Sometimes it’s good to know your schedule in advance.
The Pasco-Hernando State College women’s volleyball team still has around seven games left on their schedule, but they already know where they’ll be next month: Competing in their regional tournament at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The Lady Quistas have already qualified for District P, which covers three collegiate regions.
PHSC punched their tournament ticket with a current mark of 29-4. Because they aren’t in close proximity with other schools in their region, the team must be .500 or better during the regular season in order to earn a bid into the tournament.
They technically qualified back with their 20th win, but have compiled even more victories with both a potent offense and stifling defense to improve on their strong record.
Coach Kim Whitney is glad to have gotten tournament qualification out of the way with plenty of games to spare.
“We have that expectation for that goal, but once you get into the season, you’re not really sure how you’re going to match up with your opponents,” she said. “It was a big deal for us to get to that point.”
Part of that uncertainty was the makeup of this year’s team. Of the 15 players, 10 are freshmen. And while they were recruited for their ability, the coach said, one never knows how they’ll actually perform under pressure.
Now it’s clear this year’s squad will fit in nicely with other teams during Whitney’s 11-year tenure at PHSC. The school tends to expect this kind of success each year, and Whitney has the track record to justify those expectations.
In her previous 10 seasons as volleyball coach, PHSC qualified for their regional tournament every year. They’ve reached the National Junior College Athletic Association national tournament four times, and took home their division’s national championship in 2010.
Earlier in the season, continuing that regional tournament streak was no sure thing. PHSC started their season just 5-3, and were still trying to determine their most effective lineup and how best to match up with their opponents.
But those early losses motivated the team, and now the coach thinks the early-season struggles were character building and a positive experience for her athletes. She was particularly happy to see them bounce back from a poor game against the College of Central Florida with an excellent one against Hillsborough Community College.
“We didn’t really play well in that match, and the following night they played phenomenal,” Whitney said. “I think it did make us better and stronger.”
And 15 consecutive wins later, the Lady Quistas were playing more to their potential and sewing up a tournament berth.
Freshman Amanda Turley is one of the impact players helping her team reach that potential. Recruited from Franklin High School in Tennessee, Turley accepted a scholarship to play volleyball for PHSC, partially because of its coach.
“She was one of the main reasons why I decided to come here,” Turley said of Whitney. “She’s so smart and knowledgeable about the game, and what we need to do.”
Part of the coach’s plan was to get her young team prepared early in the year and acquire important game experience ahead of their opponents. Whitney purposely scheduled many games at the beginning of the season so they’d have an opportunity to gel as a team and get several college-level matches under their belts while their opponents were still easing into the season.
The team also faced Santa Fe College for that school’s first-ever home volleyball game. Whitney’s team had to perform in a hostile environment with a crowd of around 500 cheering against them. The coach hopes those intangibles will help the Lady Quistas if and when they face adversity on the court later in the year.
In the meantime, as the PHSC volleyball team keeps achieving their goals, Whitney keeps creating new ones for them. They reached their first goal, a .500 season, relatively early. Then they were challenged to reach 27 wins.
With that accomplished, the coach has a new one: Fewest losses in her tenure as coach. All her previous teams finished the regular season with at least seven losses, she said. The current team has the opportunity to beat that mark and go into their tournament, which begins Nov. 7, with a great deal of momentum.
And at that point, she’ll probably have a new set of goals to keep her team focused.
“When you don’t have something you’re driving for and you’re trying to reach, you lose that vision,” Whitney said.
Whatever that next goal is, Whitney has a history of success that says she can help them reach it, and a team full of eager players who are listening and ready to do what it takes to accomplish it.
“She’s really balanced,” Turley said of her coach. “She never gets too angry, but is never too calm. She still always has something to tell you, even if we’re up by a lot.
“I can trust everything that she says.”
Published October 22, 2014
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