The Wolfpack women’s volleyball team played host to five local teams Saturday as part of its spring tournament at Reynolds Coliseum.
The tournament was the third of the spring season for the Pack which finished its 2010 campaign 14-18 (4-16 ACC) under first year coach Bryan Bunn.
“Because it was at home, it was more fun,” junior libero Kelly Wood said. “As a whole we’re more okay [than during the first tournament.] There’s more chemistry between us now as opposed to the first tournament when we weren’t exactly sure who was going to do what.”
The Pack played seven games on the day, two each against North Carolina Central and Gardner-Webb in the morning and three against Elon in the afternoon, winning each contest.
“We’ve been doing a lot of individual things this spring, and not a lot of team things,” Bunn said. “So it was good to come out and win all the games today and play well as a team.”
According to Bunn, the team is making solid improvements during its spring practices, which was evident in its matches.
“We’ve been working a lot on blocking so we saw a lot of improvement on blocking this weekend,” Bunn said. “The footwork was a lot better with our defenders and our blockers, so we did see that.”
In addition to playing three games in one day, the Pack faced the challenge of only having seven players.
“One of the difficulties is that if you need to make a sub, the sub obviously isn’t there because you only have seven people,” Wood said. “And people have to play outside their normal positions.”
But this difficulty also presented the players with an opportunity for growth.
“It’s kind of fun,” Bunn said. “Everybody gets to play and if you mess up you stay in. It does get to be a challenge if the day gets to be a little longer. But with only seven games in a day it’s not a big deal only having seven players.”
In all, the players have seen definite improvements in their chemistry in the three tournaments.
“We’re a lot more energetic and that comes from the communication,î redshirt sophomore setter Megan Cyr said. “We’re really focusing on communicating after each play as a team.”
The team is even improving its chemistry with its incoming freshmen, before they even lace up for the Pack.
“I’m so excited about the freshmen coming in,” Wood said. “We all keep in touch with them. It’s going to be a great year; we’ve got some good people coming in.”
Following a season in which the Pack notched the most overall and conference wins by the program since 1999, next year’s squad seems poised to continue the improvement.
“We’ve got some really good athletes coming in so we’ll be much more athletic than we were last year,” Bunn said.
