Texas A&M Volleyball Coach Laurie Corbelli
On how the team must adjust without Stephanie Aiple and Angela Lowak...
"I can say it has been a little shaky, honestly. They make a valiant effort at getting together and trying to get into their rhythm. Those two players have been on the court, played a lot of volleyball and they carry a lot of responsibility and leadership. So, there have been other players that have had to come forward and maybe not completely fill that roll but it changes our game a little bit."Honestly, they are doing a beautiful job. I am really proud of the team from Shebenek and McGee that have come in and done some wonderful things. It's really encouraging."
On Kaysie Shebenek...
"Oh, she was phenomenal. When Aiple went down she took over at the Colorado State match which we won and she was a rock star. She came in with enthusiasm and accuracy and confidence and momentum and just willed the team to victory and carried that on over into the weekend."I think the more she is on the floor, the more the team is responding and getting the connection down, because that's really what it is when it's a setter, getting that connection and the timing. She is a rock star right now in our eyes."
On all 14 available players getting to play...
"Well that is just part of the game — just standing there on the sidelines for a lot of the time, and if I need them they have got to be ready. It was really good for them to experience that. I haven't done that a whole lot this season. One in particular, Margaret Connett, she suffered maybe the worst knee injury I have every heard about in high school last year at about this time of year and she hadn't been out on a court since that day. She got out there and got her first two collegiate kills and the team went crazy when she got those, so that's what it's all about."On what the team is working on in practice this week...
"A lot of serve-receive. Our serve-receive is getting better and better but when you take out the setter and one of the best key passers/attackers, you rearrange who is passing where and what their responsibilities are and what plays you run, so it's really an area where we can only get better in so that's the positive side. We are also working on a lot of out-of-system attacking where the ball could be coming from mid-court maybe, a lot of times, and our attackers are working to get better at what they need to do with that attack."There are just so many different situations in volleyball that you try to recreate that are not very easy to recreate in practice. You just have to find three or four of the most common things that are happening and really get better at those. I think our hitters are really starting to get in a groove with that and it's going to be a good week of practice."
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