BRIDGEWATER, Va. – The Bridgewater College Eagles women’s volleyball team won at home in three sets on Wednesday, Sept. 24 against the No. 11 nationally ranked conference opponent Washington and Lee Generals.
The win improved the Eagle’s record coming off a loss against conference opponent Lynchburg Hornets the previous Friday.
Head women’s volleyball coach Erin Harris said they lost a tough match the previous week and that conference losses feel particularly heavy.
“We just lost against Lynchburg, which was kind of a surprise to the team,” senior defensive specialist/libero Julia Bellis said. “We haven’t really lost big like that and the freshmen haven’t lost an ODAC game yet, so they were learning how to get past a loss and move on.”
Harris said the team prepared both mentally and physically for the match. She said the team went into the match with the mentality that it was just another game, since, from a sports psychology perspective, putting stress on games disadvantages the team mentally.
“We just went into the week the same way we approach every week.” Harris said. “We need to get better this week, we need to play Bridgewater volleyball. We need to execute at a really high consistent level.”
The team started strong in the first set, leading 18-7. The Generals had a late surge that tied the score 21-21, but the Eagles went on a 4-0 run led by back to back kills from senior middle hitter Gabby Atwell to close the set 25-21.
The Eagles kept the momentum in the second set, trading points for most of the set. The Eagles pulled ahead towards the end of the set with a series of assists by freshman setter Maya Veselinovic and two kills by senior rightside hitter Faith Depew. Depew led the Eagles with 12 kills and a .611 hitting percentage.
The Eagles finished strong in the third set, ending the set with a 7-1 run led by two kills by Veselinovic.
Both Harris and Bellis pointed towards the importance of relationships and attitudes in how the team performs.
“Our job as teammates and as coaches is to keep us in that peak performance zone,” Harris said. “To kind of ride that momentum wave and play our game.”
Harris said if you have coaches throwing clipboards, yelling, and being flashy on the sidelines, it’s easy to get pulled out of your peak performance zone. She wants her players to have the mental tools to recover after a mistake and say “All right, I got the next one.”
“We’re very open about what each person needs on the team, so we have conversations with each other,” Bellis said. “I think we have a very good team culture. We hang out a lot out of the gym by choice, but in the gym you can see that we are family, sisters, all of that.”
