It will be no more Mr. Nice Coach, at least until after the Emporia State volleyball team pulls itself out of its mini-slump.
“Sometimes I have to do it,” a frustrated Bing Xu said Wednesday night. “Encouragement and everything, if it doesn’t work, I have to do something different.”
Xu saw his team’s slide continue Wednesday, as ESU dropped a 30-18, 30-26, 31-29 decision to 18th-ranked Rockhurst at White Auditorium. The Hornets have now lost three of their last four matches.
“They’re a tough team,” Xu said, “however, we didn’t play our game.”
The Hornets stayed in the locker room 12 minutes after the coach came out for interviews, holding a team-only meeting.
“We’re just trying to keep together,” senior Jennifer Remmereid said. “We’re going to push a lot harder in practices now. We don’t have that many games left in the season. We understand what’s on the line, and we’re going to fix that.”
A weakness that presented itself again Wednesday was the inability to finish off games with a lead.
ESU led 24-18 in Game Three, only to watch the advantage slip away.
Rockhurst scored eight of the next 10 points to tie it at 26. Arica Shepard and Remmereid contributed kills to make it 28-26 ESU, but the Hawks responded with five of the next six points, ending the match with Nathalia Rivera’s slam that was blocked out of bounds by the Hornets.
“We just really need to push ahead,” ESU sophomore Hannah Carter said, “when we have a lead like that.”
The Hornets never had a lead in Game One, losing in decisive fashion, 30-18. They did show more fight in Game Two, tying it at 24 late before falling 30-26.
Still, it wasn’t enough for Xu, who criticized his team and especially his freshmen players for not focusing enough during matches.
“As coaches, we’re always encouraging (the freshmen),” Xu said. “They were playing volleyball very well on the court and they carried the team.
“Right now, their performance is dropping. Too much encouragement has made their heads swollen.”
He also benched senior and team leader Mandy Chutskoff for most of the second and all of the third games, saying she needed to be less timid.
Rockhurst certainly had at least something to do with ESU’s poor play. The Hawks were especially effective at preventing potential kills, recording 73 digs compared to the Hornets’ 59.
“We’ve got to have a little more confidence,” Remmereid said. “We’ve got to be able to put the ball down, no matter who’s on the other side. It’s just something we’ve got to work on; be a little stronger on the net.”
Remmereid led the Hornets with 14 kills. Shepard added nine, and Carter chipped in with eight.
ESU (10-11) will travel to face Central Missouri on Saturday.
Remmereid said she anticipated a different attitude from the team there.
“We need to be a little more serious on the court,” Remmereid said. “That’s what we talked about, and that’s what we’re going to change.”