Blue & Gold Scrimmage to serve as dress rehearsal for opening weekend

By Don Gromala
Head Women's Volleyball Coach

I am really excited about our Blue & Gold Scrimmage tonight, which kind of serves as the culmination of our preseason camp. We will be setting up the benches, pulling out the bleachers and such in order to simulate playing a real match. Fans are welcome to attend to help create a game atmosphere. We will begin at 7 p.m. in the M.A.C. Center.

Putting the jerseys on adds an element of pressure, so we’re looking to see how our players perform with those conditions. We’re also looking to determine which lineups work best together. We have a couple that we like, but are still trying to figure out which units will put us in the best position to win matches. It won’t necessarily be the best six players, but group of girls who play the best together.

Overall, I think we had a great training camp. We started off with some team building activities. We spent a half-day at the Camp Y-Noah ropes courses and it was nice to see some of the new girls step out of their shells a little bit, as well as some of the returners who were willing to try something different and step out of their comfort zone.

Our focus at the beginning of camp was working on the fundamentals. We’ve added stuff day-by-day and moved into our systems. We’re doing some different things with our block and floor defense this year and have had to adjust some defensive techniques with the players.

This past week has been a lot of 6-on-6 action. We’re starting to work on responding to different situations. Overall, it’s been a great progression. We’ve had a couple of girls do some really great things that have impressed us. Our incoming players have adjusted well and nobody feels that they’re new here. I really like how everybody’s competed in camp in order to earn a spot in the lineup.

The team has seemed more comfortable throughout camp than last year. Since it was our first season at Kent State as a staff, we had to teach our system to the girls, but now it’s more of a habit and they don’t have to think about what they are doing. As we get better with the simple things that we started teaching a year ago, we can start getting more and more complex. It’s really exciting to see how far they’ve come along and we can’t wait to see how they perform against some new opponents!