By James Howey
Sports Editor
The Cavaliers head back into the tournament scene traveling to Des Moines after receiving some push-back on the road against Highland on Wednesday. After winning the first set 25–19, the Cavs would only beat Highland by two the next sets, 27–25 and 28–26, to move to a 22–2 record.
“I thought Highland played well, which exposed us playing through the motions versus playing the game like we know how to play,” head volleyball coach Jennifer Ei said. “You can’t just go through the motions — you’ve got to respect every team.”
Ei does think that the long season may have a little bit of an effect on the squad.
“I do think it’s kind of that midterm where that stress level gets a little bit higher and it starts to drain on the athletes,” Ei said. “I think they’ll be fine. We had a good practice yesterday.”
The Cavs will meet three teams they have yet to play, and number-12 Des Moines, whom the Cavs beat 3-1 at the JCCC tournament. Despite that win, Ei knows the Cavs can be more dominant this time around.
“Hopefully this time we will play a little bit stronger,” Ei said. “I thought the last time we played them, we were coming off the loss to Parkland and I felt like we looked tired.”
The Cavs will look to start the home stretch of the season by having a good tournament district play about a month away.
“What we’re looking for this weekend is to get back to our game,” Ei said. “We’ve just been a little bit tired and I hope that with a weekend off we’ll get back in the swing of things.”