The Columbia volleyball team (7-5, Ivy 2-1) embarks on its first road trip of the regular season this weekend with matches against Penn and Princeton. After falling to Yale on Saturday, the team looks to get back to its winning ways.
One of the areas the team will focus on, according to junior middle blocker Savannah Fletcher, is the team’s ability to block. Blocks have been one of the team’s biggest assets so far in the season, but the skill fell short against the Bulldogs.
“Last weekend, our blocking wasn’t the high level it was for much of the season,” Fletcher said. “It is important to have that aggressive serve. It gets the other team out of system and you can shut down their hitters more easily with the block.”
The Light Blue knows that every game in the Ivy League presents a challenge, no matter who lines up against them. If the Lions hope to come out on top this season, each player will need to contribute by pushing the others to the next level.
“I have to get back that hunger and desire to block everyone, and not settle for funneling the ball to our defense,” Fletcher said. “Our whole team has been amping up our intensity. That will hopefully translate to our block.”
Besides defense, the Lions have had some recent struggles with finishing plays and racking up kills. One of the immediate fixes will be to capitalize more on opportunities from transition plays.
“We always want try to get the ball to our hitters more, especially our middles,” Fletcher said. “One way to do that is to transition better and get available. This will help all our hitters, because if the middles are going every time, it’ll start opening up our side hitters and they’ll get more kills too. It’s really a big domino effect.”
The Lions play Princeton on Friday at 7 p.m. and then Penn on Saturday at 5 p.m.
