Volleyball Preview<\/p>\n
By: Connor Brown, Production Director, FM88 Sports<\/p>\n
Huntington W.Va – Marshall volleyball heads to South Carolina this weekend after earning a win it had not seen in 30 years. The Herd split its series against James Madison at the Cam Henderson Center, losing in five sets Thursday before bouncing back with a four-set victory Friday. It was Marshall\u2019s first win over the Dukes since 1996.<\/p>\n
The Herd will face the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers for two matches Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, Oct. 18. Both matches are scheduled for 2 p.m. at the HTC Center in Conway, South Carolina.<\/p>\n
Marshall enters the series at 11-6 overall and 4-2 in Sun Belt play. Coastal Carolina is on the opposite side of this this season as it has a 6-9 overall record and 2-4 record in SBC play entering its Wednesday matchup against UNC Wilmington.<\/p>\n
The way Marshall responded Friday stood out to head coach Heather Stout. After dropping the opening match against James Madison, the Herd made changes and played with more confidence from the service line.<\/p>\n
Stout wants to see that same approach carry over to Coastal Carolina. For Stout, the win over JMU was about more than ending a long losing streak. It showed what her team could do against a highly regarded opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cJMU is a powerhouse in every single sport in the SBC. And so, for us to do that at home and do that with a team that’s ranked in the top 50 RPI, number one blocking team in the nation, and for us to be hitting a .300 against them, I think it just showcases the athletes and the women that we have in our gym every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marshall will need another strong performance to come away with two road wins. Coastal presents a different challenge, and the Herd cannot rely on the same approach working against every opponent.<\/p>\n
Stout expects Coastal Carolina to make Marshall work for its points. The Chanticleers are known for their ball control, something Stout connected to the number of players with beach volleyball experience. Keeping rallies alive can put pressure on an opponent to remain patient and avoid unforced errors.<\/p>\n
Coastal also has an outside hitter named Reinhart who can attack from both the front and back rows. That versatility gives the Chanticleers another way to score, while their bigger middle hitters add another threat near the net.<\/p>\n
Marshall’s serving could help limit those options. Stout wants the Herd to serve aggressively and push Coastal out of system, making it harder for the Chanticleers to spread the ball around. If<\/p>\n
Marshall can disrupt the first pass, its blockers and defenders may have a better chance to read the attack.<\/p>\n
The Herd will also need to take care of its own first contact. Stout pointed to first-ball quality as an area for continued improvement after the JMU series. Better passing would give Marshall more choices on offense instead of forcing it to send predictable attacks over the net.<\/p>\n
The two-match series gives Marshall a chance to build on Friday’s result, but Stout does not want her team getting too comfortable after beating James Madison. Sun Belt opponents have their own strengths, and each coaching staff has time to prepare for the weaknesses it sees on film.<\/p>\n
Stout said her team must stay focused on the match in front of them and be ready to make changes once play begins.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, one match at a time. We’re taking it one point at a time. But I think anything from JMU is, anything can happen in this league. So, you can’t take anyone, you can’t get too comfortable. You can’t take anyone lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n
That message will matter as Marshall leaves Huntington for Conway. The Herd has already shown it can regroup after a loss but doing it again will require the same serving pressure and defensive discipline that helped it against JMU.<\/p>\n
Marshall opens the series Saturday, Oct. 17, at 2 p.m. before the teams meet again Sunday at the same time. The Herd will look to carry its confidence from the JMU victory into the weekend, with its serving and passing likely to play a major role in how the series unfolds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Volleyball Preview By: Connor Brown, Production Director, FM88 Sports Huntington W.Va – Marshall volleyball heads to South Carolina this weekend after earning a win it had not seen in 30 years. The Herd split its series against James Madison at the Cam Henderson Center, losing in five sets Thursday before bouncing back with a four-set<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1192,5,1893],"tags":[219,115,779,781,100,69,28,138,251,236,212],"class_list":["post-5445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-wmul-sports","category-volleyball","tag-cam-henderson-center","tag-college-radio","tag-connor-brown","tag-connor-brown-marshall","tag-fm88-sports","tag-huntington-wv","tag-marshall-university","tag-marshall-university-athletics","tag-sbc","tag-sun-belt-conference","tag-thundering-herd-athletics"],"acf":[],"fimg_url":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5445"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5447,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5445\/revisions\/5447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}