Transcript
with us on coaches corner, KWBG. Gonna talk to a DMACC volleyball coach, Daniel Lopez. The Bears come up with a real nice victory last night over Hawkeye Community College on the road three to two. And actually on a nice little run coach, I'll tell you what, you had a couple of real nice wins on the Saturday edition of the DMACC Invitational with obviously number 10, the Osho County. And then you took out Highland as well. And then Marshalltown early this week on Tuesday and then a Thursday tilt with Hawkeye coach. It's a nice little run right now. It is, yes. Much needed, especially start of October, kind of where we wanna be. Yeah, really, really good and happy for my girls that they're starting to really start to send right now. Well, and I wanted to go back to the DMACC Invitational because my goodness, I mean, I know you always bring amazing competition and amazing squads that decide they wanna come to Boone. And I'm seeing all the buses and everything around on Friday and then also on Saturday as well. Daniel, you had some, and I know we probably say this every year, probably go back to every interview we've done with this, but boy, you guys just really have the teams that come out, don't you? We do, yeah. I think we had nine teams there and at least seven of the nine are ranked in the top 20. So yeah, we always get great talent that wants to come out and it's always a dog fight, that's for sure. And someone, there's always an upset or two, which is nice. Well, and you get a couple of wins to kind of wrap things up at the Invitational. And then you don't have a lot of time to hang around. We don't normally get Tuesday, Thursday tilts, but you had them this weekend and Coach, girls really rose to the occasion. Start with Marshalltown, that was a nice sweep. It was, yeah. We played really well, we stuck to the game plan and did what we needed to do and really proud of them. We've had a hard time in the past, sticking to the scouting report, but very proud of them for really doubling down on that. Well, and I thought it was a big night for Ramsey Johnston. She ends up with six kills, had 21 assists. It was a night coach that hitting percentage that I thought was pretty solid. Yeah, six A serves during only a three setter, which is pretty good night as well. But tell me a little bit about Ramsey and how she's been playing. Yeah, she is, she's a huge asset on the court for us. Both offensively, defensively, and setting up all of our hitters. And she's really a playmaker for us. I think she's probably already had over 10 triple doubles this season between kills, assists, and digs, which is really unheard of, especially to be this early in the season. So yeah, she's really huge for us and one of our captains and leads by example, and the whole team looks up to her and we couldn't be more proud of her. Well, and Danielle, that's tough when you're setting up your teammates, but you also need to get, you need to get your touches too and get set up by a teammate. That's probably tough for her to, I mean, being a sophomore, she kind of knows her role now, but that's always tough to do, isn't it? Definitely, yeah. And kind of knowing exactly as a setter as well, knowing exactly where the ball should be going. And then sometimes when it's not there, I'm sure that's those conversations that she gets to have with those setters, being a setter. But yeah, it's always nice because she's definitely a go-to person for us offensively. She puts down a lot of great kills, but she also usually leads us an assist as well. Overall, Danielle, were you pretty pleased with everybody else that we saw against Marshalltown? Oh yeah, everybody stepped up. The nice part about our team this year is our depth chart. You know, anyone can step in and make a difference and that's been huge for us so far this year. You know, we've been dealing with some injuries on and off and people have been stepping up into roles and doing what they need to do. So very proud of everyone. Well, and then you have another conference. Well, it always turns into something interesting when you guys head up to Waterloo and a real good night last night as you come up with a, boy, a five setter is never easy. Number one, I'm sure on coach's heart, but when I was looking back through the stats, again, very balanced night. Lacey and Ramsey both had 11 kills each and then you get a bunch of girls with assists too with Ramsey had 22 and 11 digs. Oh, by the way, another triple double. And then you had, it just seems like everybody can kind of distribute, but then you've also got girls that can finish too. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, it was a good night, you know. When it is five sets, it's always difficult. You can go either way, but the girls are really resilient and everybody stepped up, you know, I was telling them everyone contributed to that win. Hawkeye's a very scrappy team. Their record might not show it right now, but they play very well against tough teams and they really pushed us and they're very scrappy and they know how to hit shots. So very proud of everyone on our team that stepped up and did their roles. Well, and also something big too, coach, because six and two in the conference, we have to start kind of looking at that region 11 tournament. I know we're still a little ways away out and we still got a bunch of important matches, but that's a big one to get you up into that top four. We'd love to be in the top three if possible as well, but that's a big spot. It is, yeah. I mean, that is a first round host spot. So that's really big for us. It's always our goal. Obviously, conference champions is the first goal, but then your second goal is to make sure that you're hosting the first round. So being in that top four is huge. And then you start to look around and see which bracket you'd be in and all the fun things that go around with that. So we're just focusing now on, now that we've made it in that top four, staying in that top four and there's still a whole lot of conference play left. For sure. Southeastern, your next opponent coach, you head out to West Burlington on the seventh. And then over to Illinois once again, and I was looking at the schedule. And my goodness, I mean, Lewis and Clark, McHenry, Lincoln Land, Rock Valley. It's a who's who of who goes to the national tournament every year. That'll be a great test again next Friday and Saturday. Yes. And it's always good to head out to Illinois in October and kind of see where we're at around then. And there's some great competition out there and kind of see how we stack up. Danielle, as always. Thank you so much for some time. Enjoy the birthday party tomorrow. And we'll talk to you again here in a couple of weeks. Thank you. You bet. Daniel Lopez again, joining us. T-Mac Volleyball here on Coaches Corner.
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