Volleyball buzzwords: Consistency and Parity
Much like you can’t hear a political speech these days without the word “change,” odds are that you won’t hear Missouri volleyball coach Wayne Kreklow speak in an interview without dropping the word “consistency.”
After a frustrating 5-5 start to the season, Kreklow continues to focus on his team’s consistency, which was a major talking point for Missouri during the offseason.
“We’re just inconsistent right now,” Kreklow said. “We’ve got a lot of young kids. At times, you start to see the pieces come together and then all of the sudden it just disappears for five or six points.”
Kreklow admits that he expected his team to absorb a few losses in non-conference play, hoping to have the team grow tougher and stronger as a result. The team, which has no seniors, is having to rely on veterans who are still relatively young by most standards.
“We’ve got a lot of inexperience out there, so the veteran players sometimes start pressing,” Kreklow said. “They try to do a little bit more and, often when you do that and starting to try to do a little bit too much, your game suffers a little bit.
“You try a shot that you normally wouldn’t because you feel the team needs it. You’re a little riskier than normally I would be so I make a couple more errors.”
But once the consistency talk simmers, Kreklow and company are buzzing about the amount of parity in the Big 12 right now.
“One thing that’s really changed the last five or six years is, when we first started, there was definitely an upper level and a lower tier,” Kreklow said. “That really isn’t the case anymore.
“When you go out, you’re good enough to beat everybody and everybody is good enough to beat you. It’s going to be interesting to see how that all shakes out.”
The parity extends far beyond the Big 12. Before practice Thursday, coaches and journalists buzzed about Saint Louis University upsetting national powerhouse No. 3 Stanford.
The lessons aren’t lost on the players.
“You can never overlook a team. It’s really easier to think that if you’ve never heard of a school, they’re not very good,” sophomore outside hitter Julianna Klein said. “But, every match you come out and realize everybody’s good.”
The parity, helped by the new scoring rules, has made Kreklow’s job as a voter in the AVCA Top 25 poll that much tougher. Kreklow noted Mizzou’s win over Utah State, who in turn defeated then-No. 15 Purdue.
“This team beat that team who turned around and beat that team who beat this team - it’s really bizarre,” Kreklow said.
Which brings Kreklow right back to – you guessed it - consistency.
“The teams that play consistently are the ones that come out on top the most,” Kreklow said.