IU volleyball team had the words "execute," "enthusiasm" and "effort" written on the board at practice Tuesday. The words speak for themselves, but IU Coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan believes the three words correlate to one another.
“Effort and enthusiasm is something that (strength and conditioning coach) Chris Virtue really hounded them on all summer in the weight room,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “If you have the effort, the enthusiasm is going to come, and with that, the execution has to come, and we added that. We think having those three linked together is a really good fit for this type of team.”
Coming off three more wins in the Colonial Challenge, the Hoosiers look to gain three more at the Dunn Hospitality Tournament in Evansville this weekend.
Along with putting the “three E’s” into play this weekend, consistency is another key Dunbar-Kruzan wants to see from her team.
There were many strong performances in the Colonial Challenge, like that of senior outside hitter Jessica Leish when she recorded a career-high 15 kills, or that of sophomore defensive specialist Meaghan Koors when she set the school record for most digs in a three-set match with 25.
“I love that, and I hate that,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “It’s great to see them do that, but we need some more consistency. The matches after they put up those big numbers, they struggled to keep it up, so we are challenging them to stay more consistent.”
Leish said that it’s been a conversation that she and Dunbar-Kruzan have been having.
“Good news is it’s not anything physical," Leish said. "It’s more just the mental game of staying focused. These are long weekends, and you really need to stay locked in for all three matches.”
As for the team, Leish said the teams’ off-the-court attitude is awesome, which she thinks is an advantage. On the court, Leish said she saw some things to improve on for this weekend.
“We want to work on winning long rallies and serving a little better for the next couple weeks before Big Ten season starts,” Leish said.
This weekend will feature Evansville, University of Tennessee at Martin and University of Alabama at Birmingham. Evansville just renovated its arena, and all the seats inside are sold for the match against the Hoosiers.
“We want to go in with a mentality that we just don’t want to win, but we want to play to a standard,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “We are a much better team when we play to a standard, so we are looking to play at a really high level this weekend.”
