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Volleyball: Lady Lions looking for offense
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
With just two seniors returning to the squad, it isn't surprising that R.L. Turner's volleyball team has been inconsistent.
Coach Jennifer Murczek, however, is hopeful the Lady Lions can turn that around by the time district competition begins.
"The best way to describe our play so far is up-and-down," she said. "But that's what we expected. We have a lot of potential, but we're young and it may take a little time for our sophomores and juniors to step up and settle into their roles. Right now, our game plan is just to keep balls off the ground and continue improving."
The Lady Lions will also look to Sydney Brunel for offense as the junior returns at outside hitter following a second team all-district campaign in 2011.
"Sydney has been doing a great job and we're working on ways to try and open up more things in the offense for her," Murczek said.
One area on the attack that is still wide open comes on the right side.
"It's a revolving door right now," Murczek said. "We have three players that are vying for that spot and they all bring different things. Right now, we're trying to determine who is going to be the most consistent player."
The same issue persists at setter, where Turner has multiple options.
"We have three and we're looking to nail down a rotation of two," Murczek said. "Our girls are a little too short to run a 5-1, so we're looking for those two to step up and run our 6-2 offense. Each setter has their strengths and plays the game a little differently."
Defensively, Turner features senior Celeste Torres.
"Celeste was one of our two players in the back that came off the bench last year," Murczek said. "We need to stabilize our situation there.
"Our serve-receive has been struggling a bit so far and that's one of the things we're really focusing on during practice. And we've also been working on our serves a lot."
Rounding out the varsity roster are Micaela Martinez, Jessica Le, Michelle Dalton, Arali Berumen, Lilian Garcia, Olivia Rodriguez, Alexis Keeter, Sydney Palmer, Courtney Holbrook and Elma Radoncic.
While Turner has plenty of areas to improve, Murczek is confident cohesion among the Lady Lions will speed up the process.
"Our biggest strength is our chemistry," she said. "I really think that's going to go a long way in turning things around. And I think our defense is going to be stronger than it has been in the past. Our philosophy is to keep the ball off of the ground and try to induce mistakes from our opponents. The longer the rally, the better our chances are going to be."
For Turner to qualify for the playoffs, the Lady Lions will have to place in the top half of District 6-5A. The rest of the district includes Colleyville Heritage, Euless Trinity, Grapevine, L.D. Bell, Irving, Irving MacArthur and Irving Nimitz.
"There are a handful of strong teams and it's pretty balanced, but I'm not sure overall it is as strong as the Frisco district was last year," Murczek said. "They top half is very talented but I think we can have some success against the other teams."
Turner closed its non-district slate Tuesday against Grand Prairie (results not available as of press time) and begins district play at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Irving.
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