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Opponents won't have any idea which Cardinal Stritch volleyball team they'll be facing throughout the 2011 season.
“With the kind of talent we have and the height disadvantage we have going into matches, our big focus is playing the best defense we can play,” first-year coach Stephen Boston said. “I like to change between perimeter defense and rotation defense, depending on what offense we're facing.
“Eventually, we'll outsmart teams and out-hustle teams. I have a good feeling by the end of the season it will be frustrating for other teams to play us. We'll frustrate teams who play us, because it's going to be hard to score against us.”
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Cardinal Strich players prepare to dig out a kill during the season
opener against Delta. (Press photo by Doug Karns/www.ihigh.com
/cardinalstritchathletics) |
The Cardinals dropped their first home match of the season on Monday, losing in five games to Delta despite winning the first and third games of the match.
“We looked good,” Boston said. “It was an up-and-down kind of match, and the fifth game came down to the wire.”
The Cardinals also played a tri-match at Maumee last Saturday against the host Panthers and visiting Fostoria. Stritch beat Fostoria two out of three games and lost two of three games against Maumee.
“We are going to be a very solid all-around team,” Boston said. “We are not going to be the tallest team and we are not going to be the hardest-hitting team, but we can be one of the most consistent, smartest teams on the floor. Right now our problem is grasping the fact that we need to be smarter, because we're not the biggest team around. Sometimes the errors are killing us.”
Boston played organized volleyball as a youngster and then played for the men's club team at Bowling Green State University.
“I started coaching the women's club team in 2003, and I was at Owens as an assistant coach from 2006-09,” he said. “During that time, I was still coaching the club team at BGSU.”
His first Stritch team returns four players from last year's varsity squad, including Sara Turner-Smith. At 5-foot-10, the junior middle hitter is the Cardinals' tallest player.
“She's our most dominant offensive player,” Boston said. “We can run her middle, right or left, and and she is our most consistent hitter right now.”
The other returning starters are 5-7 senior setter Melissa Cobb, 5-8 junior outside hitter Carly Cannon and 5-1 senior libero Emily Lorton.
“Melissa pretty much runs the offense,” Boston said. “One thing we are implementing into the team is to run a faster offense. If we can move the blockers around with our speed, we can get better matchups with our hitters. Melissa pretty much runs the show. As she goes, we go. I think she's going to be a real strong senior setter this year.
“Carly Cannon comes in as probably our most powerful hitter. She needs to work on consistency, but if she gets her game down, she will end up being our strongest hitter. And with Emily's leadership on defense, if she can pull it together she can be the anchor of the defense and make it hard for other teams to score.”
Abby Mass, a 5-7 junior outside hitter/libero, has transferred in from the Tiffin area.
“She has the potential to be right there next to Emily as our No. 1 defensive player,” Boston said. “She is consistent, she passes well and she is quick on defense. When she stays focused, she's probably our best defensive player.
“I have three seniors (Cobb, Lorton and middle hitter Gabby Mosiniak) and seven juniors, and almost all seven of those juniors played jayvee last year. With only three seniors as your leaders, we need to see who's going to step up and take charge of the team and keep everybody on point.”
Boston added that his top priority is to get the Cardinals to unseat Toledo Christian as the top team in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference as quickly as possible.
“We want to play consistent and solid within the TAAC,” he said. “We want to be the dominant team in the TAAC. The sky's the limit for this team.”
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