Volleyball’s real test begins

It’s been 17 days since the University of South Dakota volleyball team has won a game after starting their Summit League schedule 8-0, but players and coaches said confidence is unwavering heading into the Summit League Tournament.

“I think we are still very confident, we had some down falls but that just makes us aware that we can be beaten and we need to keep working together as a team and keep fighting to get that first place spot,” senior Tori Kroll said.

The No. 3 seed Coyotes (18-12) begin the first-round of play Friday against No. 6 seed Western Illinois (12-17) at The Jungle on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. The winner of Friday’s game will move on to play No. 2 seed Denver (16-11).

Head coach Matt Houk said despite the recent slide, players’ spirits are high.

“They have all been doing this long enough in the their lives that they understand the grind,” Houk said. “We haven’t played bad volleyball, but we haven’t gotten some of the wins we want but everyone goes into the conference tournament 0-0.”

Kroll said just because the team has had a rough end to the season that the team is in a bad place.

“It is not that everything went down hill when we lost,” Kroll said. “I think in certain times we just need to come together more. I feel at times if we have errors, some girls go off and don’t come with the team. But, we need to stick together and fix those things.”

The image of Western Illinois is fresh in the minds of USD players; the Coyotes lost their final game of the regular season to the Leathernecks in Macomb, Ill. Nov. 17.

“We need to keep focusing on what we need to do against Western Illinois,” Junior Kendall Kritenbrink said. “They are pretty fresh in our minds, so we have to keep working on defense and sticking to our guns on offense.”

Offense is one facet of the game Kritenbrink has had no problem with in 2013; the junior outside hitter leads the Summit League with 521 kills.

The team has also been the pacemaker for offense in the conference, ranking first in points per set with 17.3.

“Our players are very confident, they know they are very good. It’s going to be grind, every team in the tournament has had good conference season.,” Houk said.

Other teams in the tournament include Summit League regular season champions IUPUI (17-13), who hold home court advantage throughout the tournament.

“IUPUI has been playing the best volleyball down the stretch here, it’s their home court and they have to be the scary one here,” Houk said. “If we saw them it won’t be until the championship match.”

However, Kritenbrink said the tournament is anyone’s game.

“At this point anyone can beat anyone,” she said. “Some people are coming in with the past few weekends finishing strong and I think anyone can beat anyone so everyone needs to bring their best game.”