April 7, 2006

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina volleyball team finished its fourth week of spring practice on Friday. The Gamecocks competed in their first tournament last weekend and have two more remaining on April 15 and 22.

Associate head coach Ben Somera, whose coaching efforts focus on the middle blockers, shared some of his thoughts on the team after Friday’s practice:

General comments:
“I’ve seen a good increase in our intensity and effort. Our defensive pursuit is much better. The touches that maybe don’t get to the target now will continue to get better. We keep getting better, and I think with a little concentration and a little discipline we’ll become a team that is consistent every day.

“With a couple weeks left, we need to refine our passing unit and understand how to work as a unit. We need to make adjustments to our passing patterns so the ball goes where we want. We need to finesse some opportunities in order to put our hitters in a good position.

“The players are getting better with the idea of being uncomfortable. We need to direct our focus to the right places in those uncomfortable situations. We did a great job of that today, and we need to make it a habit.”

On the middle blockers:
“I’ve seen a lot of improvement with Belita Salters and Crystal Johnson. They are part of our serve/receive now, and they’re doing it well. Both of them are doing a good job attacking, and they were already good blockers. What they’ll learn over the next year is how to always be a part of the offense in-system or out-of-system.

“Right now, there are opportunities for them to pull up and hit a different set instead of pulling up and hitting something quick that just isn’t there. All of that is just experience. Belita and Crystal were both effective in the tournament last weekend and in the practice environment. Our setters are trusting them a lot more, which is good to see.”

On the team participating in Saturday’s MS Walk:
“If we all look around our lives we all know someone that has MS. This is a good opportunity to bring some visibility to the disease and be a part of the solution. I think the team is pretty excited to be involved because all of them know someone with MS.”