The Tennessee Lady Volunteers volleyball team closed out its fifth week of spring practice Friday morning at Pratt Pavilion.
Senior Ellen Mullins and the rest of the squad worked on their communication and effort on the court going into the next day’s scrimmage.
“The reason we do these scrimmages and what we’re looking for is to be organized on the court,” head coach Rob Patrick said. “I’m not even concerned with the score. We could lose every match, every set, and I would still think that it was a successful day of scrimmaging. Now if we lose every set, it probably isn’t, but if we’re organized and technique-wise trying to do the things we’ve been working on and we play hard, those are the things that I’ll be pleased with. Playing hard, for me, is a lot of defensive stuff … digging, getting the ball up, giving ourselves opportunities to score.”
All-American Kelsey Robinson, All-SEC second team selectee Tiffany Baker, sophomore Mary Pollmiller and freshman Bianca Arellano all transferred in 2013, but their absence has only motivated the younger players to step their game up to get a shot at those open slots.
“The spring has been fantastic,” Patrick said. “We were talking as a team — we were doing some drills at the beginning of January and doing our individual practices — and we were talking about how far we’ve come from doing those drills to where we’re at now. We were doing some drills where we couldn’t keep the ball in play for more than two or three times over the net, and we did a drill yesterday and we put one ball in play and the drill lasted until I stopped it rather than them making an error, so they’ve seen the improvement in individuals and I’ve been very pleased as (a) team where we’ve come.”
But improvements are coming for more than just the younger players as libero Ellen Mullins, the only senior on the roster, has been making strides of her own throughout the spring.
“I definitely have to take on a lot more responsibility, but I’ve been here and I know what to expect so I can help the other players out, you know the ones who come in and learn everything,” Mullins said. “I can be the one they come to and have everything organized.”
Mullins had a busy 2012 with earning AVCA All-American and All-South Region Honorable Mention. She was also a three-time SEC Defensive Player of the Week and was named to the 2012 Comcast Lady Vol Classic All-Tournament Team. Her leadership on and off the court with her teammates hasn’t gone unnoticed either.
“Mullins has been fantastic,” Patrick said. “She’s somebody that’s really a model of what is good about our program. She came in as a (defensive specialist) and she really didn’t play as a DS during her high school and club career. She’s always played outside, setting or playing a different position. All she did was listen to the coaching staff and was very coachable and she worked hard and every year she’s improved and I was so happy.
“She really deserved to be recognized for her efforts as a defensive player last year and she was being an all-region player and an honorable mention All-American mention, and she deserved that for the type of work ethic that she has and what it led to in terms of her production on the court.”
As of Thursday, Mullins’ production earned her a shot on an even bigger stage.
“The other thing, I’m very pleased, is she just got selected for the USA A2 National team,” Patrick said. “All of that was due to her hard work first, but then also just being coachable and seeing what the techniques and skills we teach. Going out and working on those lead her to (be) somebody that’s improved every single year and you can also see that statistically, but she’s also become a leader especially (since) she runs our backcourt because of her energy.
“She has one of those infectious attitudes where she’s intense, but it’s a positive intense and somebody we love. We’re just better when she’s on the court.”
Along the way, the inexperienced team “surprised” Patrick. As the team heads into its sixth week of spring practice, he couldn’t be more pleased with its performance.
“One of the things that’s happened in our practices is we’re not making very many unforced errors which I was very pleased with,” the 17-year coaching veteran said. “It really surprised me especially since we have a very young team or a really inexperienced team; we have older players on our team that hadn’t played all that much. Whitney Heeres is somebody that’s going to be a senior and she hasn’t really played a lot because of her shoulder injury. So we have people on our team that have been here for a year or two that haven’t really played a lot but they don’t really make a lot of unforced errors so I’m really excited about that so we’re going to see how that translates in these scrimmages and if that translates the same way then I’m going to be very happy with that.”
The Lady Vols scrimmaged with Appalachian State, UNC-Asheville and Western Carolina on Saturday.
