What a difference a week makes. Prior to last weekend the Flyers were on cruise control while winning 15 straight matches. They were dominating every match in every phase of the game. Their sideout percentage was routinely 20 points or more higher than the opposition.

All of that changed last Friday when the Flyers lost to Xavier. The Flyers led two sets to one. Xavier won a close 4th set 25-23 and with the match on the line Xavier won the 5th set 15-12. Here is Kelly’s description of the match:
　
“Xavier is a good team and they executed better than we did on Friday. Our team was ready to play and we competed, we just got out-played. Our serving and passing was better, and usually you expect to win a match when that is the case. We had a tough time putting the ball away in serve receive. Some of that was due to where we were attacking the ball, some was due to set choices and location, and some of it was good defense. Bottom-line we had a tough time putting the ball away. We were given 42 free-balls during the match. That is an unbelievably high number but is due because they have a bunch of DS’s in the backcourt instead of attackers back there. We got a kill on 12 of those. That is a horrendous percentage on our part. I also thought our block got tooled too much. With that said, both teams were making some unbelievable defensive plays and I’m sure it was quite entertaining for the people in the stands. We didn’t make plays when we had the chance to close them out in the 4th and we made way too many mistakes the last half of the 5th”.

One major concern is that Xavier had sideout percentages of 70% in set 4 and 75% in set 5. You have to be almost perfect on offense when you are allowing the other team to reach those sideout percentages. When I asked coach Sheffield what the Flyers needed to improve upon to prevent that from happening again he said:

“EVERYTHING”

I applaud Samantha Selsky for her post game comments when she said that Xavier had exposed some weaknesses and that they would get into the gym and work on those things. So I asked Kelly how the team had responded to the loss which can be demoralizing or motivating:
　
“We’ll continue to find out. We talked about the women’s soccer team before our Fordham match. The last game they lost was by a 2-1 score. A week later they beat a team 7-1. Now that is how you respond! They showed a lot and continued to show a lot in the weeks that followed. That resolve, that commitment to respond appropriately over a period of time is why they were celebrating an A10 Championship on Sunday. Average teams play one good match after a loss and feel good about themselves afterwards. Great teams follow up a match like Fridays with a steely drive that burns for a while. I think I know how our team will respond, but it’s too early to tell. We will all find out together.”

This is the final weekend of regular season play for the Flyers. They play Lasalle on Friday. During the first meeting the Flyers tied an all time ncaa record with a 100% sideout percentage for the match.

On Sunday things become tougher as they play St Louis. The Flyers lost set 1 against St Louis at home then proceeded to win the remaining three sets by identical scores of 25-16. The Flyers thoroughly outplayed St Louis in the final three sets having a sideout percentage of 72% to 46% to St Louis. But, this game is on the road and it is a rivalry game. We will receive St Louis’s best shot so we wish the Flyers good luck in this match.

The Flyers would like to have an ncaa berth locked up prior to the A10 tournament but they definitely don’t have it locked up right now. Here is what Kelly said about the team getting into the NCAA tournament:

“We’ve got an interesting resume. You could spend 10 minutes on why we are a no-brainer to get in. You could also present a very good argument on why we would not get a bid. Either way you look at it we would probably be a bubble team. This has been the craziest year in college volleyball with an unbelievable amount of upsets. The committee is going to have a really tough time. I’d prefer to make their jobs easier and not have to make a decision on whether UD belongs or not. Believe me, the A10 has every single bit of our attention right now. We’ll worry about the NCAA at a later time”.
　
Good luck this weekend