Volleyball team returns home for two weekend C-USA matchups
By Jay Armstrong
Skiff Staff

The TCU volleyball team will look to rebound from a 1-4 start in Conference USA beginning this weekend with two home matches against ninth place Alabama-Birmingham and conference leader South Florida.
Despite the slow start, the coaches and team members said their confidence remains unshaken.

“Our players come in every day to work,” head coach Prentice Lewis said. “We would love to be 3-4. The games that we’ve lost are errors that we’ve made and we need to make adjustments.

The team will need to be confident this weekend for two key matches. While South Florida sits atop the conference standings with only five games lost all season, it may be the UAB match on Friday night that matters most.

The team trails the Blazers by one spot in the C-USA standings. Since the C-USA tiebreaker is determined by head-to-head competition, this match could play a role in conference seeding at the end of the season.

For the team to win this match, Lewis said it must contain UAB’s dual threat of Allison Magner and Martina Shields. The two lead the team in blocks and kills respectively.

“We need to have a minimum of three players making kills to win the rest of our matches. We can’t have any hitters getting a zero (hitting percentage),” Lewis said.

South Florida is paced by nationally-ranked outside hitter Michelle Collier, who leads the Lady Bulls in both kills (5.51/game) and service aces (1/game).

The team said it still must make several adjustments to reach postseason play.

“We must work on our consistency and be able to respond to what coaches tell us,” freshman setter Jackie Choi said.

The team is only 1-4 at home this season, and said advancing further than the regular season will require taking advantage of Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

“We must use our home court advantage,” junior outside hitter Courtney Beach said.