Rice University Athletics
Five Points At A Time
12/2/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Dec. 2, 2009
By MOISEKAPENDA BOWER
The `one-match-at-a-time' cliché doesn't fit no matter how strenuous the attempt to make it so. With nine consecutive wins on the ledger, Rice has learned to blend a narrowed view with a grand perspective.
That unique skill explains how the Owls dispatched Marshall, Southern Miss and Tulsa two weekends ago at the Conference USA tournament, pairing a single-minded approach with big-picture longing to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which Rice (23-8) will open against TCU (26-6) on Thursday at Gregory Gymnasium in Austin.
"When we were playing Marshall in the first round of the conference tournament, you could see that they didn't want to just beat them, they wanted to beat them bad," Rice coach Genny Volpe said of the Owls. "Then it became the match against Southern Miss and then it was about ... redemption because we had lost to them and wanted to prove that we were the stronger team. When it got to that championship match, it was about winning a championship.
"They took one match at a time in that way; it meant different things to us. And we knew that all three of those meant a conference championship, but we talked about it being three steps."
Those three steps weren't rocks scattered in a pond, but rather connected blocks of wood leading to a higher elevation. Volpe didn't bother trivializing the moment - she challenged the Owls to envision their advancement through the tournament bracket and into the final. Hers was a daring approach that spit in the face of conventional and conservative wisdom requiring teams to take one measured step with eyes focused squarely on the nearest obstacle in the path. Volpe wanted the Owls to see Marshall as well as the image of succeeding against Southern Miss and Tulsa even before those opponents were determined.
Without pause Volpe is exercising that philosophy again. The Horned Frogs stand between the Owls and one of their stated preseason goals - advancement in the NCAA Tournament. And while that achievement is paramount, Volpe has no quarrel with the Owls pondering a match with powerhouse Texas (24-1), the sub-regional host and No. 2 national seed.
"Yeah, I do want the team to see themselves playing Texas, but I also want them to take it as there are two steps to this," Volpe said. "It's beating TCU, and doing it one ball at a time."
That's where the narrowed view comes into play. The Owls have dropped only three sets during their nine-match winning streak by embracing the tension that comes with wanting every point. They lacked such tenacity earlier this season and struggled closing sets they appeared to control. It took their season approaching the brink of collapse for the Owls to focus in the moment, a shift in perspective that enabled them to thrive in the face of nerve-bending momentum swings.
"Our mantra is five points at a time," Owls junior libéro Tracey Lam said. "In the middle of the game it's always first to five (points) then first to 10, and then right when we get to 20 it's 20 push. At the beginning of the season we had trouble finishing until we really focused on 20 push.
"Sometimes it's easy to, when it looks like a hard play, just look at the next point before the play is even over. We've really been working at fighting for every single point because there are no points you can just give away."
One point at a time the Owls rebuilt their season and constructed an improbable winning streak, a task that ran contrary to the genesis of this campaign when grandiose objectives fell from the lips of every player. As the Owls strayed off the path of exceptionality they originally planned to travel, they were forced to strip away the pretense of their earlier goals and hone in on the tedious details that yield victories. They committed to battling for every point by digging with passion and assisting selflessly. Deflections were chased with vigor and a relentless charge for every ball proved inspiring for a team in need of inspiration.
Success was no longer measured by an arbitrary number of consecutive wins but rather an unyielding desire to work without pause. As a result, the Owls netted the victories they so desperately sought - one at a time.
"The whole team is thinking about TCU; we're really fired up to play them," Owls junior setter Meredith Schamun said. "But we know that our goal is to go to the second round of the NCAAs. We've been to the first round - this is our third time - and we know that we want to make school history and at least get a chance at Texas in the second round. People know that we have something to do here in the first round, and we're focused on that.
"If we focus on TCU the way that we've been playing, it's going to come naturally for us."
