Reddies aiming high heading into 2018 volleyball schedule
ARKADELPHIA — Henderson State head coach Phil McDaniel and his 2017 volleyball team fell just short of postseason play despite ending the season on a three-match winning streak.
Going into his second season at the helm, McDaniel looks to guide the Reddies to the Great American Conference tournament for only the second time in program history. With almost three months separating the Reddies from the GAC tournament at Bank OZK Arena, his current focus is replacing All-GAC libero Sydney Skelton.
“Sydney was not only a great player for us, but also a great leader,” McDaniel said. “You can’t replace everything she did in one year. First you have to win the job, and then become a leader.”
McDaniel has stressed that he’s not looking for Skelton’s replication, but for someone to make that position their own.
“You can’t try to be someone else — you have to play with your own personality,” McDaniel emphasized. “Right now we have six girls competing to do that.”
Three newcomers in the thick of that competition are Taylor Scalzi, Alex Tyler and Tyasia McGruder.
The freshman will join a tested group of players that includes Courtney Bolf, Karlie Greene and Zuzana Ondruskova.
Bolf led the team with 383 kills and 31 aces, and was second on the team with 398 defensive digs. Greene paced the Reddies with 111 total blocks, 34 of them solo. Finally, Ondruskova tallied 117 defensive digs and racked up a double-double against Central Oklahoma with 19 kills and 11 digs.
McDaniel is not only counting on Ondruskova to step up on the court, but in a leadership role as well.
“I’m really happy with what Zuzana has done,” McDaniel said. “She’s a very gifted athlete and has the ability to get her point across when addressing the team. She’s finding her voice right now, and once she feels comfortable expressing that on a daily basis, we’ll be better off as a team.”
With his second season on the horizon, McDaniel said he feels the team has improved in more ways than one.
“We’re deeper overall, meaning we can push harder in practice, improve our focus, finish long rallies, and just outwork the person across the net,” McDaniel said. “We’re better offensively because we’re more balanced; we can get kills from more positions.”
“Our goal is to finish in the top half,” McDaniel added. “It’s something we talk about quite often, and keep focused on throughout the season. We want to take care of business at home, and be tough on the road.”
Taking care of business at the Duke Wells Center is something the 2017 Reddies did not have many opportunities to do, as they started the season with 14 straight road matches. The 2018 team gets their home opener much earlier, when they play host to Mississippi College in the first game of the Bettye Wallace Invitational on Aug. 31.
“It helped make us road tough, but at the same time, it’s easy to become road weary,” McDaniel said. “We’re also hoping that the early tournament gets the Henderson State students behind us.”
The Reddies open the 2018 season a week earlier, when they take the floor against the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in the opening game of the Washburn Invitational on Aug. 24.