The Lady Rattlers volleyball team swept the competition in conference play this weekend and remain undefeated in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
Head coach Tanio Trifonov still noticed issues that need to be worked on for Florida A&M to beat its upcoming opponent but admits to having high hopes of improving the team’s communication and movement to remain undefeated in the MEAC.
Trifonov said the team is accustomed to winning, but many of the other conference teams have progressed, making conference play tougher.
“We need to continue improving,” he said. “We will work on increasing the intensity of the movement, standing the high speed and the velocity for a long period of time.”
According to Trifonov, the volleyball team has been serving the ball better than its opponents. In addition, he believes the Lady Rattlers (7-6, 3-0 MEAC) are going in the right direction. He highlighted how his players are covering tips and how their movement on the court has been sharper.
Dei’Ja Martin, a freshman middle blocker, said she believes the team has a chance of winning the MEAC championship but has to improve in conditioning.
“Our plan right now is to keep the energy and the intensity [up],” Martin said. “Our weakness is fatigue. We get really tired for some reason.”
The Lady Rattlers are transitioning from simple drills to new pre-game warm-ups that will include footwork drills. Martin said the hour warm-up before the game could be a reason for the players being fatigued.
Andrea Soriano, a junior outside hitter, said the team was off to a great start on Sunday. She said the Lady Rattlers’ team play started to falter during the second set, which gave life to their opponents.
“On Friday, the gym was hotter than usual,” Soriano said. “We need to start one way and keep it up that way. We just need to learn how to work as a team at the same pace at the same time.”
The Lady Rattlers will compete against the Bethune-Cookman University Lady Wildcats on Friday in Daytona Beach.