The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Rising from the ashes
The success of Oberlin’s 2016 campaign has the Phoenix eyeing lofty goals
Oberlin volleyball hasn’t had a season to look forward to in very a long time.
The Phoenix have averaged just over two wins per season over the last 10 years including a winless stretch from 2011-2013, and came into last season on a 36game losing streak.
Enter first-year coach Sharhonda Rankin.
With a roster that included two seniors, six sophomores and three freshman, Rankin upended the program and led Oberlin to not only its most wins in over 10 years (13), but its first winning season and first tournament victory in as many years.
Now the Phoenix have something more to play for than pride, and the success of last season has the team as determined as ever.
“I think, honestly, we could be PAC champs this year,” junior Karissa Rankin said.
Oberlin got to showcase what it’s been working on in the offseason at the annual Dave Dorinski Preview at Avon Lake Aug. 11, and after the showcase, Coach Rankin said the Phoenix are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were compared to last year at that same point.
“I think they’re in a good place,” Rankin said. “They worked really hard over the summer, they did some really good camps, they took everything in and they’ve been in the gym longer than normal. They’ve been having me come in early, so they’ve been putting in a lot of work over the summer to get to this point.
“We are so much further now than we were last year,” she added. “It took us to the end of the season (last year) to get to where we are right now. So they kept building on that and they were ready to work.”
It was no mystery where the young Oberlin squad struggled last season.
Opponents exploited a defense that, according to Rankin, refused to move for the ball and left holes open all over the court. And the immaturity that comes with a team sporting nine underclassmen left the Phoenix playing the blame game.
“They just wouldn’t move,” Rankin said. “They wouldn’t move. It was, ‘Oh, that was your ball,’ or, you know, they were letting too many balls drop and weren’t ready to move fast enough.
“Everyone knows our defense last year was not where it should be and that’s where we lost most of our games was strictly on defense. The offense, it’s
nice. They look good on offense, it’s just, when they start missing too many balls they would get down on themselves.”
It’s that attitude that Karissa said kept Oberlin from ever being remotely competitive over the years.
“Over the time (I’ve been here) I’ve been asking players how come the record wasn’t as good, but most of the time they would say it was their energy,” she said. “There were a lot of attitudes on the court over the past years when they haven’t been winning and now we’re all learning to play together, stick as a team. Mistakes — we shake them off, just keep our energy level up.”
To keep the team from sulking their way back
to winless seasons of the past, Rankin has employed a three-second rule of sorts.
“As soon as they mess up I give them, like, three seconds and then we have to do something fun and then we go right back into it,” Rankin said. “As soon as they mess up it’s like, ‘Listen, you got three seconds to be mad and then we’re done. We can’t go back and change what happened. There’s no way to go back in the past and fix it, so I’m giving you three seconds and then you have to move on.’ “It’s working.” The Phoenix certainly have their work cut out for them in a Stripes Division that features area powers Columbia and Lutheran West, but make no mistake,
the motivation is there as evidenced by the new and improved work ethic.
While Rankin is thrilled to see her team set high expectations, the second-year coach is leaning more toward cautiously optimistic. Regardless, she and her players are working tirelessly to prove last season’s success was no fluke.
“I’m very hopeful,” Rankin said.
“I was a little on the fence because I know our defense last year. That that was our biggest thing, like, come in and just focus on our defense. I don’t know what our season is going to look like, but when they buckle down and really focus on defense, and focus and focus, I’m like, ‘Yeah, this might work this year.’ ”