The Florida A&M Lady Rattlers are preparing for the Clemson Classic Invitational which takes place Sept. 17-19, 2010, in Clemson, S.C.
A loss to the Mercer Bears extends their losing streak to eight games. Many questions linger above the women volleyball’s team as they get prepared to face Georgia State, (5-5), Georgia Tech, (5-4), and Clemson (7-2).
The Lady Rattlers will still be without sophomore middle blocker Pamela Barrera, as she is still recovering from an undisclosed injury. Pamela’s injury may have an effect on how the team run’s their sets and how they give opposing team’s different looks but, coach Tony Trifonov knows someone’s needs to step up in her absence.
“I don’t know who’s going to step up, we will have to work on some things in practice because the games keep on coming and hopefully the girls can turn it around,” Trifonov said.
In Barrera absence the person to look out for on the Lady Rattlers is freshmen setter Diana Gonzales. Also, Florida A&M needs to look out for sophomore right side hitter Monique Mead of Georgia Tech, redshirt sophomore setter Lacy Hayes, and Senior outside hitter Cansu Ozdemir of Clemson, and redshirt junior middle hitter Vineece Verdun of Georgia State.
The Lady Rattlers have to improve communication on the court because there is none and if they want to be successful communication is crucial and that’s for any game not just the games slated for this upcoming weekend.
Florida A&M is a funk and the team hopes to break out this funk before conference play in order to do that though the team knows what it must do.
“We have to communicate better and work cohesively as a team because the lack of communication comes from a lack of intensity,” said Bianca Rucker.
“We have to get into a rhythm it seems to be a little off-sync with our offense,” said Jessica Bond is a previous interview.
Trifonov was very disappointed in his team after the loss saying the girls were” too quiet”, “lack of chemistry”, and “personalities don’t work”.
The Lady Rattlers have never lost to Mercer under him until last Tuesday but the Lady Rattlers still believe the time is not running out on the young squad.
“Once we find an inner intensity, heart, and stop defeating ourselves we will be able to dominate competition because we have the talent,” Rucker added.
Florida A&M looks to reverse its fortunes, as the last tournament the team played did not go as planned. The women’s volleyball knows what it must do to right the ship and start winning games and build some type of momentum.
The team wants to have a few wins under its belt before the start of conference play Oct. 8, 2010, which is happens to be the Rattlers’ next game, as they will play host to South Carolina State.