NC State women’s volleyball showed out on the court for the first time this season, defeating Coastal Carolina 3-1 in a pre-season exhibition game.
While move-in was happening around campus, the red-and-white looked to make a move into the win column at Reynolds Coliseum. Despite not playing since the spring, the team looked ready to take on any opponent that came its way. The young and determined women showed off some potential talent throughout the match, especially when it came to defense.
The starting lineup consisted of returning stars, highlighted by the presence of graduate setter Kristen McDaniel and sophomore outside hitter Ava Brizard, but throughout the game many new players were subbed in and got a chance to show off their skills.
Freshman outside hitter Clara Vondran got many chances to show off her budding talent as she helped the team in both offense and defense. The Ohio native will be looking to make her mark both on the court, and in the locker room.
“It’s a new team,” McDaniel said.“We’ve graduated a lot of people. So it’s nice to see how well our team can work together and fit together. I really liked seeing our freshman, Clara, step up, she did a really good job. I know it’s very nerve-wracking to be playing in your first collegiate game, but I think she did really well.”
The first set saw the offense hitting wide and out of the court, but the red-and-white’s defense was on top of its game. Making sure to press up at the net, NC State was able to block well, making sure it sent the ball right back over the net to the Chanticleers. Brizard and Junior opposite hitter Amanda Rice look like they never took a day off as they were able to start swinging right out of the gates to snag some points for the Pack.
“What I liked a lot was our transition attacks,” said head coach Luka Slabe. “We were very efficient. We were able to break down their defense and blocking defense so we rarely had more than one blocker in front of us against our attackers, so we got a lot of open swings from that.”
During the second set, the defense slowly slipped away and the offense couldn’t keep the points going as Coastal took the set. The communication from the team was crucial, though, as they were able to keep up with each other and any scrappy rallies. Words of encouragement from both teammates and the coaching staff played a large part in keeping morale high.
“As a coach, it’s so easy to find all the things that your team is doing wrong,” Slabe said. “It’s just in our nature, we are always trying to get better and you’re always trying to fix errors. We often forget about just talking about things that we did well…you also promote learning and what was done well and what needs to happen down the road.”
The Wolfpack was able to snag the third and fourth sets after struggling to start both in the serve and receive game. The front row showed off its blocking skills once again in both of these sets. Offensively, the Pack was swinging hard in all the moments where it mattered and helped the team battle back when it went down in points.
Looking ahead to the season, the Wolfpack needs to ensure it has everything in its back pocket working in tandem. As the red-and-white heads out to Utah for its first invitational of the season, there are many things that need to be taken care of.
“It’s high elevation,” Slabe said. “It’s very dry and it’s completely different from what we have here. All the challenges [that] can be out there, they’re going to be there. I think, as always, we take that as an opportunity. It’s a tough trip and you need to bring home some wins to validate the work that we put in throughout the summer and this early fall. The season’s preseason sets up your postseason as well.”
Up next, NC State will take on Utah Valley in the Utah Valley Invitational on Friday, Aug. 25th.
