The Lincoln volleyball team had the honor of being the first team to use the new gym. Some 26 girls attended the week-long camp. It is obvious that head coach Gabbie Spunaugle is very serious about advancing the program.
With no girl over 5'8", they will have to counter the taller teams with speed, quickness and teamwork, making for what should be an interesting season.
We talked to Coach Spunaugle about camp, the summer programs, new challenges and the new gym. Below is our interview.
JL: How pleased were you with your recent volleyball camp?
Spunaugle: Camp went very well. We saw so much improvement from the first day to the last.
A lot of the girls are playing travel softball and also doing basketball things and still showed up and gave their complete effort the whole week.
JL: Turnovers in basketball and bad serves in volleyball are game killers. How much improvement did you see with serves and your overall game?
Spunaugle: We have been really working towards fixing our serving game the past couple of seasons and up to now. Last year we saw drastic improvement. The girls are really working hard to make serves something we don’t give points away from.
JL: What did you think of the new gym?
Spunaugle: I love that I can run two courts and have a lot of space to be running different things. The ceiling being higher is probably our favorite thing.
JL: Any certain players stand out this week?
Spunaugle: A lot of the girls stood out this week and showed some things we hadn’t seen before. We are so excited to take the things we saw and put it into action
JL: What are you doing this summer with the team?
Spunaugle: This summer the girls are practicing, lifting four days a week and doing the Sedalia league nights.
JL: Height seems to be a consistent problem. How do you counter your lack of size against bigger teams.?
Spunaugle: While we are starting to get some height on the net, we know that we have to pick-up our game when it comes to defense and our lack of height. We are putting a focus on defending the court past the block and how we can do that effectively. Even when we don’t have tall girls to be our first line of defense.
JL: Any other thoughts?
Spunaugle: The girls at Lincoln have been working really hard to make each and every program a success. They are coming in and dedicating themselves to that goal and we are starting to see the rise in their success. It is an exciting time. Make sure to come out and be apart of it this fall and all the seasons after that.
