The Pioneer volleyball team is stuck in limbo. It is a purgatory located between the mediocre teams of college volleyball and the good ones.
The team has lost four of its last five matches to drop to 5-5 overall. However, two of those losses came against ranked opponents, UCLA at No. 11 and Creighton at No. 24. CSU Northridge and Colorado State also received votes in the AVCA Top 25 Poll. But for second-year head coach Jesse Mahoney, these losses aren’t necessarily setbacks.
“I think we can use these experiences moving forward to get better and understand the level that we need to compete at in order to be successful,” Mahoney said. “The thing about playing really good competition is that you can’t hide the things that you can get better at. With UCLA and Colorado State and now Creighton, each match we’ve improved a little bit, and our understanding of what it takes to be successful is a little bit more vivid now.”
Games have been competitive. On Friday night, the Pios pushed the match to five sets against Creighton after being down 2-0, but couldn’t seal the victory and fell by a 15-11 mark in the fifth set. The following day, the Lady Pios grabbed the second set against a battle-tested CSU Northridge team 25-21, but lost the next two sets by close margins of 26-28 and 23-25.
“[The Creighton game] is a great example, and even UCLA and Colorado State were examples of us playing at a level that can be nationally competitive,” Mahoney said. “We just haven’t been able to string that together, to stay at that level long enough to win some matches.”
Continued improvement from freshman outside hitters Moni Corrujedo and Nola Basey could be what the Pios need if they are to turn the corner and become an elite team. Both Basey and Corrujedo registered double digit kills and digs during Saturday’s match against CSU Northridge. Corrujedo also led the team in kills against a ranked UCLA team.
“They need to get older, but while we are waiting for that to happen, they need to learn to play with some intensity and some consistency from the beginning of the match to the end of the match,” Mahoney said. “They’re still thinking more than playing, because they are still trying to figure out what they should be doing. That being said, their growth from August up unitl now has been huge, and I’ve got no doubt by midseason that they will be special players.”
When looking for a pillar of consistency on this Denver team, and maybe even a role model for Corrujedo and Basey, there’s no need to look further than senior right side Colleen King, who has averaged 12.2 kills with only 3.9 attack errors per game. She’s also the team’s “most dynamic attacker” according to Mahoney.
“[King] gives us the opportunity to side out against anybody,” Mahoney continued.
“The great thing about our program is that we have a lot of players that fill their roles really well. Bailey Karst has done a great job all year, as our setter in moving the ball around. We have two really efficient middle blockers Brea Muhle and Sara Schmid, who have done a great job offensively.”
Libero Kate Acker is another role player whose performance could spell victory for the Pios further down the road.
“[Against UCLA and Creighton] is as good as I have seen Kate Acker play in my two years here at DU,” Mahoney said. “Defensively, she was engaged, she was active, she was bringing people along for the ride. It’s infectious when you play with a really high sense of urgency; everyone else wants to follow along. I was really proud of her, and that’s how I want her to play every match, and hopefully this is a little bit of a breakthrough for her this season.”
Acker led the team in digs the last two matches, recording 26 against Creighton and 18 digs against a solid CSU Northridge squad. Acker nearly sparked the upset of ranked Creighton after a diving defensive play in the fourth set won by the Pios, 25-23. Acker’s play swung the momentum in favor of Denver heading into the decisive fifth set.
“We’re right there. We need to get matches like this so that we learn to play under pressure, and we learn to succeed under pressure,” Mahoney said. “You don’t know how good you are until you put yourself in a pressure situation. We’ve done that and I think that slowly we are getting better when we meet that challenge. At the end of the year when it matters most, we’ll have been tested.”
