Bing Xu kept repeating, “No ball hits floor,” on Monday at Emporia State’s first volleyball practice.
That might seem like a lofty expectation, but the Hornets better get used to lofty expectations.
Gone are the days when they were the underdogs, expected to finish middle of the pack and bound and determined to prove everyone wrong.
Two seasons ago, they were picked to finish sixth in the MIAA preseason coaches poll, and they finished third. Last season — despite the previous year’s success — the coaches tabbed them fifth, and the Hornets made that prediction look foolish, winning the MIAA regular season championship by two games.
So this year the coaches finally gave them their due, picking the Hornets to win the league.
“We’re going to have to handle it differently than we have in the past,” senior Arica Shepard said. “In the past, we’ve always come in with the mindset, ‘Well, we’re going to prove that we’re better than what we’re ranked.’ Whereas this year, we have to prove that we are No. 1.”
The Hornets don’t mind that role. Shepard smiles when asked about it and says she thinks it’s something she can get used to.
But coach Bing Xu, always one to look for a lesson in everything that happens to his team, knows the climb was easier than what’s next.
“Now we’re in the position and we will be challenged and tested every single game, because whoever plays you, they go, ‘Hey, there’s the No. 1 team, let’s go for it,’” Xu said. “We have to be able to handle that and we need to fight harder and work harder to maintain.”
The 2009-10 Hornets should be in good position to maintain. They return two All-Americans in junior setter Ting Liu and Shepard, an outside hitter. Fellow starters Brittney Miller and Amy Byfield also return, along with middle hitter Brianne Boner, who was always the first player off the bench last season.
Last year’s other two starters, Megan Koster, an outside hitter, and Hannah Carter, a middle hitter, graduated and the only question mark surrounding the Hornets coming into the season is how are they going to replace those two starters.
“It’ll be tough just because they were so good,” Byfield said. “They were some of the best players I’ve ever played with, but these freshmen, already in the first day, have really impressed all of us.”
Xu added five freshmen to help fill the void of his four departing seniors from last season, but it will be two returning players who will be given the first chance to replace Koster and Carter. Junior middle hitter Katelyn Kaiser is the likely replacement for Carter, and sophomore Megan Lueger is expected to take Koster’s spot.
Xu said both players played well during spring practices and he was impressed with the improvements both players made during the summer.
His emphasis coming into the season is defense — hence the no-ball-touches-the-ground approach.
The Hornets dominated the regular season and most of the regional tournament with their overpowering hitters. But the team that ended their season for a third straight year, Truman, did so with a scrappy defensive approach.
“We need to be able to win every point with the long rallies, instead of just one pass and we dominate, one pass and we dominate,” Xu said. “We need to be able to be prepared for the long rallies.”
The Truman loss, as always for this senior class, still burns. Every year they’ve been able to say that, because every year Truman has ended their season.
“That bothers me every day,” Byfield said. “We haven’t really talked about it at all, but I think it’s just there.”
When Shepard lists her goals for the team, she says she wants to win the MIAA again, host regionals again and beat Truman in the regional championship to advance to the national tournament.
While in seasons past, Truman was the favorite in that game, it was the Hornets who were the definitive favorites last year, but they failed to prove it. So even though they’re No. 1 this year, they’ve still found a way to have a chip on their shoulder.
“We still look at it as we still have something to prove,” Boner said. “This is our first year being No. 1, and so we still want to prove that this is our spot and we belong at No. 1.”