McNeese Volleyball riding some momentum as the end of the regular season draws near

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - The McNeese Cowgirls took down the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions in four sets earlier Saturday afternoon, and now have won eight out of their last ten games overall.

To head coach Sasha Karelov, this season has been similar to the prior year as she seems to have her team beginning to peak at the right moment of the year.

“We talk about growth all the time, that’s probably one of my overused words in the locker room, but it’s been our focus since day one to not worry about wins and losses and just worry about getting better each match that we play cause we had 10 newcomers this year, so it took time to get comfortable on the court and I feel like we’re starting to get there,” said Coach Karelov. “We still haven’t peaked yet. But I keep reminding them we’re going to peak at the right time, which is hopefully during the conference tournament.”

The team is in a good spot right now as they sit at 11-3 overall in conference play, and now Coach Karelov is just making sure her team focuses on the details as they finish up the season.

“I think when you’re going up against the best teams and you’re right there on the cusp, it’s really not as much about technical things because you’re not going to make huge changes this late in the season technically it’s more about just sustaining your mental stability and we talked about staying disciplined, staying locked in throughout a match and finishing stronger,” said Karelov. “I think at the end of the season that’s going to be our biggest test is just how can we handle the pressure of being in the top three and can we withstand that and stay stable through those tough situations.”

Saturday the team fought through some struggles in the third set but turned those setbacks around quickly as they won the match the very next set.

I think we just came out with a mentality that we’re just going to push really, we’re going to finish because we started out all of the other sets on a high note and we kind of let them come back so our game plan just finished on a high note,” said outside hitter Kayla Wilson. “I feel like we haven’t reached our potential yet, we have such a high ceiling and I’m excited for the rest of the games this year.”

The Cowgirls will be back on the court in a few days as they start a long road trip that they will kick off against Lamar this coming Thursday.

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