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RICHMOND, Va. – The Virginia Commonwealth University Volleyball team plays host to a pair of Colonial Athletic Association rivals in a key weekend of league play. The Rams, who are 4-2 in the CAA and sit half a game out of third place, welcome Hofstra (8-16, 3-4 CAA) on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Verizon Wireless Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center. The following night, on Saturday, Oct. 24, VCU meets Northeastern. The Huskies (11-9, 4-3 CAA) will be looking to slip past the Rams to secure the fourth and final CAA Tournament bid. VCUAthletics.com recently sat down with VCU Head Coach James Finley to see how the Rams are looking and feeling this time of year. VCUAthletics.com: The Rams lost a very competitive match to William & Mary this past weekend. As a coach, how do you take a loss like that and turn it into a positive going forward? Coach Finley: We watch film and talk about the things that went well for us, then try to identify the things that we have control over and can work on this week. I think that’s what really builds confidence. Confidence comes from being well prepared… so the girls feel like they’re prepared, they’ve made some adjustments, gotten better at some things that created problems for them. Going into the second half of the season we’re in the process of putting some new wrinkles into the offense that people haven’t seen on film. Teams are going to half to try to adjust to what we’re doing for the second half of conference play. VCUAthletics.com: Four is the magic number in CAA play with teams competing for that fourth and final tournament spot. You’ve got a chance to distance yourself from the field this weekend with fifth-place Northeastern and Hofstra, who is a game behind them. What kind of challenges to these teams present this weekend?
Northeastern is a really strong team having won the regular season last year and only graduated two players. I think everybody in the conference is surprised because they’ve been struggling and that’s what makes them so dangerous, because they have the ability to put it all together. They’ve got some really good hitters. It’ll be interesting to see how they come if NU can pull off the win against William & Mary on Friday night, then Saturday will be an absolutely huge match for them because it will enable them to move into a tie for fourth place. There’s going to be a lot on the line for us but also for them in staying in contention for a playoff spot. VCUAthletics.com: Who on this team is the coach on the court…someone who picks the players up but can also get on them when need be? Coach Finley: Mariel Frey. Her and Ivana Rich are the captains but Mariel really makes sure things get done on and off the court. She does such a good job of being the hard worker, always coming out and trying to do things the way you want them done. So I think that gives her a lot of credibility and I think the girls really look to her. VCUAthletics.com: How does having a week off like this effect the team? Coach Finley: I think at this particular juncture it’s really great for us. Micha (Kvapilova) had two sprained thumbs, and she’s got a tear in the ligament in one of her thumbs…so having some down time and recovering, she’s doing a really nice job in practice again. By this time you have lot of nagging injuries that create issues and I think the down time really helps the girls relieve some of that stress. We’ve done some changing in our schedules and in our workouts to create some recovery time this week because we have games Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, then Friday, and Saturday again…so the next nine days is going to be an incredible stretch. VCUAthletics.com: Who on our team presents the biggest challenges this Friday against Hofstra? Coach Finley: Without a doubt it’s Ivana Rich and Kelsie Clegg. The way they run their blocking scheme and how they play defense, I think they are going to have a tremendous time trying to stop us in the middle…and that creates great success for our outsides. In saying that Anissa Whitney for Hofstra was a defensive player of the week last week and did a really nice job of blocking. When our middles can really perform against a team it really opens up our outside, then we usually end up being a really balanced attack. In that kind of match that’s the most dangerous thing for any team, if somebody can put together a balanced attack it’s really difficult to get a double block up, it’s difficult to dig when it’s not a double block. We’re pretty excited about our game plan and if we can execute with our passing and ball control we’ll have a lot of opportunities to set the middle. |
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Coach Finley: I think this weekend is really going to do some separating. Hofstra is one of those teams who is very capable, having opened the season with a three-game win over Northeastern. They have some good athletes and really hit the ball well. I think our game plan is to really put a lot of pressure on them serving tough so we can really work hard on blocking and executing, keeping them out of system. If they’re out of system they have a tendency to make a lot of unforced errors. Our goal is to create chaos for them so that they have to try to control the ball. That’s where I think we can maintain a lead on them in that aspect. All rights reserved.
