IU traveled to Greeley, Colorado, to go up against Utah State, Northern Colorado and Eastern Kentucky in the Northern Colorado Classic, where it came out with three wins, and finished their preseason 10-2.
IU’s biggest challenge was preparing for all three of the teams, who all had different strategies, while preparing for the challenge of playing all-day tournaments.
“These were three very different teams,” IU Coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan said. “When you play at 10 a.m. and 8 p.m., it’s a very long day. Preparing mentally, physically and getting up early I think were challenges to that tournament.”
Dunbar-Kruzan said she attributes the team’s wins to its strong serving and passing, but mostly to its defensive play.
While in Colorado, both defensive specialists for IU came home with titles after the tournament ended.
Senior defensive specialists Courtney Harnish and Kyndall Merritt were named all-tournament this weekend, and Harnish also achieved the Most Valuable Player honor.
“Well its pretty hard for a defensive specialist to be named to all-tournament,” Merritt said. “So that in itself was pretty amazing. As a senior, who’s never received an award, I was shocked but super excited. It was exhilarating.”
The tournament marked the end to the Hoosiers preseason, where they now will begin to prepare to take on Big Ten teams for their regular season beginning next weekend.
Reflecting on the preseason, Dunbar-Kruzan said that it allowed the team to gain a lot of confidence in order to prepare to go into the regular season.
“If you win and you clearly know you’re athletically better than the other team, you win, but you don’t have that same feeling,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “I think we’re coming away from preseason having confidence understanding how to fight and giving a punch back to other teams.”
The Hoosiers said they attribute their drive to win to the confidence they’ve been focused on growing throughout the preseason.
Merritt said the confidence the team has right now is something that will continue to help and push it throughout regular season beginning next weekend.
“Being more experienced, and having all the reps around, helps to keep all the calm and confidence around the court, which makes for a much greater confidence,” Merritt said.
Confidence is something Dunbar-Kruzan said they focus on a lot on when discussing the standards they set as a team before the beginning of preseason, standards to which Dunbar-Kruzan credits a majority of the preseason success.
“It’s really helpful to have a vision for how they want to play and what it takes to win,” Dunbar-Kruzan said about the team’s standards. “They are pretty clear what they need to do going into the Big Ten season. I think if they stay on it, no matter what, win or lose, they’re going to find success.”
Merritt said the team is excited to be done with preseason, and they are looking forward to what lies ahead in the Big Ten this year.
Next weekend, IU will go up against its first Big Ten opponents on the road: Michigan State and Michigan.
“It’s my last year, and we ended preseason on such a great note,” Merritt said. “I’m excited to see what our team has to bring to the Big Ten.”
