Volleyball prepares for big week following mid-season break

READY TO TAKE ON THE WORLD — The Flying Dutch volleyball squad will enter a week of tough MIAA competition rested and refreshed after a full week without games. (Hope College)

All has been quiet on the Hope College volleyball front in the past week, as the Dutch have enjoyed a break in their season between the Calvin College match on Sept. 23 and the Albion College match on Oct. 3. The squad is 10-5 overall and 6-1 in the MIAA, with their sole league loss coming from No. 1-ranked rival Calvin.

This week, the team will follow up their quiet week with a busy one, facing league opponents Albion, Trine University and Olivet College.

In Coach Becky Schmidt’s opinion, the team is more than ready, having prepared for the coming matches by dialing up the intensity at practices in this past week without games. At the H-Club lunch on Monday, Coach Schmidt told athletic supporters: “The competitive- ness in our practices is great, and that’s going to continue to make us even better as we move forward.” Inner-squad competition and pressure seems to be the crucible for this team’s continued progress, with many talented players still vying for starting jobs. Schmidt also mentioned the significance of the Oct. 3 match against Albion. The last time Hope volleyball met Albion in fall of 2016, Hope suffered their first loss in the series since 2004. The Dutch will look to revenge that loss this week when the Britons come to Holland.

Coach Schmidt also noted a few takeaways from the squad’s tough 4-1 home-court loss to Calvin on Sept. 23, mention- ing that the team took the loss very personally. “We’ve got to be a better team at finding ways to get kills in difficult situations especially,” Schmidt remarked. “That’s one of the things that Calvin did better than we were able to do.”

The Dutch will have to wait their turn for redemption against their rivals. Hope will not see the Knights again until Oct. 24, when they travel to The Beltline to face Calvin at Van Noord Arena. In the meantime, the Hope squad will focus their attention on other league opponents, as well as formidable non-league foes such as Ithaca, Miliken and Ohio Wesleyan.

Be sure to come out and sup- port the Flying Dutch as they enter a busy week of intense play. Trine will come to Holland on Friday, at 6:30 p.m. to face off against the Dutchmen, and Hope will travel to Olivet on Saturday, for a 1 p.m. match against the Comets.