California Bears eyeing the NCAA cup with determination
California Bears are one of the four names that have made it to the Final Four of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament 2010. The last time they were able to do this was in 2007. But this time around, the coach and the players are more confident about being able
to win the whole deal.
Carli Lloyd, a senior setter who was also part of the 2007 Cal team feels the present team is better equipped overall for the tournament: “One of the most important positions to have more experience in is the setter position. I was a freshman. I think I
was comfortable by that time, but I know I'm way more comfortable now. And chemistry-wise, we're way tighter. We love playing with and for one another. There's no selfishness at all on this team."
The Bears are confident but they are taking care not to underestimate their competition. Cal realizes that if they get satisfied at this point of the tournament, they might as well wave good bye to the NCAA cup. The victory that brought the Bears to the
Final Four was celebrated exuberantly at the court of Hec Edmundson Pavilion Saturday night. But as soon as they returned to the locker room, the Bears were looking ahead at their next match.
Cal is set up to compete against the Trojans, who are one of the only two teams that were able to defeat the Bears this season. The Trojans feature two outside hitters, same as the Bear’s. However, the Trojan hitters are taller, with junior Alex Jupiter
at six foot three inches and freshman Falyn Fonoimoana at six foot four inches. The size of these girls presents a challenge to Cal as their own hitters such as Tarah Murrey are smaller in size. Therefore, the Bears don’t get much practice playing with bigger
sized hitters.
Coach Rick Feller expresses his senitiments concerning playing with the Trojans in the following words: “It takes us awhile to get used to it. Unfortunately, in one of the (matches), we kind of got used to it but ran out of time. The other, we didn't get
used to it enough."
However, the Bears are not letting their spirits being daunted by the fact that they suffered a defeat the last time the two teams contested against each other. They are looking at it as an opportunity to redeem themselves and learn from the mistakes they
made last time around.
Lloyd says that she was glad when she saw that they would be playing against the Trojans. She said that she wants to finish the NCAA tournament by having beaten everyone so no team would be able to say that they beat the Bears.
The match between the number seven Cal (29-3) and the number six USC (29-4) is scheduled to take place at the Sprint Centre, Kansas City.
The Cal know that the moment of celebration has not yet arrived and there is still a lot of hard work to put in before the final leap of joy.
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