Just four games into the season, Slippery Rock’s volleyball team will get ready for a four-game weekend for the Hall of Fame City Challenge.
The girls started their season with the Fairmont State Classic last Friday. The Rock won their first game 3-0 against Elizabeth City State University. Callie Chevalier led the charge with 12 kills that game.
While the other three games ended in losses, head coach Dylan Lasher has a good feeling about the team this year. “The chemistry is coming together,” he said. “The upperclassmen are starting to step up in leadership roles, putting more weight on their shoulders when they need to, which has been great to see.”
There is a lot of room for growth within a team comprised of mainly freshmen and sophomores. Lasher said the team needs to take it one game at a time this weekend.
“We go through our film breakdown, what our offense and defense are going to look like for each team, and we come out ready to play,” Lasher said.
Still early in the season, the defense team and the service team are already strong suits. The White and Green have already tallied up 232 digs and 58 block assists in just 15 sets between two days.
With SRU going into a second four-game weekend, expectations are high, not only to win, but to start to see the plays come together.
“I want to see our upperclassmen step up. I want to see our underclassmen really make big strides and continue to push forward as we get to conference play,” Lasher said.
Having named the two team captains will be a big help in achieving that goal. Senior middle blocker Lauren VonderHaar and senior setter Jaeden Yost were selected for the spots.
“There was strong leadership out of the two of them. We’re excited to see where they can take the program,” Lasher said.
Slippery Rock will take on Malone University on Friday to start the Hall of Fame City Challenge at the Osborne Hall in Canton, Ohio.
