| SPORTS
| OCTOBER 21, 2005
Volleyball
Team hopes for home wins
Mavericks counting on optimism
to lead them to success this weekend.
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| The Shorthorn: Mark Roberts |
| Volleyballs dot the
floor of Texas Hall while the Mavs practice on Thursday.
UTA will host UT-San Antonio at 7 tonight and Texas State
on Saturday. |
|
By Princess
McDowell
The Shorthorn staff
The Mavericks volleyball team hopes to bounce back from consecutive
losses with this weekend’s home matches against Southland
Conference opponents UT-San Antonio and Texas State.
The team faces the Roadrunners tonight and returns to action Saturday
against the Bobcats. First serve for both matches is slated for
7 p.m. in Texas Hall.
Libero Dani Johnson said playing at home takes a little pressure
off the team.
“It’s fun to be at home,” she said. “But
we shot ourselves in the foot like six times [last weekend].”
The team fell 3-0 in matches against Lamar and McNeese State. The
home matches were the first since Sept. 10, but the team plays six
of the last 10 at home.
Players and coaches said problems with the team don’t stem
from lack of talent. Heather Dunn, former player and current assistant
coach, played during four conference title runs and said the missing
ingredient is something last year’s squad possessed.
“It’s a lack of competitive spirit, lack of competitive
drive,” she said. “And I don’t know how we lost
it.”
After leading the team last year, she said she feels helpless not
being able to contribute on the court.
“It is very difficult to sit and watch,” she said. “It’s
way different.”
Dunn has not, however, tried to motivate the team with rousing speeches
or tales of last year’s triumphs and tribulations. She said
there’s nothing she can really tell the team.
“There’s only so many things I can say,” she said.
“You have to have the heart and the fight in yourself.”
The team can still rebound after losing matches at UT-San Antonio
and Texas State earlier this season. The Roadrunners defeated the
Mavs in four games behind a 22-kill, 19-dig performance from outside
hitter Meagan Daniel. The Mavs battled to even the score at one
game each and were engulfed in a 20-20 tie in the third game before
the Roadrunners took the game and eventually the match.
The Mavs were ahead two games to none against Texas State on Sept.
17 until the Bobcats forced a fifth game. UTA was unable to convert
three match points, and the Bobcats won.
Johnson said this weekend’s matches will be a dog-fight because
she expects the opponents to underestimate the Mavs.
“We do better against teams we’re not supposed to beat,”
she said. “We think we have a good shot.”
Though the Mavs are currently 10th in the conference, leading only
0-10 Nicholls State, it feels the season is far from over, especially
for the team’s two seniors.
“This season ain’t done,” Johnson said. “For
[Ashley Van Antwerp] and [Melissa Marek], we all sympathize because
we were high school seniors. We still have a chance since they opened
the tournament to the top eight teams. We’ll use that to our
advantage.”
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