ACC volleyball coach Whitney Shaw holed up her team in the locker room a little longer than usual after Wednesday nights three-set loss to Hesston.
Something wasnt clicking. Hesston came into Wednesdays match winless in Jayhawk Conference play, sporting a less-than-impressive 5-10 overall record. Allen Countys Lady Devils were 3-12.
On paper, both teams appeared even. But when the Larks entered the ACC gym, they dominated the final two sets for their first conference win. For the Lady Devils, it was their fifth league loss.
So Shaw felt some soul searching was in order just to see if they could put their finger on exactly whats kept the Lady Devils out of these winnable matches.
The physical ability is there, Shaw said. We came to the conclusion tonight that we feel like, as a team, that the only thing thats holding us back is a little bit of doubt. For whatever reason, just a smidgen of doubt is keeping us from getting over that metaphorical hump. If the Lady Devils had pulled out the close 25-21 loss in set one, maybe the rest of the match wouldve gone differently.
Allen County trailed Hesston by three for a lot of the match and even got within two, but late errors doomed their chances of a comeback.
Allen County had nine kills and eight errors for a .024 attack percentage in set one which was the second lowest of the night.
Things seemed to be heading the same way in set two until Hesston pulled away late to take it 25-15.
Set three was rough. Hesston opened up a 13-2 lead and rode that all the way to a 25-13 set and match win.
I feel like it happens in the first 10 points of the match, Shaw said. We get really pumped but then if it doesnt start going our way, we get caught on our heels. We dont have that aggressor mentality. We question ourselves.
Gabby Perez had a team-high eight kills and Cheyanne Dube scored two aces. Holly Shinn and Celymar Cabrane each had nine digs and Miranda Golden had the only Lady Devil solo block. Dube also had 10 assists.
With the Lady Devils roughly half way through the season, Shaw said she is pleased that multiple players have stepped up instead of having to rely on just one or two players to carry the team.
The Lady Devils were originally going to be heading to Ottawa on Monday to face their junior varsity squad but that match got moved to Iola and the home match on Oct. 26 versus the Lady Brave JV was canceled.
After that, theyll travel to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College on Wednesday before getting back into conference play starting in October.
I hope the people in the stands can feel that its different from last year, Shaw said. Because it is different. Theres just a tiny bit of something holding us back.
