Pioneers Ready to be Home After Difficult Weekend in Florida

This weekend, the Spartanburg Methodist volleyball team traveled to Gainesville, Florida to partake in the Santa Fe College Classic. The stacked tournament included teams such as hosts Santa Fe, (RV) Monroe College out of New York, and Pensacola State College from Florida. The caliber of volleyball proved to be difficult for our Pioneers to defend as they went 0-3.

All three matches the Pioneers battled against speed, height, and discipline. Santa Fe College’s front row consisted of well-developed blocks from players ranging from 6’0” and above. The Pioneer's serve receive was off-balanced, having their hitters be in tough positions to take a swing against a huge block. Monroe College proved their NJCAA DI ranking receiving votes status by the speed of their offense. Grounded by a dynamic setter running a 5-1, SMC struggled to keep up with that pace. The Mustangs were creating 1-on-1 situations and capitalizing on them. While Pensacola State was not as big or fast as the previous opponents, the Pirate's discipline on defense created long rallies that would lead SMC to end on an error.

“We are finally putting some pieces together. We made some positional changes on Saturday and had people step up in those news rolls. Unfortunately, right now our toughest opponent is ourselves. We are making too many unforced errors that let these sets get out of hand. I am grateful we got to be in this tournament so we could measure our abilities up against the level of play we will see in Districts. Going 0-3 is always tough, but we are coming home with new things to work on, and new possibilities in the lineup.”