After three weeks of volleyball tourneys, the Lady Bulldogs must prepare for just one opponent tonight when they host the Alabama-Birmingham Lady Blazers at 7 p.m. in the Newell-Grissom Building.
“It’s good on the coaching staff to focus on one team instead of three,” said first year head coach Tina Seals.
UAB won its first two games of the season in a 3-2 loss to Auburn last weekend.
Freshman Charli Lindley leads the Blazer attack with 58 kills this season.
With five freshmen, six sophomores, two juniors and no seniors, the fledgling Blazers are younger than the Lady Dawgs, who feature six freshmen.
Despite the youth of the Lady Dawgs, Seals says her team has depth.
“We’ve got people that can come off the bench now and immediately contribute when we need them to,” Seals said. “With a new team and a new staff you have to figure these things out one step at a time.”
Setter Andrea Mead controls the MSU offense with 10.2 assists per game.
Mead’s favorite go-to-girl is outside hitter Rachel Cooper (3.85 kills per game).
Cooper has 158 kills on the season but says the team benefitted last weekend because of versatility.
“If someone is having a bad game, we easily have someone coming off the bench ready to go,” Cooper said. “That was the thing with Kelly (Willinger). She gave us a lot of fire, and that’s definitely what we need.”
“I’m proud that we can put people in and have faith in them,” Seals said. “It could have been one person starting as well as the other and that’s good to know.”