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Cottey defends home court ahead of weekend in St. Louis
Senior leadership comes in many forms.
For the Cottey College volleyball team, having one senior as a setter and the other three at the net means the Comets are always a threat to win every point. But as useful as that is, there’s also valuable experience to be shared between points.
Take Tuesday night for example, when Cottey had all the momentum in its home match against Ozark Christian College — before officials froze the action for several minutes to discuss a rotational issue.
A lot of squads might let the delay interrupt their flow.
Not one that’s seen them many times before.
“It was kind of annoying,” downplayed one of those seniors, outside hitter Lily Miller. “We’ve definitely had times where there’s been like a 10-minute break. That happened in one of our games a few weeks back. We were like, ‘What’s happening?’ But thankfully it was short tonight. We just came together in a huddle and talked and said, ‘All right, let’s move past this. Let’s get going.’”
And off the Comets went, sweeping the Ambassadors 25-15, 25-22, 25-16 to improve to 7-6 on the season.
Some of the confusion about who was playing where was a result of Cottey head coach Marla Kannady Foreman experimenting with substitutions. The Comets are on a four-match win streak, but with seven freshmen on the roster, Foreman is still tinkering with her lineups.
“We tend to get a little unformatted, but that comes with the territory of subbing constantly,” said Foreman, who agreed with Miller that the delay did not affect the Comets’ play. “That’s where I started subbing early. Just playing around with positions. I’ve got multiple players that can do different positions. I like the ability to do that. It’s kind of fun throwing them in there and letting them see what they can do.”
Though seniors Miller and Briannah Quick led the team with nine kills apiece, freshman Staley Stallaby added five of her own, while Mariah Aldrich, another freshman, chipped in three. Senior Emily Killion also had three kills and the team’s lone two aces of the match.
For Foreman, it was a good tune-up for Cottey’s upcoming UHSP Eutectics Classic in St. Louis against the likes of St. Ambrose, Trinity International, St. Francis, and Calumet.
“I think we’ll compete this weekend,” she said. “We’re healthy right now. We’ve got all our players. I think we’re going to go into this weekend with determination and see where we come out.”
Miller agreed.
“Tonight was a little rough, but I definitely think last weekend I played pretty decent, and I’m looking forward to hopefully playing better this weekend in St. Louis. It will be good competition, good games,” said Miller, the reigning conference Player of the Year who was just named Defender of the Week for her contributions during the team’s recent run. “It was really fun to get that award again. It’s good to see that I’m still hanging in there with the competition.”