This week the Flyers play
St Louis on Friday and Butler on Sunday. St Louis is not as strong this year as they have been recently but make no mistake, they will be out to win on Friday. Butler won a set against the Flyers in their first meeting. I'm sure that the team does not want to leave any doubt in Butler's minds about who is the superior team.
One thing that has been very impressive to me this year is that Flyers are taking care of business against everyone. In past years they might struggle against a team that was not considered their equal. That might have been the case in a couple of sets but hasn't been a serious problem this year. When I asked Kelly about their focus this year he said:
"Playing at a consistently high level is probably the hardest thing to do in sports. It's something we obviously try and do. The players have done a good job of being ready to play each and every match. As a coach you always feel like you can do better, but there's no question the team has done a nice job in this area. First of all, you have to respect your opponent. We feel like the greatest respect we can give an opponent is to come out and try and dominate them. So, part of it is mindset and being mentally and physically prepared. The other part is "are your skills and techniques solid enough where they can be repeatable day after day and under stress". We've gotten better in this area. Our players also see what is going on week in and week out nationally. Every night you see a team losing to a much lower ranked team. As a team you have to prepare for every match, get yourself in a mindset to compete, and then get after it. You don't get too high or too low. Prepare, compete, and move on. This team hasn't always been great in this area, but I think they are getting much better at it."
"To answer your question, as a coach you constantly talk to the team. We are constantly raising the bar and trying to find ways to get better. It's my job to find ways for our team to get better. It's their job to buy in and go and get better. It's a balance we are always trying to find. The balance between having our players play with tremendous freedom to do their thing while also challenging them to expand their games and to be sharp. That can be a very difficult balance for players and coaches to find."
I have been very impressed with the improvement in Ally's play since the beginning of the season and asked Kelly for his thoughts on Ally:
"Ally is our warrior. She missed the entire spring last year due to shoulder surgery. Our team and our practices were unbelievably different without her and we missed that competitive spirit that she brings. Ally is a competitor and a baller. Our practices sound different when she's in them and her side wins more often than not in the practice gym. Ally started the season without a lot of shoulder strength, but it's getting stronger and stronger every week. I also have the luxury of being able to move her around the backcourt. She's played left, middle, and right back for us this season and is now taking the second ball when Sam digs. The past couple of weeks she's been making plays and we are going on some of those long patented Ally runs when she's serving, recently. She's one of those "unsung heroes" but our team is so much better with her on the court. I'm also convinced that one or two of those earlier loses would have been wins had I been smarter and had her out on the court more".
Some of you might have noticed Jenna on crutches last weekend. Jenna has great volleyball instincts and is comfortable in all facets of the games, passing, hitting, setting, serving. I asked Kelly about the extent of her injuries and Kelly responded:
"Jenna tore her meniscus at practice last week. We'll know more after the doctors go in there, but she's likely done for the season and possibly a good portion of the spring. It's too bad because she might have been the best player in the gym the week that she got hurt. Jenna has a great career in front of her and I've been very impressed with how she has been working the past few days. She may not be able to jump and play, but there's other things that she can do to help her strength or ball control - and she's doing those things. I'll tell you this, it fires you up as a coach when you walk into the gym 20 minutes before practice and see a kid who is out for the season working on her arm-swing up against the wall. She's got fire in the belly".
I have taken kids to the free Sunday volleyball clinics and they even play with kids too young to use a volleyball. I asked Kelly for his thoughts on these free clinics.
"Go and look at the clinic pictures on Facebook and tell me who looks like they are having more fun - the kids or the team? I can't tell! The team genuinely loves working with kids at these things".
This is going to be a tough weekend. The Flyers are favored in both matches but it won't be easy. Here is what Kelly said about this weekend:
"You're right, Butler did take a set off of us. Matter-of-fact, they very easily could have been up 2-0 on us. It's going to be a tough weekend. SLU and Butler are both playing for their lives to get into the A-10 Tournament. If they go 0-2 it's going to be almost impossible for SLU to make the tourney and very difficult for Butler to make it. So I'm sure we'll see some desperate play from those two teams. And I'm sure Butler feels like they can beat us - and why wouldn't they. I would feel the same way as them after the match last month".
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