Vball excels with the will to prepare to win

The will to prepare to win. This phrase is tossed around in every locker room, by every coach of every team. To some it is just a motivational factor to get teams to perform highly in practice, but perhaps no other team personifies this statement as much as the Penn volleyball team. Except for the rare occasion when the Quakers have a mid-week game, the women of the volleyball team can be found tucked away in Weightman Gym for two and a half hours a day, four days a week. The preparation for the upcoming weekend's match begins every Monday. At 4:30 p.m., the Quakers trudge into the gym to touch up any weaknesses exposed during the previous match. They devote hours to correcting errors in blocking, serving and hitting. "We need to teach and practice the correct technique in practice," coach Margaret Feeney said. "In the match, there is only a brief time for interaction with coaches and players. We don't have time to say what they did wrong, because they know what they did wrong. Hopefully through practice, they will know how to correct it." Once individual sessions end, and team practice begins, the intensity level increases. The Quakers run numerous drills focused on game-like conditions. In the wash drill, either assistant coach Ian Mann or Agnes Dusza toss the ball into play from the side of the net, and let play begin. The object is for one side to put together a string of continuous points, or else their points get washed away. "We all like drills that involve the whole team competing against each other," Sue Pojedinec said. "It takes away from the fact that you're totally sweating and working hard. It allows you to focus on the mental part of the game." The mental part of collegiate volleyball is one of the most difficult aspects to which players must adapt. In high school, matches are only the best of three games, as opposed to five. In extreme situations, this can result in matches lasting up to three hours. It is just as tough to stay mentally focused as it is to stay physically in the game. "We all came in with the attitude that we have to work hard," freshman Jessica Luftman said. "It's a different level than any of us played at before. All the upperclassmen led by example. We saw them working really hard, so we tried to do the same. We've developed a real die-hard attitude." Coinciding with the team-oriented drills, Feeney begins to mention certain areas to work on to prepare specifically for the upcoming opponents. And as with other teams, this is where the scouting comes in. But this process does not begin the week before the game. At the beginning of each year, Feeney makes mutual agreements with various coaches to exchange game films. However, Feeney does her best to avoid mulling over any one team's film. She scans quickly to look for weaknesses in a team's rotation, defense or skilled areas such as blocking. By only watching a few minutes of film of Cornell last week, Feeney saw the Big Red was vulnerable to right-side attacks. By exposing this weakness, sophomores Jen Law and Karen Kinsherf controlled the net. Feeney downplays the opponent and stays away from making drastic adjustments. She remains intent on working on team drills. "At this level we're playing at, we concentrate 90 percent on our play," Feeney said. "Sometimes I may let our kids know what a team's weaknesses are so we may set up a drill, but we try not to harp on the competition a lot." This attitude may be held by Feeney, but it is a different story when it comes to the players. As Pojedinec sees it, "We start looking ahead right after we finish our last game." And even after this long, draining practice, Feeney still finds time for a little running. Despite numerous sprints throughout every practice, and the ever-popular two-mile run, all the volleyball players get a little extra conditioning before they are allowed to head back to their dorm. "Intensity in practice is very important," freshman Tracey Frasch said. "In order to be intense in games, you have to be intense in practice. It's a feedback situation. You can't have one without the other."