As the Wildcats (9-3, 0-2) recover from losing their first two games of the Big Ten season, the players and coaches have one goal in mind: Not finishing the weekend 0-4.
All the Cats know success this weekend is paramount to the outcome of the season, including hopes for postseason play.
The Cats face Illinois (10-3, 1-1) at 7 p.m. today in Champaign, Ill., and No. 22 Purdue (11-2, 0-2) at 2 p.m. on Sunday in Mackey Arena.
“We need to pick it up so we don’t dig ourselves a hole we can’t get out of. Winning on the road is tough, but we have to have a good showing,” coach Keylor Chan said. “(Last weekend has) to be a stepping stone for us because if we don’t take care of business on the road, starting 0-4 in the Big Ten is not good.”
Junior middle blocker and outside hitter Cassie McLaughlin agreed.
“(Winning the next two games) is going to be really big,” she said. “If we go out and sweep this weekend, it’s going to put us right back in the middle of the Big Ten, and we’ll forget about this weekend.”
If the Cats win the next two matches, improving their record to 2-2, they could have equal or better records than any team in the Big Ten, since no team has played more than two games.
Currently, seven teams have .500 win percentages. Northwestern and Purdue are the only two teams which lost their first two games.
This week the Cats focused on ball control, blocking and passing in practice, as well as the location of the players on the court. Despite the deficit, Chan sees a lot of potential and hasn’t made any major changes to practices or re-adjusted the team’s goals.
“I feel good about our kids,” he said. “They’ve been responding well and accepted what’s happened and moved on.”
The Purdue game is not taking place at Purdue’s usual court as an attempt to top the NCAA volleyball attendance record of 13,194 set in 1998 during the NCAA finals in the game that pitted Penn State against Long Beach State. Purdue set the NCAA volleyball attendance record at 10,645 in 1985 through the first Pack Mackey match.
As they approach what promises to be two very tough matches, including one which will probably be attended by several thousand opponent fans, the Cats reflect on what they learned from last weekend’s disappointment.
“Hopefully, we learned some really tough lessons about the year – that you prepare every week and you have to put the team before anything else,” Chan said. “The team’s success is the most important thing, and I think you can lose sight of that really quickly when you have some success.
“You kind of take it for granted that you’ll play well or the team will perform, and last weekend we didn’t.”
Reach Annie Martin at [email protected].
