For the Missouri volleyball team, the non-conference season has been anything but easy.
Though the Tigers remain undefeated, they have been on the road the last three weekends, which can add a lot of physical and mental strain. Missouri had to fall out of its conference play routine to accommodate out-of-state tournaments.
The typical tournament weekend begins with the team’s departure at 6 a.m. on Thursday to make it to their destination by the afternoon. This leaves enough time to have a practice and dinner before resting up in preparation the next two days. They return on Sunday, giving them a chance to recuperate and prepare for classes and practice the next day.
Coach Wayne Kreklow knows the struggles of being a student-athlete after playing basketball at Drake University during his college years.
“This is a really hard time of the preseason because we’ve been gone,” Kreklow said. “And you start to feel the accumulated effects of travel, of being gone from classes, and short turn arounds mid-week before you leave again. We’re trying to walk that fine line between practicing enough yet trying to allow people a little bit of rest and not over do it. It’s kind of tough and right now it just becomes more mental than anything else.”
The mental part of the game kicks in especially during tournaments, where multiple games are played in a short period of time. This past weekend at the Butler Invitational, Missouri played three games in 24 hours.
Senior Regan Peltier is an outside hitter and plays all-around for the team, which doesn’t leave much time to rest between sets.
“By the third match, you start feeling it,” Peltier said. “A lot of the times, I’m more or less mentally tired than I am physically tired. It’s a lot of brain work and always having to be on.”
One positive that comes from this type of play is the chance for the team to bond on and off the court.
“You get to play so much with each other in one weekend, which is great for our team with so many new people,” libero and transfer junior Alexa Ethridge said. “It helps a lot with meshing.”
However, one disadvantage of all this playing and travel time is an important one: academics.
Over the previous three weeks, the team has missed Thursday and Friday classes. The players have to find time to make up exams and labs or turn in homework ahead of time.
“Once we’re in season, we don’t miss all that much of class,” Peltier said. “While as preseason, we’ve missed so much stuff. It’s tough. In conference, we might be here one week and gone the next, but now it’s, like, ‘gone, gone, gone.’”
Despite the challenge of balancing academics and athletics, Kreklow feels the Tigers have overcome the difficulties.
“They’ve done a really good job,” Kreklow said. “I’m really proud of the commitment they make to their academics. Even though I’ve been out of school for a long time, I was a student athlete too, and honestly I wish I was as good as these guys because I wasn’t as committed as them. I have a lot of respect for them.”