Conference struggles continued this weekend for the Bradley volleyball team after dropping their eighth Missouri Valley Conference match of the season at Loyola Tuesday. The loss marked their fifth straight defeat in conference play, as they also lost to Drake and Northern Iowa over the weekend.
Even with the team failing to record any wins as of late, head coach Carol Price-Torok says she sees some positives to take away from the past few matches.
“I think we’re starting to put some things together a little bit more,” Price-Torok said. “[We’re] pushing into four sets, and things are a little bit closer. And as we’ve been talking about, I think [we need to execute] on a consistent level and more specifically when we get to point 18 and on and really just continuing to focus on our execution. I think that will push us over the bubble and convert some of those really close matches into wins in our favor.”
The matches against Drake and Loyola featured valiant attempts by the Braves to come back from a two set deficit. In both matches they were able to win set three, while coming up short in the fourth sett.
The problem, according to Price-Torok, is the team falls behind early and has to come back from that. Price-Torok said that inconsistency is something that needs to be fixed in order for her team to not face so many uphill battles.
“I think it’s figuring out the right combination of starting lineups and rotations or what matchups we’re doing,” Price-Torok said. “And then just getting the players to continually believe in what we’re doing and just really fighting from the beginning instead of waiting until we get pushed around.”
One bright spot over the last few matches was sophomore Abby Ihrke, the libero. Ihrke has been a rock for the Braves on defense. She holds the team lead in digs with 265 and is averaging 3.96 digs per set.
Price-Torok said she notices the special talent that Ihrke has and is excited to be able to work with her for the next few years.
“I think she has the ability to be herself while she’s working hard,” Price-Torok said. “She’s a really spunky kid that really likes to have a good time, and that’s what you need. You need a kid that can really be herself and let her personality shine. But at the same time, she works really hard, and she’s really bought into what we’ve asked her to do. I think that’s coming into fruition here in the second half of conference where she’s getting a lot of results and really doing a great job for us.
The Braves will host Illinois State at 7 p.m tonight and follow up with Indiana State at 7 p.m. Saturday.
“It’s going to be a blocking game plan and a serving game plan to slow [Illinois State] down so that we can have better success defensively,” Price-Torok said. “That’ll come down to just the mental preparation and preparation that we do leading into this. It’s always nice to play teams you’ve seen before because you know what they’re capable of, and you can remember what you did well, and you can remember the things you need to do better to make the result a little more in our favor.”
