Trip down south inspires sophistication for Women's Volleyball

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Near the end of the holidays, McMaster Women’s Volleyball hosted the Innisbrook Invitational Tournament in Florida where they won three matches and lost two. The team was in Florida from Dec. 28 to Jan. 6 and included a visit to the Universal Studios theme park near the end of their trip.

Despite not capturing gold at their tournament, Head Coach Tim Louks sees positives that will benefit this team as they enter their final 11 games of the season. Experimenting with lineups led to players getting more playing time and gave them opportunities to work on their game in a controlled setting where volleyball was the main focus.

“Florida raised a lot of really good questions about what we could do with different players. I think the best part from the training piece was the improvement of the individual,” said Louks.

In her third trip to the Sunshine State with McMaster Volleyball, fifth-year middle Taylor Brisebois echoed her coach’s sentiments.

“Now that more players have experience we can do way more with our line switches because we know who can do what and what to expect from them now. Before we didn’t know what some players were capable of because they didn’t have as much playing time,” said Brisebois. “Before Florida, some were nervous about playing, but now I think everyone is comfortable being on the court.”

Among those more comfortable include first-year outside hitter Rachel Woock.

“Rachel took advantage of her playing time and definitely had a good tournament. She held her own and definitely showed us what she’s made of,” said Brisebois.

Coach Louks thought the same.

“I thought Rachel Woock had a good camp. She played a lot at left side. She got more used to the speed of the game,” Louks said.

Other players like Ina Onat and Jill Eisenhauer — both second years — saw more court time as outside hitters and middles. The exposure of players to more playing time and, in some cases, different positions has led the coaching staff to think about sophistication in terms of what they can do strategically.

“I’m not sure how much more sophisticated we got as a team, but we do know that we’re a little better in different areas. It’s letting us consider some sophistications in our lineups and gameplay,” Louks said. “I think we’re a bit predictable, but we’re learning how to be a bit more sophisticated when it comes to how we play the game.”

The revealed versatility of players during the Florida trip has allowed a new theme of sophistication to emerge for this team. In sports, sophistication doesn’t always involve obvious, in-your-face changes. Sometimes the greatest sophistications in sports involve the subtlest of details that have the biggest impact. In volleyball it can be as small as jumping a bit earlier to hit the ball over an opposing blocker’s hand, or choosing to serve a ball with a certain spin that plays to a specific defender’s weakness.

The devil will be in the details.

“I think we definitely need to work on knowing our opponents better and having a better knowledge of ball placement,” said Brisebois. “I think we definitely have another gear we can reach.”

“We’ll have new things ready to try. We can’t always be predictable,” Louks said. “How do we put our opponents under stress and keep them uncomfortable? Nobody wants to be uncomfortable, but we want to make teams uncomfortable. We’re getting better at that.”

No. 7 McMaster hosts the Brock Badgers at Burridge Gym on Friday, Jan. 15 at 6 p.m.

Photo Credit: Fraser Caldwell

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