The Falcon volleyball team is coming in with some momentum after finishing last week’s Wright State Invitational with a 2-1 record beating CSU Bakersfield and Wright State.
This is a familiar situation for the 2014 Falcons, in the 2012 season the team started the year 2-4 before going to 4-7 and then winning nine straight matches to win the Mid-American Conference tournament.
Head coach Danijela Tomic is not looking to the past, but rather the future and how this team will finish the season.
“Ultimately, it comes down to what happens at the MAC tournament,” said Tomic. “You know the goal is to qualify for the MAC tournament then play our best volleyball in November and December.”
For the Falcons this will be their second road tournament of the year and the hardest one to date as Wichita State ranks among the top 20 teams in the country in digs, along with host Creighton receiving 28 votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 Poll, and Pepperdine ranking 19th in the country in service aces.
Although the path to victory will be tough, it will only help the Falcons as they gain more experience with each and every match on the road eventually heading back home.
“We are going to get better as a team,” Tomic said. “We are going to learn from those matches and that’s it when we get home in about three or four weeks we should be a much more seasoned team than we were at the end of August.”
In order for the Falcons to do that they will need be on point in their hit percentage since they are 2-0 this year when notching a .200 hit percentage or better and they are 0-4 when hitting below that mark.
Coach Tomic also mentioned that the team needs to know how to win away from home in order to help them later down the line.
“Good teams need to learn how to win on the road,” Tomic said. “But on the other hand I do think it is less pressure after the first week of play.
The Falcons will be heading west of the Mississippi for the Creighton Invitational this weekend in Omaha, Nebraska. Their first opponent will be against Wichita State at 5:30pm on Friday. Followed by Creighton at 1pm and Pepperdine at 6:30pm on Saturday. All matches will be held on the University of Creighton’s campus at the D.J. Sokol arena.
