Being able to respond is all about focus, energy and decision making

By Don Gromala

Head Coach

This is obviously a big weekend with this being the last weekend on the road in the first-half of the conference season.

It has been a grind, and we knew it would be that way. When you are on the road three out of four weekends, you know it is going to be tough. But we have had a very good week of practice and we are excited to see that carry over when we go to Toledo on Friday and Ball State on Saturday.

Attention to detail was a point of emphasis for us this week as we work to keep getting better. We have talked about a lot of little things, but now we are focusing on game planning and execution, especially on offense.

We have worked on some different ways to give us opportunities to score points. There are some things we did this week that we think will help us as we look ahead to the weekend. We will face two very different teams. Ball State is a little more physical while Toledo is similar to us in that they have a lot of different options and ways to score points and maybe stress us out.

Each team has its own unique way of doing things that we will have to defend. Toledo has some good middles along with an outside hitter who has had some good performances recently. As long as we are serving well and being disciplined with our defense we will have plenty of opportunities to score.

Ball State is going to be a grind. They are at home. They are a tough serving team. They are playing well right now. They are very disciplined in most of the things they do. They are very low-error, and we are going to have to match that. We have to keep the points long and hope we will take advantage of the chances we get in every long rally.

This team’s M.O. has been that it is somewhat streaky, but we do respond. We responded earlier this year when we had five straight losses and then came back with back-to-back wins against Akron and Buffalo. We play well with our backs to our wall. That’s the moment that presents itself. We have been in these moments before and pushed through.

Being able to respond is all about focus, energy and decision making. Our focus has been there all week in practice. Our energy has always been there. Now it is just a matter of decision making.