The Wildcats turned around and defeated Northwestern State University 3-0 on Wednesday night after finishing the Wildcat Classic with a 1-2 losing record.
In the Wildcat Classic, the team beat Missouri State University in four sets, lost a close match to Incarnate Word in five and got swept by Oklahoma. The game against Missouri State was the team’s best showing of the weekend, hitting .266 with nine aces and 13 blocks.
Head Coach Ijeoma Moronu Alstrup said that while she wishes the team had pulled off the win against UIW, the weekend as a whole was good for the Wildcats.
“I think it was a good learning opportunity,” she said. “We had the potential to go out of the weekend 2-1 for sure, but I think we can always learn more from a loss than we can a win, so we’re taking what we can from that loss.”
One of the players that stood out the most from Moronu Alstrup’s squad was Brennan Ramirez, redshirt freshman libero from Waxahachie. Ramirez, a transfer from the University of Texas, won the Western Athletic Conference Libero of the Week honor in both her Wildcat and collegiate debut.
Moronu Alstrup said Ramirez’s effort and drive are what helped her win the award, rather than stats jumping off the page.
“She works really hard,” Moronu Alstrup said. “She wants it really badly, so for her efforts to be recognized by the conference was a really big deal for us and for her as well.”
Ramirez said this award was how she really saw all of her dreams of playing college volleyball come true.
“It takes me back to just being like a little girl,” Ramirez said. “I know that these are dreams that every little girl wants, especially in college, it just means so much. It just makes me have a lot of confidence, and it makes me be able to go out there and perform.”
The Wildcats moved on to beat NSU Wednesday night in a highly efficient night for the whole team. As a team, the Wildcats hit .405, the highest the team has hit in the school’s Div. I history.
The team hopes to take this aggression into Friday and Saturday’s games at the Stephen F. Austin Volleyball Invitational, where it will face Sam Houston State University, SFA and Louisiana.
Ramirez said a key factor in the Wildcats’ success this weekend, in addition to their aggression, will be how close they are as a team and how well everyone plays together.
“I think honestly, just really watching film and seeing what the team can do,” Ramirez said. “And then building off that as a team, communicating, watching film together and just spending a lot of time together. I feel like we’re already so close as a team, it’s really hard to break us up when we’re on the court.”
Moronu Alstrup said maintaining the high hitting percentage, especially on the outside, will be paramount to the team’s success, both this weekend and the rest of the season.
“I think from the weekend we talked about more production on the outside, and so it was really great to see that change Wednesday,” Moronu Alstrup said. “If we want to be successful, we need to continue to execute on our side of the ball with our hitting efficiency.”
