The women’s volleyball team lost all four games at the Great Lakes Crossover tournament at Cedar Point Sports Center this past weekend. Three players were out with injuries prior to the tournament, and another player rolled her ankle and had to leave the court part way through.
Due to injuries and small team size, the Cedar Point games were some of the first times the Oberlin lineup had been able to play a full court with six players on each side. According to College third-year Makela Reid, a setter, the team is still finding their chemistry and flow with so many new players.
“We have a ton of new moving pieces to try to figure out,” Reid said. “And that’s one of the things we were working through at Cedar Point — volleyball is a game of chemistry and flow, and that doesn’t come right away. It’s not an overnight process. But with all of those new pieces, we’re finding our voice and our shape as a team, and I think that’s going to continue to build on itself.”
College fourth-year and outside hitter Zeynep Kaya stressed the team’s successes within the losses.
“We’re working hard to translate our practice performance into game performance, and I think Cedar Point was a good warm up for us,” Kaya said. “We’re doing a good job starting our team chemistry; the connections are getting stronger.”
In the past two fall seasons, Head Coach Jasmine Brown has implemented exercises centered around “inner narrative” — the stories the players tell themselves about their skills and performances. Players say the conversations and journaling activities around this idea have anchored their mindsets both on and off the court.
Kaya was sidelined at the start of the preseason with a back injury. In addition to attending all of the practices and games she can in order to connect with and support her team, she says her inner narrative has helped her stay balanced as she faces injury in her final year.
“I’m more calm and I feel like I realize I can only control the things I can control,” Kaya said. “If there’s some things I can’t control, I’m not stressing about myself with that. I’m focused on what I can control, what attitude I have with that, and how I can connect to my teammates.”
Reid and Kaya both said there were stressors during the Great Lakes Crossover that will likely not be replicated in further games. At this tournament, around seven games take place simultaneously in one large facility, with associated noise washing out communication between the players, coach, and bench. Reid added that the Cedar Point setup resembled a high school club volleyball tournament more than the usual college-level arrangement.
Both of these upperclassmen players believe that energy and joy will be assets to the team as the players find their footing.
“There’s one thing our coach is always saying — we’re not a serious team and we don’t have to be,” Reid said. “That can get in other teams’ heads when they’re super serious and stressed out. A term I really like that we’ve been using this season is positive intensity, where we can be really positive, playing with joy, and having a ton of fun while also having that focus and intensity.”
For those interested in witnessing this positive intensity and cheering on the team, the annual Oberlin Invitational will take place Friday and Saturday in Philips Gymnasium. The Friday match against Grove City College will take place at 6 p.m., while Saturday’s match against Adrian College is slated for 1 p.m.
