Repeatedly pounding the ball up the middle isn’t just a football strategy, it’s how the Fort Lewis College volleyball team wants to attack this season.
An improved group of middle attackers will be the focus of a more balanced Skyhawks’ offense this season.
FLC sophomore Maddi Bickle, freshman Hannah Hargrove and junior Shelby Lehman have become more of a focus in the Skyhawks’ offense than the position was used last year.
Only Bickle contributed in 2013, as Hargrove still was playing at Santa Fe High School, and Lehman was recovering from a knee injury.
“Our middles are starting to get a lot more sets, and we’re making them so much more aggressive that they’re going to be unstoppable,” FLC senior outside hitter Ashley Wells said. “Once we get to conference, that’s going to be our biggest strength, I hope.”
The team flexed its new muscle for the first time in its annual alumnae game Saturday in Whalen Gymnasium.
FLC won 3-1 (25-18, 25-14, 25-27, 25-15) against the Skyhawks’ past, but that was expected. Second-year head coach Kelley Rifilato was more interested in how the team communicated and competed.
“Defensively we were able to read and pick up a lot of balls. Our small guys are really quite speedy and have really good hands,” she said. “Across the board, they kept the rallies going long so that our big people in the front row offensively could put the ball away.”
Wells led the team with 3.31 kills per set last season while adding half a block and nearly three digs per set en route to an appearance on the 2013 All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Third Team.
In order to shift their attack inside, however, the Skyhawks will need to pass better and play with more pace.
Skyhawks senior setter Heather Danny returns with a group that only lost three seniors to graduation.
“(Saturday) was just a preview. I think you saw some ups and downs. When we’re on, we’re on,” Lehman said. “I think we’re totally gonna showcase everything that we can do and learn from (Saturday night).”
They have a week before hitting the road for their first tournament: the Midwestern State University Hampton Inn-vitional on Sept. 5-6 in Wichita Falls, Texas.
The Skyhawks will play four games against Cameron, Midwestern State, Northwestern Oklahoma State and Washburn.
Washburn currently is ranked No. 10 in the national coaches poll.
“That will definitely be a measurement of where we are,” Rifilato said. “That’s what I told them, (the alumnae game) is a measurement of what we need to work on and where we need to get better.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
