IU Coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan said she has no hard feelings going into tonight's season opener against Ball State, the school she attended as an undergraduate.
“Chirp Chirp,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “I had a great time at Ball State. I’m always cheering for them unless they’re playing us. When the game starts, they are just another team we are trying to beat.”
The Cardinals aren’t the only team the Hoosiers are facing this weekend. As part of the Indiana Invitational, IU will welcome DePaul and Indiana State to the University gym as well.
Dunbar-Kruzan had a lot of positive things to say about having a young team, including that they don’t have a lot of perceptions of the other teams.
“They’ve never played any of these teams before, so they don’t know how good any of them are,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “I’d rather have them just look at it as another opponent and step on the court and release that venom and just go for it.”
The Hoosiers won all three matches at this event last year. However, IU beat three different opponents, Northern Kentucky, Evansville and Marshall, in 2016 to start the season 3-0.
The Hoosiers look to mirror that success this year and have thus been intensifying their practices this week.
“We’ve definitely been amping it up,” junior right side hitter and captain Elizabeth Asdell said. “We’ve been really focusing on six-on-six and getting into that game-time mentality.”
Sophomore outside hitter Kendall Beerman, who was the MVP of this tournament last year, said that they aren’t doing any random drills at practice and that everything is in preparation for the team's upcoming opponents.
Despite preparing for the other teams they’ll see this weekend, the Hoosiers are still more focused on themselves.
“Nobody is going to hit their peak across the country the first weekend,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “So, we are just looking to just execute the game better than the three teams we are going to play.”
Dunbar-Kruzan said the ways to perform better are to be organized on the court, communicate well, be on point with the serve and pass game and reduce their errors.
The Hoosiers look to do all those things to pick up three wins to begin their 2017 campaign, which starts at 7 p.m. against Ball State. The next day will feature DePaul at noon and ISU at 7 p.m. to cap the Indiana Invitational.
