Each year, Kansas State volleyball coach Suzie Fritz sits down and breaks her volleyball season into four separate parts.
Chapter one consists of the preseason, and this year, it was tough. The preseason came packed with two long road trips against a myriad of good teams. The Wildcats opened the season with a journey to Hawaii where the Wildcats faced two top-20 programs, including No. 5 Hawaii.
This weekend, part one of the season ended when the Cats returned home from a trip to Kentucky, which wasn't any easier. K-State again faced a pair of nationally-ranked teams, falling to both No. 17 Florida State and No. 16 Kentucky in five sets.
Now, the Wildcats (5-5) are home, finished with part one of the season, and ready to turn the page.
Chapter two of the season begins on Wednesday when K-State opens Big 12 play with a visit from in-state rival Kansas. First serve is set for 7 pm.
"You get done with the grind of the preseason and there is certainly a sense of relief," Fritz said. "Everybody is still relatively healthy, we made an enormous amount of improvement, and now we just get to play two matches a week instead of two matches in a day. It's tough. The preseason is really, really hard."
Indeed it was a grind, but it was journey that helped this volleyball team to grow.
The Wildcats dropped five matches in the process, but as they returned from Kentucky this weekend, the Wildcats felt ready to turn the page after a 10-match preparation period.
"I think we are eager to get better," senior libero Lauren Mathewson said. "I think every weekend we kind of improved and we have also found other stuff that we can work on and get better on. We are kind of taking it step by step. In the Big 12 you can't really make that improvement in a short amount of time. We are trying to do the best that we can in a short amount of time."
On Wednesday, the opportunity to continue and "get better over time," an adage that Fritz frequently preaches to her team, will come in the form the rival Jayhawks — a team that handled KSU easily in both meetings last year.
"I feel like last we got so geeked up, because we wanted that one," Fritz said of their meeting in Ahearn last season. "It was actually detrimental to us. We were so jacked up when the match started, that it actually worked against us."
The 2010 version of the Jayhawks (9-2) are lead offensively by Karina Garlington. The senior outside hitter averages at team-high 3.49 kills per set, and accounted for 13 kills during their last meeting in Lawrence.
She and the Jayhawks have not lost a match away from Lawrence yet this season.
The Wildcats however are not solely focused on avenging their two losses to the Jayhawks in 2009. No, their focus is simply improving upon what they were successful with throughout nonconference play.
"That was last year," Mathewson said. "We don't think about that. This year we have a different team. We are taking it step by step. Every team we have played against has been a great team. We have kind of pushed ourselves to come together as a team and figure out what works for us, so I think we are still kind of making sure everything on our side of the net is good and read to go.
"We haven't really worried about them yet, we are still trying to make sure we are set at our end of the net."
Fritz agrees. Last year was last year, and now they are focused on 2010, and the lessons they have learned so far.
"We have identified maybe three or four key areas where we feel like we can really upgrade quickly and have spent a lot of time since those matches kind of evaluating those things and where we are at." Fritz said.
So, as the Wildcats turn the page to chapter two of their 2010 season, there lies little doubt that Fritz and her team will look to continue their consistent and steady growth — beginning Wednesday.
However a win to compliment the growth is always nice, especially against an in-state rival.
"It's important." Fritz said. "Is it anymore or less important than any of the rest of them? Probably not. It would certainly be a
positive thing to get off on right foot.
"I'm more interested right now in improving and fixing the things that are keeping us from winning volleyball matches. I think if we can fix those things, I think we can play with a lot of people-including Kansas."
Photo - Manhattan Mercury File
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