Allen volleyball loses 4th straight

For Whitney Shaw, there isn’t anything more satisfying than seeing a coaching lesson finally connect with a player and pay off during a game.
But on Wednesday night when Allen hosted conference rival Neosho County Community College, the first-year head volleyball coach quickly found out there isn’t anything much more infuriating than seeing a coaching lesson fall flat along with the rest of the team.
The Red Devils (3-4, 1-1 KJCCC) dropped all three sets to the Panthers (6-2, 1-1 KJCCC), leaving Shaw’s team under .500 after starting the year with three straight victories (25-20, 25-22, 25-13).
“We need to go into every game like we’re the best,” Shaw said. “We need to know that we’re going to do our part. I don’t feel like everyone did their jobs tonight … We didn’t fulfill our duties as individuals.”
Shaw said her defense, in particular, was one of the areas that was lacking against NCCC on Wednesday night. As a former defensive specialist herself, Shaw saw from the beginning that her back row wasn’t living up to its potential.
So after losing the first two sets, Allen changed its libero from Joely Roe to Hannah Liggett in an attempt to provide the defense with a fresh start.
“Joely just wasn’t getting the job done,” Shaw added.
“You know as a defender myself, I take that very seriously and I was like, ‘Nope, we’re switching it.’”
Unfortunately for the Red Devils, the change in the lineup didn’t change the inevitable outcome of the game. Although Liggett came in and recorded a team-high 14 digs, Neosho still found enough holes in the defense during the third set to take it handily.
Allen’s offense also took a hit when it lost sophomore Carly Jackson to a knee injury late last week.
With one of their premier attackers on the bench, the Red Devils couldn’t quite get their offense up to its normal speed.
Allen recorded hitting clips of .269 and .297 in the first and second sets, respectively, and managed to come within a few points of stealing a set or two from Neosho.
But when their backs were against the wall in the third, the Red Devils stumbled to record just four kills and seven attacking errors, leaving them with a -.130 hitting percentage for the set.
“Volleyball is very momentum-based,” Shaw said. “If you give up a couple (of points), you’re just straight giving the momentum to the other team … Unfortunately there comes a time in everybody’s volleyball career where you get on the landslide and you can’t get off.”
Shaw attributes a lot of Allen’s mishaps to mental lapses throughout the match. For example, the Red Devils surrendered points off of their three service errors and kept digging a deeper hole every time they committed a receiving error, which totaled 58 by the time the night was over.
To Shaw and assistant coach Hayley Mertens, those errors can be traced back to mental awareness and focus.
So after the sweep, Shaw made sure to discuss that need for mental strength with her slumping team, which has now lost four straight games.
“Probably one of the most frustrating things is knowing that you can do better than what you just did,” she said. “I think it comes back to that mental aspect. I think they have it but we’re going to have to buckle down in practice (today).”