Women of Troy prepare for first of two road trips

After splitting their most recent home games before heading out on the road, the women’s volleyball team looks to rest up and put the games behind them. With a long road trip this week, the Trojans hope to continue improving their level of play, despite their difficult schedule ahead.

“I think we are only in school eight days in November,” head coach Mick Haley said. “That is two days a week basically.”

While it is easy sometimes to forget that these athletes are students, they certainly do not forget. Even with road trips, the student-athletes have to try and keep up with school work and find a way to maintain their academics in order to avoid the looming threat of academic probation that would keep them from playing.

“We know that we are going to be on the road for a long period time,” senior captain Taylor Whittingham said. “That might be a struggle with homework, missing classes or stuff like that.”

For the next two games against Arizona and ASU, the Women of Troy will have to be able to continue keeping their errors low, but will have to improve in their attack and their defense at the net in order to score points off of more than just kills and aces.

“The one thing going forward for the rest of this month that I would really focus on would be serving,” Haley said. “The second thing would be to continue to improve our team blocking. Those two things will help us as much as anything. “

However, the team has little time to practice before these games due to their traveling schedule. Traveling takes its toll on both players and coaches alike, but it will have to be overcome for the Trojans to continue to win games.

“On Tuesday we travel, Wednesday we play and Thursday we travel to Tempe and will try to get a practice in there,” Haley said. “Then we play early Friday at 6 p.m., but we can’t get out that night, which is terrible because we have to get up early to get them back by 9 the next morning on Saturday.”

The key thing for this road trip will be rest. Without proper rest, the Trojans will be in a position for potential injuries and mental lapses during the games. Also, it is important that they get the rest they need this week, because they have another road trip the following week.

“I am trying to get them as much rest before we go to Stanford and Cal, which is the next hard trip,” Haley said. “I am really worried about those two back-to-back trips, because it has a tendency to really take its toll on their physical and mental prep.”

The women’s volleyball team will take on Arizona at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and ASU at 6 p.m. on Friday.