ranged from qualifying for the conference tournament to smaller goals such as winning a set during matches.
“We’ve been meeting all of our goals,” freshman Katie Glassmeyer said. “We’ve been working better as a team and our level of play has gone up.”
While the team is sitting in the cellar of the Horizon League standings with a 2-18 record and a 0-2 mark in conference play, Clements doesn’t judge her team by box scores and standings.
“It’s not about results with our new coach,” Glassmeyer said. “Her philosophy this year is it’s better to play well and lose against a good team than win against a bad team.”
“I believe that whenever we play, we always think about results and we always have it in the back of our mind, but we are still focusing on what we are doing, how we are improving and how we are getting better from the week before,” junior captain Heidi Splinter said.
Preseason practices were primarily focused on limiting hitting errors and giving away easy points to opponents. While those issues still concern Clements, other areas are being focused on, too, as the team enters conference play.
“We are still trying to limit errors on our side, but we are also focusing a lot on our defense and calming things down when situations may get too crazy,” Splinter said.
Coaching players to stay on their feet on defense instead of diving all over the court, which can lead to injury, has been a focal point for Clements. But the main theme throughout practice is effective communication.
“We need to be more consistent in working together,” Glassmeyer said. “We have been lacking in communication.”
The next goal for the Raiders is making the conference tournament. WSU will need at least six conference victories in their remaining 11 games to qualify for the Horizon League tournament.
Whether that goal is achieved or not remains to be seen, but this year’s team is determined to stay together throughout the process.
“Our team is very unified,” Splinter said. “We all have a common goal and we are doing everything we can to accomplish those goals. Our coaches are really promoting that.”
