Huskies volleyball carries momentum into road trip
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HOUGHTON -- After coming away from their GLIAC-opening weekend with two wins in three matches, the Michigan Tech Huskies volleyball team has enjoyed preparing this week for what, on paper, are two teams they should beat.
However, that also provides the most important test for the Huskies and head coach Matt Jennings, can the Huskies beat the teams they are supposed to beat?
Jennings believes that, if practice has been any indication, his team will be ready for the challenge in front of them.
"For the most part, over time, this group has done a good job taking care of the business in front of them," he said. "I don't think they're going to look past these two teams.
"I'm hoping that we're just clean, that we're sharp, and that we understand that we're there to do a job and that we're not satisfied till that job is done."
Jennings, whose team is 7-4 on the young season, which includes two loses to Top 10 squads in the country, feels his group is still learning just how good they can be.
"We have a lot more to learn about ourselves and to improve on," he said. "So, every weekend we have a chance to play is an opportunity to get better. I think that's where we're going to go out and do this weekend."
The Huskies visit Lake Superior State on Friday and Northwood on Saturday.
Tough way to start
The Huskies dropped a heartbreaker to the Grand Valley State Lakers last Friday in five sets. Across the board, there was very little that separated the two teams prior to the fifth set. In that final set, both teams played their best volleyball offensively, but the Lakers were just a little better, hitting .500 on their way to the set and match win.
Jennings felt that a lot of the Lakers' success came off of the Huskies' service game.
"We served too easily," he said. "I mean, if you look back in the first set, we think we missed two serves, and then the rest, or a lot of them or at least, were some freeball serves.That just doesn't put enough pressure on that back court. I thought, really the whole match, if there was one thing I would have liked to have seen change right away, amongst a couple other things, was staying aggressive on the serve so as to keep them a little bit more out of system on the attack."
Jonynas leads
by example
Against the Lakers, fifth year outside hitter Anna Jonynas led all attackers with 25 kills in the match. Jonynas continues to find ways to contribute to her team, whether defensively or offensively.
"Anna is a special player," said Jennings. "She's got just a great all around game. There's not one area that she is really deficient in. I mean, she'll take 40-50 swings in a match for us, pass the majority of the balls served at our team, go back and serve as well as anyone on our side and play as well of middle back defense as you're gonna really going to find at this level.
"There isn't really an area where she's not helping. She's done a great job of stepping into the role of a go-to hitter. You look at what she's doing, even aside from the numbers, if it comes down to crunch time in a match, say, even if it's a match that maybe she's erred a little bit more than normal, or they've gotten to her a couple times with the block, she's still taken huge swings at the moments that require some confidence, and I think some senior confidence, to execute. She does it all with just a very authentic humility about her too, She's just an awesome person to coach."
Bouncing back
against Davenport
One of the most important things that happened over the course of the weekend was how the Huskies responded in the opening set against the Davenport Panthers on Saturday afternoon after dropping the match against Grand Valley. The Huskies pinned the Panthers down with strong serves, kept their opponents reeling, and came away from the opening set with a 25-8 win, setting a tone for the remainder of the weekend.
"Davenport, they're certainly capable of beating you," said Jennings. "They have players that, once they get going, are pretty tough. So we were very happy with the way we came out. I thought we took advantage of the mismatches that were in our favor in that one."
A fluid defense
On Saturday, Jennings switched the positions of fifth year defensive specialist Megan Utlak and sophomore defensive specialist Carissa Beyer. Beyer had been playing libero, but Utlak was called upon to play that role against the Panthers. The change, while subtle, paid off for both players and the team.
"Either one, when they're libero, we're in a good position," Jennings said. "They both play the libero position well. Really don't much changes in terms of what we're asking them to do.
"If Carissa's libero, she's in left back for six rotations. When Megan's libero, she'll go three rotations left back, and then three rotations middle back. When Carissa is in, we'll keep her left back. We like Carissa's left back defense very much. The point is they're exchangeable. It just depends on what we're getting from them in a serve-receive point of view, and what we're getting from like a general court presence. I'm comfortable with either back there in the libero position. I don't know that we're set on one yet."
When you add Jonynas, fifth year setter Laura De Marchi, and senior defensive specialist Grace Novotny to the mix, playing time usually becomes the biggest issue Jennings and his staff have to manage.
"Our back court, when you have our starting core out there, any combination of Anna, Megan, Carissa, Laura and Grace, I like her chances," said Jennings. "I mean, I think it's a good combo. It's up to me to figure out what combo at the moment puts us in the best position to win."
Hitting the road
The Lakers play a scrappy style of volleyball that drags out points. For the Huskies to be successful, Jennings feels his team needs to stay within what they do well.
The Timberwolves split with the Huskies last season. Jennings describes them as a fast-running, good transition team with one very good outside hitting threat in senior Grace Rekeweg and senior middle blocker in Maya Ferland, both of whom are tied for the team lead in kills.