September 20, 2016

By Christopher Sich

The Dominican University Women’s Volleyball team has had a very tough schedule to open the season going 0-6, but the team has won its previous two matches including an important win over NACC rival Rockford University as they look to go on a winning streak.

“It’s great that we started off the season with such high competition and that we have played some great, ranked teams,” said Tessa Griparis, senior on the Women’s Volleyball team. “It has really gotten us in the right mindset to push ourselves, hold each other to high standards that we know we can reach, and also prepare us for conference.”

The early competition has ultimately been beneficial and has the team prepared for the rest of the season.

 According to Maddi Zanoni, senior on the Women’s Volleyball team, one of the benefits of playing such tough competition early on is that it exposes your flaws and allows you to focus your attention on strengthening these areas before heading into conference play.

Regardless of the result of the matches, the team has continued to learn from every game and continued to progress.

“Moving forward we need to focus on increasing our communication, intensity, and overall discipline; these are the building blocks to success and if we can continuously deliver in all three categories we will see great returns,” Zanoni said.

There is still a lot of the season left, so rather focus on solely the big picture, Head Coach Jeanne Czipri has the team focused on the small objectives.

“We are consistently reminding the girls to focus on the process and the small daily and weekly objectives rather than the winning percentage,” Czipri said. “If we take care of the little things now and work to make them become habit, they will be easier at the end of the season when the pressure builds.”

One of the key elements to remaining focused on the team objectives and keeping attention to detail is team chemistry.

According to Czipri, each and every player has stood out in their own way at some point this season. The freshman are embracing the challenges very well, the seniors are stepping up physically and have done a great job of creating a unified message for the team, and the sophomore and juniors are filling out a majority of the missing pieces and creating the desired environment to grow.

Even in light of the current record, the team goals have not changed.

“Our goals are to win conference, win the conference tournament, and, ultimately, earn a spot in the national tournament while maintaining a high level of academic achievement and overall team chemistry,” Zanoni said

 The pieces for success are in place, now the team must continue to work hard to produce positive results and to ultimately achieve their team goals.

After a long weekend of games in Wisconsin against tough competition, the team returns home with their sights set on NACC rivals Benedictine University. The Stars will go to Lisle on Wednesday, Sept. 21 to face the Eagles in an important conference match.

The Stars next home match will be on Sept. 28 against the Edgewood College Eagles.

sichchri@my.dom.edu