The beginning of the academic year is traditionally met with excitement, but also a mixture of sadness and loss. The freedom of summer is gone, responsibility returns, and the all-too-familiar Oregon green books and Scantron sheets are once again a part of life for University students.
For Oregon’s volleyball team, however, the start of class takes on a slightly different meaning. The season starts long before the school year does, and making the transition from focusing solely on volleyball to a balance between school and sports can be challenging.@@boringly generic. Who doesn’t know this?@@
“I’m definitely trying to stay focused in school as much as I can, but it’s hard when I really care about volleyball,” Oregon sophomore setter Lauren Plum said.@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=234&SPSID=4285@@
Sophomore middle blocker Ariana Williams agreed that juggling two important pursuits can be difficult.
“It’s pretty hard because you have to focus yourself for practice and then you have to go to school and focus yourself for that, so it’s two different focuses,” she said.
On a practical level, the Ducks can’t dedicate much time to honing their volleyball skills because of class. That marks a stark contrast from the long practice hours of summer.
“We don’t practice as much,” Plum said “We were going like three-a-days, sometimes four-a-days depending on lifting or not. We were doing that for a while.”
Whatever the reason– be it less practice time, additional stress, or just fluky timing – in past years Oregon has struggled when classes began.
“We changed some things (this year),” Oregon coach Jim Moore said. “We’re not starting at eight in the morning. Last year we did that, and we’re doing everything we can to try to make it better. I don’t think we’ve been very good once school has started in terms of handling that and we’re trying to be better.”
With a murderer’s row of opponents scheduled in the next three weeks, including five of the top six teams in the nation, Oregon will need to improve to maintain its position at the top of the Pac-12 standings.@@http://pac-12.org/SPORTS/Volleyball/Tabid/1463/Article/137287/Six-Volleyball-Teams-Ranked-Five-In-Top-Six.aspx@@
Pac-12 Expansion Met with Mixed Reviews
Oregon got its first look at the new members to the Pac-12 last weekend when it traveled to Colorado and Utah. While the financial benefits of a 12-team conference are well understood, there are logistical issues that result from conference expansion, particularly on out-of-state weekend road trips to cold weather climates.
“It can create all kind of problems,” Moore said. “Back-to-back nights; basketball doesn’t go back-to-back nights, we go back-to-back nights. If you have to make that trip on Thanksgiving weekend it’s going to be a lot more difficult.”
The Pac-12 doesn’t just mean longer road trips — it forces schools to play a longer conference season as well. While that might create a more fan-friendly schedule, it reduces the number of preseason, non-league games conference teams play.
“I feel like the Pac-12 drags out the season longer,” Plum said. “Because there are four more conference matches you have to play that you wouldn’t before, so that takes the place of preseason – teams that we could not stress over too much.”
There are two sides to that argument, however. Williams said she doesn’t mind the extended conference slate.
“I kind of like it better because preseason is shorter and we’ve got a lot of weekends off,” Williams said. “I enjoy playing the other teams and I’m just excited.”
A Historic Start
After their sweep of Utah and Colorado last weekend, the Ducks (11-1, 4-0 Pac-12) are the only undefeated team in conference play. Oregon’s 4-0 league record marks their best start in 24 years.@@http://pac-12.org/SPORTS/Volleyball/Standings.aspx@@
Despite that accomplishment, Oregon was ranked only sixth among Pac-12 teams in the recent American Volleyball Coaches Association poll. UCLA (No. 2), Washington (No. 3), California (No. 4), USC (No. 5), and Stanford (No. 6) were all ranked higher.@@http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/volleyball-women/d1@@
Off to historic start, volleyball players adjust to demands of classes
Daily Emerald
September 27, 2011
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