MARYVILLE – It's a confident and energetic Maryville squad through one weekend of the volleyball season.
The Scots swept a pair of matches Sunday to conclude their opening Maryville College Labor Day Classic, knocking off Spalding 3-0 and Brevard 3-1. Maryville won three of its five matches played, losing only to undefeated Sewanee and Hanover.
And this from a team that has exactly zero seniors and is still working to put together cohesive combinations.
"All of them are pretty new to each other as far as playing on the court," Scots interim head coach
Brienna Laskowski said. "We have a lot of familiar faces back, but they've never played together. Obviously, we have some key first-years too, so getting them to buy in and being really good teammates is important.
"The girls are finding ways to lean in and learn about one another super quick. They do an excellent job off the court spending time with one another, and that absolutely helps when you talk about chemistry on the court. We have some juniors stepping up into leadership roles and they are rock stars. We've got some key first-years and sophomores doing the same thing, so people are stepping up in big ways and it's cool to see."
'Go Big or Go Home'
Hannah Kammer as a junior is one of those making an early impact. The Arizona product posted the first two double-digit kill matches of her career with 13 against Spalding and 10 more in the win over Brevard.
Cailin Mastropasqua in the Brevard win had her second double-double of the weekend with 10 kills and 12 digs. First-year
Addie Smith made it four double-doubles and a triple-double in her first five matches, going for a combined 13 kills, 38 assists and 21 digs in Sunday's action.
Reese Bailey added seven kills against Spalding and eight more against Brevard.
Kenzie Brewster contributed five kills in the first match and then a career-matching eight against Brevard.
Landry Frisch had seven kills on the day and 12 big digs against Spalding, and
Kayli Altom pitched in four kills in each match.
"We started not really wanting to take big swings, but my message has been 'Go big or go home,'" Laskowski said. "We lost to Hanover (on Saturday) in a very timid way, so I reiterated that I didn't care if we were making errors that are risky. I get a little more frustrated when we are playing timidly.
"Our message to them has been take your big swings and big rewards follow. They've been extremely coachable and have applied pretty much everything we have asked, which is nice."
Sophomore
Ally Sokolow and first-year
Dakota Vaiese continued to shine Sunday. Sokolow combined for 30 digs and 16 assists, posting a double-double of 16 and 10 against Brevard. And Vaiese had 12 digs and 16 assists in the nightcap after a four and 10 performance in the opener. Sokolow already has two double-doubles and Vaiese three.
Away the Next Two Weekends
Next for the Scots is the Washington & Lee Invitational in Virginia. Maryville plays Randolph-Macon and the host school Friday, and then Southern Virginia and Susquehanna on Saturday. One week later, the Scots are off to Chicago for another tourney.
"It's really important we find our footing early," Laskowski said. "We have a tough schedule coming up. It's really going to test our resiliency, but we'll be OK.
"These are all very smart people who love to have a plan put in front of them, so we made sure we did our job as coaches as far as scouting reports – and they executed Spalding perfectly. Brevard was a little tougher. We were on our heels a little bit, expecting them to be flat and we came out flat.
"But we quickly bounced back. The players were very resilient this weekend and it shows. They're doing really well."
Maryville is home again Sept. 23 against Belhaven and Piedmont in the opening CCS tri-match.
