The Ball State’s women’s volleyball team will return to the court as Sarah Obras makes her first start in over nine months when the Cardinals kick off their 2005 campaign at the Ball State Nike/Active Ankle Weekend.
Obras, who went down with an injury to her ACL on Nov. 10 in 2004, sat out the winter and spring seasons. Coach Randy Litchfield said Obras should be close to her old form.
“I think [Obras is] 100 percent in the back court and about 85 percent in the front court simply because her jump is still down a little bit,” he said. “There’s an adjustment you have to make when your jump changes in this sport because it’s played in the air so much; but she’s producing, and I just love the style of her game right now. She’s loves to be out on the court. That happens after you’ve been out with an injury for a bit.”
Obras herself is confident in her abilities and is ready to return to the court.
“I’m felling good,” she said. “I’m really excited for this weekend. I feel emotionally and physically I’m ready to go.
“I’m playing just as well as I have been [in the past], and so I am anxious to see how the team works when we start actually playing against actual competition other than ourselves. I’m feeling great, I feel like we are better than normal.”
Obras will be joined on the court by a slew of juniors and seniors. The two projected starters at Middle attacker, Rachel Reenes and Kristen West of, are seniors who started last season. Junior Kelly Cochran, who also started last season, will join Obras at outside attacker. The rest of the projected starers are junior Kirby Gibson at (OPP), senior Stephanie Bacon at defensive specialist, junior transfer from Nebraska Amanda McCormick and Angie Parrell at setter, the lone underclassman on the starting roster.
“We have a team full of juniors and seniors,” Obras said. “So we haven’t had to focus on, ‘Let’s smash well, let’s play well,’ with the team. We’ve just been able to focus on what we need to do, what’s important, what we need to find victories, which is just our intensity, what more we can bring as individuals.”
Starting the season at home should help prevent any intensity issues, Litchfield said.
“I think that the energy level here, getting the juices get flowing -- It’s a lot easier,” he said “And we always get good crowds.”
Parrell spent some time at setter in the fall and was the top setter in the winter and spring, but this weekend will be her first experience anchoring the position during the fall season.
“The fall is the completely different ball game,” Litchfield said. “We do have to see how she responds and what kind of changes we need to make with her.”
Parrell is just part of the questions Litchfield hopes to start to answer this weekend.
“I think you play these opening with a plan to figure out where you’re at,” he said. “When you’re practicing among yourself and scrimmaging you don’t get a great sense
Obviously we want to be massively successful and come out of here with two wins. But I think that equally important is figuring out where the team is at, knowing what direction we need to take, going into the next couple of weekends.”
Ball State faces Southern Methodist at 7 p.m. today and then faces Wright State the following night, also at 7. The Cards have never faced SMU and has an 11-5 record against the Raiders.
“I think that people, especially the students, will have a good time if they come out,” Litchfield said. “We try to make our matches student-friendly — we try and make sure they have a good time. Especially the freshmen, get them out of their rooms a little bit, and get them behind the Cardinals right off the bat.”
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