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 After defeating
Ohio and Morehead State this weekend to capture the championship of the
2000 Volleyball Spring Challenge, Marshall's volleyball team will look
to continue its winning ways Saturday when it plays in a tournament at
Butler University.
The tournament, which was played inside the Gullickson Hall gymnasium, was Marshall's second competition this spring. The team finished third at a tournament at the University of Kentucky on April 1. The day didn't begin quite the way Marshall had hoped as it dropped the morning's first match to Morehead State. But the Thundering Herd turned the match around as it came back to defeat Morehead State later in the morning and then took two matches over Ohio to win the tournament. Junior volleyball player Nora Keithley said the team was motivated to play better after its early morning loss. "We were really disappointed about how we played in the morning so we just tried to pick it up in the afternoon," said Keithley, a junior captain from Jacksonville, Ill. "Everyone was really tired, but we pulled it together and ended up winning the whole thing." Marshall coach Steffi Legall said defensive improvements and smart choices from the team were the keys to winning the championship. "Our defense and defensive transition are doing well and our setters are making good hitting choices to involve all of our hitters equally in the offense," Legall said. "We knew we had to work on those things after the (University of) Kentucky tournament. It was really fun to see how the players applied what we worked on into the matches." Marshall's matches this spring have featured an experimental scoring format being tested by the NCAA. The teams play 2-of-3 games with rally scoring to 35 and, if necessary, the third game is played as a 6-point shootout. Legall said she likes the new scoring method but thinks it needs one change. "I like it," she said. "I think 35 points are too much to play to, especially in a high scoring game, because it makes the games too long. I think it makes it more enjoyable for the fans, though, because they understand the scoring better this way." Legall said the team's main goal for the weekend tournament is improving in its defending and scoring. "We're looking for continued improvements in defense and scoring," she said, "and to involve our backcourt attack in our offense and just keep improving." Story by Michelle James
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