By Jared Fields, Sports Editor
The volleyball team went 0-3 to start the year in the Tampa classic this weekend. Friday, No. 9 ranked Tampa beat the Wildcats 3-0, and Saturday No. 7 Central Missouri State won by the same score.
The game the team anticipated the most was Saturday night against possible regional opponent Metropolitan State. The teams each won two games before going into the fifth and final match. In the last match, the Wildcats held an 11-8 lead, but couldn’t pull out the victory.
Assistant coach Sarah Carthel coached the team over the weekend, since head coach Brek Horn gave birth to a daughter last Monday.
“In the fifth game we had game point on them three times and didn’t finish,” Carthel said. “It was just a lack of mental focus that hopefully we remember and learn from.”
Despite opening the season without a win, the team had some positives come from the weekend. Senior setter Lindsey Martin made 109 assists during the three games, making her the school’s all-time career assists leader. Martin passed Horn’s younger sister, Brittney Binder, as the all-time leader.
Carthel said she also believes her and Horn’s goals were accomplished from the tournament.
“Coach Horn and I are continually trying to make our team better and we believe that the only way you are going to get beter is if you schedule good teams early,” Carthel said. “We might be losing games, but we got stronger physically and mentally, which was our goal from the beginning.”
Horn is expected to travel with her daughter and the team to Colorado this weekend for the Premier Challenge in Denver. Horn hasn’t sent a team away without her there to coach durinig her tenure with the team, so sending coach Carthel with the team was a different experience for everyone.
“For me it was different because I had to make all the decisions,” Carthel said. “Coach Horn and I are so much alike in our thinking and coaching techniques, that there shouldn’t have been that much of a difference for them (the team).”
The team plays two games Friday: against Concordia-St. Paul at noon, and at 7:30 p.m. against Regis.
