First off, we would like to thank the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for inviting us to play on their courts. It was not our best tournament due to a number of small mistakes, and we came out of the weekend 0 – 2. As the day progressed, we pulled ourselves together and never gave up. We fought until the last whistle at every point and once the court was reset, we never hung our heads. After losing the first match 1-7, we dusted ourselves off and got ready to fight our way back, but we were just short in the end with a final score of 3-4.
A cool part of this tournament was a “B-team”/Alumni, which helped provide a buffer between matches. It also gave us time to put our rookies and flex players in for some experience and to get more comfortable on the court.
Captain Caleb Newell:
There are a lot of aspects from our performance that need to be cleaned up. As if it wasn’t already obvious enough, it’s hard to take a 7-1 loss and not be hypercritical. I’ve spent a large portion of my free time taking stats / analyzing every possession from the Cornhusker Clash. When it comes to the bottom line, only a small portion of our players played to the level they should’ve been. The first step for our success is for everyone to analyze their performances and recognize the areas that need to improve. Fortunately, we have just under a month until our next tournament, which gives us plenty of time to work out the kinks. Expect a different team come the Pioneer Classic III.
Co-captain Tomas Zander:
For me, this tournament was a wake up call. Nebraska has 12 athletes on the court at all times and they were constantly going for and getting catches. Our team also struggled to cover for our teammates on crosses. If we want to beat the top teams in the league we need to get better at protecting our teammates from those throws. A positive from this tournament was that after losing 7-1, we were able to come back in the 2nd game and only lose 3-4. Not too many teams in the league could put up such a fight after getting beat like that in the first game. I think it is because our goal this year is to keep a mindset going into every point that the score is 0-0. UWP will not get down on ourselves after losing a point or get too confident after winning a point. Every point needs to be taken seriously and hard fought.
Coach Erik Zander:
This double header was a tough one for us. As the coach, it felt to me that our mindsets were not in the right place. In practice, we always talk about how important the fundamentals are but it seemed we forgot as a team what those were. We didn’t put in a lot of effort at times, didn’t block for our teammates, and got back slow. Our second game we were able to regroup but it wasn’t enough. I think in the future we need our veterans to get our younger players involved more so that they become more confident. The younger players need to be able to make plays when the veterans are not in. Our top players can individually have great performances, but if we don’t get the win it doesn’t matter much. The more involved everyone is the better everyone will play and we will get the results we are looking for. I want everyone to have the “Next Level,” mentality. Everyone needs to be thinking how can I keep getting better and helping my team, what is the next level I can take. If we can keep pushing ourselves and our teammates we will be able to accomplish a lot and be competitive with all teams.
Conclusion:
Our next tournament is November 12th at home, and we plan to bounce back. We are working hard to clean up our errors and improve our gameplay. We hope to see you there and once again appreciate your support. Go ‘Neers!
