“Execution” was the key word for the Bradley women’s volleyball team this weekend in Terre Haute, Indiana as they dropped their two matches against Missouri Valley Conference rival Indiana State and non-conference opponent Western Michigan.
In both matches, the Braves took the first set, but unfortunately couldn’t salvage a win.
“Against Indiana State, we missed 17 serves in the match,” head coach Carol Price-Torok said. “It’s really hard when you give away that many points, and we still only lost by two points and four points in the sets. Clearly we’re doing spectacular things, but when we give away free points, it gets pretty tough.”
In the MVC opener for the Braves, the team was locked in a hard fought battle in which no set was decided by more than five points. After a first set win, 25-20, Bradley had a chance to close out the second set with two set points, but they were unable to take advantage of the opportunity, losing the second set 29-27.
“I think for us, it was the execution part,” Price-Torok said. “In that set alone, we missed eight serves, and some of those came at the end. We were trying to close things out, and we had a set point, you miss a serve, and you kind of feel the pin pop your balloon and the other team kind of gets going. You just get those momentum swings. Sometimes the ball bounces your way and sometimes it doesn’t.”
The rest of the match didn’t deviate from the first two sets. The Braves kept it close but dropped the third set 25-21 and then the final set 28-26.
With the Braves set to face conference foes the rest of the year, Price-Torok is gearing her team up for what should be a lot of tough matches that are going to require her team to have a grind-it-out mentality to find wins.
“I think for us, it’s something we’ve been talking about, staying consistent,” Price-Torok said. “Continually communicating, trusting that the person behind you is coming to get the ball and you take the short ball … You know our conference is really tough. I think we should expect a lot of battles, and I think the more we have those battles and those close sets, you kind of know what to do and you start relying on your teammates a little more.”
The volleyball team will head to Normal this weekend to take on rival Illinois State at 7p.m. Saturday. Price-Torok said she believes, just like last weekend, it’s going to come down to how well her team can execute in certain situations.
“I think for us we’re going to have to execute on the serving line and really make their attackers uncomfortable,” Price-Torok said. “They have some big kids that can attack, so slowing down the middles and taking out an outside and then really executing our defensive plan from there. But at the same time, we really want to worry about making things crisp and sharp on our side so we can score points.”
