Starting their preseason workouts last Thursday, the Howard Payne University volleyball team is excited about the upcoming 2012 season.
Head coach Ken Carver had 14 players report for preseasons workouts last week. The Lady Jackets return seven from the 2011 team that went 9-22 overall and 5-13 in league play. Carver adds seven newcomers to this year’s group.
“I’m very pleased with the chemistry we’ve already begun to establish both on the court and off,” said head coach Ken Carver. “With 7 returning players and 7 new players on this year’s roster that could have been a pretty big hurdle to start the season. Our returning players did an awesome job in reaching out to our new players over the summer and it seems as if a lot of relationships were already in process or well-formed by the time our players arrived.” With a few practices under their belt, coach Carver has been pleased with the effort and how the defense is shaping up.
“Through our first six practices I have been very pleased with our defensive effort and intensity. With the addition of two new defensive specialists, coupled with moving Shelby Bridges back to her natural defensive specialist spot, our back row defense and serve reception are already further this year than last year at this point. We also have continued to work hard on our blocking and that is showing a higher level of improvement as well right now,” said Carver.
With the loss of key seniors from last year’s team, the Lady Jackets look to fill some holes in the Howard Payne offense.
“Offensively we have just been playing around with a lot of potential line-ups and trying different players at different positions. Our offensive execution hasn’t quite developed the consistency and flow that I would like, but that will definitely be one of our main focuses over these next 10 days as we settle into a starting line-up,” said Carver.
HPU will start their season on August 31st at the North Park University Tournament in Chicago, IL. The Lady Jackets play Kenyon College and St. Mary’s (IN) on day one and Ripon College and host North Park on day two. HPU will then play their first conference match against Texas Lutheran in Seguin, Texas on Sept. 5th.
The Lady Jackets will have their first home match on Sept. 18th versus Concordia University Texas at 7:00 pm in the Brownwood Coliseum. Admission is free to all HPU home volleyball matches. Check out the volleyball schedule at HPUsports.com for dates and times.
“All of our players are pushing each other and are demanding more from each other in terms of communication, effort and consistency of execution. As long as we continue to have this same kind of drive and push throughout the entire season, I look forward to having an exciting and fun year on the court with this group of young women.” Carver added.
