After bringing home two titles and two wins from the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raider Bash tournament, the IU women’s volleyball team will be traveling Friday to San Marcos, Texas, to compete in the Delta Zeta Classic.
The Hoosiers will be matching up against three teams in this weekend’s tournament including Lamar, UTSA and Texas State.
For IU Coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan, this tournament brings more than just the opportunity to play competitive volleyball.
Dunbar-Kruzan said one of the main reasons she was drawn to this specific tournament was not only for the opportunity to play against three competitive teams, but also because this tournament also takes place close to the hometown of one of their own players — senior middle blocker Chanté George.
“We looked at teams around where Chanté was from,” Dunbar-Kruzan. “It was a decent tournament that was close to her hometown, and it was important for me to get her back and let her parents watch her play.”
George said she is excited to be going home this weekend and show her teammates her hometown.
“I’m extremely excited,” George said. “Excited for the friends who haven’t seen me play since high school, and excited for my family to watch me play.”
Even with all the excitement George is still keeping herself focused, strengthening her defensive play and for the upcoming matches.
A key challenge for George that she said she hope to overcome is to block out frustrations on the court so that she can still efficiently gain points for the Hoosiers.
“My main focus is just to be consistent in my play,” George said. “If it goes off a little bit, my defensive playing isn’t as good as I want it to be. I want to continue to be efficient in my offense from last weekend and increase my defense so I can get more blocks for my team.”
Dunbar-Kruzan said the team’s current strengths are their offensive plays when delivering serves and passes on the court.
IU hopes to continue with these strengths and transfer them from practices to the upcoming matches to compete with their numbers last weekend.
“Our serving needs to be transferred into game situations,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “Our passing was great last weekend, but we still really want to improve on things from last weekend.”
Dunbar-Kruzan said that she expects it to be an equally good and challenging weekend for the Hoosiers, where they can focus on their strengths, improve their weaknesses and keep the standards they set in practices.
“This schedule is challenging us,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “It gives us that motivation knowing we’re going to play good quality teams and have good runs this season that challenge us to step up and get wins.”
