On Tuesday night, the volleyball team defeated Graceland to give head coach Kathy Allen her 300th career win. How special was it to be a part of that win?<strong>On Tuesday night, the volleyball team defeated Graceland to give head coach Kathy Allen her 300th career win. How special was it to be a part of that win?</strong> On Tuesday night, the volleyball team defeated Graceland to give head coach Kathy Allen her 300th career win. How special was it to be a part of that win?
It was really special because she has been here for a long time and has done a lot of hard work, so to be able to share that 300th win was a really good experience.
How much has coach Allen helped you improve as a player?<strong>How much has coach Allen helped you improve as a player?</strong> How much has coach Allen helped you improve as a player?
She has helped me improve mentally and physically. She is always giving me feedback, but not too much, I guess you can say. She is always encouraging, so it helps a lot when we are in tough matches like that.
Before the conference season began, senior Jamie Starling predicted in a 1-on-1 interview that the team would go undefeated in the HAAC. After starting conference play 4-0 and defeating two of the top teams in Evangel University and Graceland, how reasonable do you think it is to still go undefeated in the HAAC?<strong>Before the conference season began, senior Jamie Starling predicted in a 1-on-1 interview that the team would go undefeated in the HAAC. After starting conference play 4-0 and defeating two of the top teams in Evangel University and Graceland, how reasonable do you think it is to still go undefeated in the HAAC?</strong> Before the conference season began, senior Jamie Starling predicted in a 1-on-1 interview that the team would go undefeated in the HAAC. After starting conference play 4-0 and defeating two of the top teams in Evangel University and Graceland, how reasonable do you think it is to still go undefeated in the HAAC?
I think it is pretty reasonable. We have a lot of hard teams in the conference, but if we’re on our game, everything just clicks then we’ll be good to go. I mean, we have a really big match coming up. I think with as much as we’ve been practicing and as hard as we’ve been practicing that we’ll be good. I think we can do it.
As a defensive specialist, you have to dig some spikes that come at you at a pretty high velocity. How do you build up courage to go for a dig when you know it could be painful?<strong>As a defensive specialist, you have to dig some spikes that come at you at a pretty high velocity. How do you build up courage to go for a dig when you know it could be painful?</strong> As a defensive specialist, you have to dig some spikes that come at you at a pretty high velocity. How do you build up courage to go for a dig when you know it could be painful?
That’s my position on the team, so I kind of just have to do it. It’s tough. I guess you don’t really think about it in the game. You just have the adrenaline just to go for everything.
One of the other things a defensive specialist has to be good at is passing. How much time do you have to spend in practice just on passing?<strong>One of the other things a defensive specialist has to be good at is passing. How much time do you have to spend in practice just on passing?</strong> One of the other things a defensive specialist has to be good at is passing. How much time do you have to spend in practice just on passing?
Every drill deals with passing, but basically we just do a lot of repetitions. It’s like as (coach Allen) would say, ‘it’s motor skill.’ So, it comes in handy. That is always what she says, though, but we do a lot of passing drills.