After completing a difficult fall season last year, the Bradley volleyball team has been grinding in the offseason in preparation for the 2018 fall season.
Now, the team has made it a priority for the next three weeks to test out new changes to the team’s style of play.
The Braves opened their spring season with a match against Illinois State University at Redbird Arena on Friday and a pair of matches against DePaul University and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville at the Renaissance Coliseum on Sunday.
“The team really competed with ISU,” Torok said. “We don’t see that physicality every day, so it was nice to see our players respond in a positive way. The problem solving and adjustments [the players] made were big improvements to inner-match play and execution. SIUE and DePaul were very scrappy, and their untraditional style of play and long rallies really pushed us to stay disciplined and organized.”
With the majority of Bradley’s roster returning for the spring season, the Braves have had the opportunity to build on some new skills and focus on some different styles, according to Torok.
“It has been great training with a big group,” Torok said. “We are being very purposeful with individual touches and position skill work. Our big focuses are on serving, receiving and siding out. We have introduced some new techniques and worked on some different patterns to open up some of our attackers as well.”
On Wednesday, Torok announced four new players will join the 2018 roster. Bradley will welcome outside hitters Lilly Johnson and Rachel Pranger, defensive specialist Hannah Thompson and right side Sara Maddox, who transferred from Mississippi State University.
These four players join recent fall newcomers Hailey Delacher and Katherine Poore, who had the opportunity to represent the team during the scrimmages. “Everyone contributed [this weekend against ISU, DePaul and SIUE], and it was especially good to see our freshman, Katherine Poore, play for the first time” Torok said. “[Poore] fit right in and did some big things that should carry over to the 2018 season.”
Junior outside hitter Erica Haslag said she is excited to see new faces on the team and is ready for the new challenges and opportunities to come.
“I’m excited that new faces are coming into the program that will be able to take some of the load of swings I get and produce points with them,” Haslag said. “We have a lot of amazing talent coming into the front row next year that I’m very excited about. They will open up opportunities for me like drawing the block.”
Haslag said the team’s attitude has changed in the offseason.
“We have really done a great job of changing the culture on our team,” Haslag said. “We come into practice ready to work really hard, which wasn’t always the way in the past. I think we need to continue to push to be more and more consistent at that and have fun while doing it.”
The volleyball team continues its spring schedule next at the University of Minnesota at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.
