Tabor shows promise despite 0-5 start at Point Lookout tourney

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN TOM STOPPEL
The Tabor College volleyball team opened the 2005 season at Point Lookout, Mo., in the always-tough College of the Ozarks Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

Although coach Amy Ratzlaff said the Bluejays showed definite signs of improvement throughout the weekend, Tabor returned home on Sunday with an 0-5 mark.

“To me this is the best way to get broken in as a team,” Ratzlaff said. “The competition down there is really tough-plus they’ve all played in another tournament prior to this one and they’ve worked out some of their bugs.

“We’re still just in the process of getting our lineups and getting to know each other on the court,” she added. “I think this tournament is good for us because it jump-starts us into having to pick up our play immediately.”

Tabor battled Mid-America Nazarene in its first match and lost 26-30, 29-31, 26-30.

Next up was Evangel, who prevailed 27-30, 30-22, 23-30, 22-30, then William Jewell College, who defeated the Bluejays 22-30, 26-30, 19-30.

Tabor then lost to the host team from College of the Ozarks, 23-30, 20-30, 21-30 before ending with a loss to Baker University, 32-34, 30-27, 26-30, 20-30.

“Amazingly, after five losses, I can come home with the team and say I was very pleased with the weekend,” Ratzlaff said. “Our goal for this tournament was to find out what we need to work on and to improve with every single match.

“We definitely met both of those goals,” she said. “I saw moments of great play, and those moments increased as we played this weekend. We came home with a drive to work even harder.”

Staci Whitcomb led the Bluejays with 55 kills in five matches, averaging 3.24 per game. Ratzlaff said Whitcomb will only get better as the season progresses.

“Stacy and I agree that she didn’t find her hitting game as quickly as she had hoped,” Ratzlaff said. “She came home with things she definitely wants to work on.”

Kelsi Suderman (30 kills) and Lindsey Vogts (38 kills) also played well for the Bluejays, Ratzlaff said.

Anne Gunden led Tabor with 133 assists (7.8 average), a number which was slightly lower than her customary totals from last season. Ratzlaff said a change in the offense led to lower numbers.

“We experimented with playing a 6-2, so that always affects statistics and Anne knew that coming into this tournament,” Ratzlaff said. “When you share time that happens, but she did a solid job while she was in there.”

Vogts also led the team with an average of 1.18 blocks per game. Jill Hein averaged 1.12 blocks.

“The women are really excited because even though as many bugs as we have to work out, we also saw some very good improvement,” Ratzlaff said. “Our offense is running, but we’re not terminating balls-and that just comes with number of contacts on the ball. We’re still really just getting to know each other on the court.

“We have some women in new positions, but our offense wasn’t as effective as we hoped it would be-so that’s our No. 1 goal,” she added.

“No. 2, we have to commit to the right defensive position. The transition of your game is something you have to work very hard on and it’s not completely natural for all our players yet.”

Ratzlaff said her players are aware of what needs fixing and won’t be afraid to do the work to improve.

The Bluejays have the opportunity to showcase their improvement on Thursday, when the McPherson Bulldogs come to Hillsboro for the first Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference match of the season.

Action is set to begin at 7 p.m.

More from article archives
DEATHS: Earl Wineinger, 62
ORIGINALLY WRITTEN Earl Wineinger, 62, Hillsboro High School vocational agriculture teacher, died...
Read More