The show must go on.
Head coach Shaun Pohlman and the Dodge City Community College Conquistadors volleyball team encountered a road block in their trek to success in the 2009 season last Wednesday when five members suffered injuries in a car accident.
As a result, Pohlman and the Conqs were unable to travel to Roswell, N.M. for their season opener against Frank Phillips over the weekend.
But Wednesday, with its team captain, outside hitter Janelle Burnett, sidelined for the season with a grade-four concussion, Dodge had to sort through the adversity and the loss of its team leader as it hosted Jayhawk Conference-foe Barton County.
The Conqs, however, were unable to regroup in time as they lost to the Cougars 25-17, 25-15, 28-26.
"It was hard because we practiced almost the entire month with a certain team, on a certain rotation, a certain degree of what we expect is going to happen and who we expect was going to get the job done," Pohlman said. "With Janelle being a captain, you don't really expect that person to be out of the picture."
But she is. Not only for Wednesday's match, but for the entire season. Pohlman now has to gather his team and prepare for a season without its captain.
"We don't have her," Pohlman said of Burnett. "And we have to continue down the path of understanding what we can do with the team that we have. Adversity is a fact of life, it's going to happen. We can't change it. We can't control it. We can control how we react to it, and these are young adults and they are still learning how to deal with these types of issues. To them, something like this is probably one of the hardest things they'll ever have to go through."
As Burnett watched from the bench, Freshman outside hitter Allison Taylor played in her spot for most of the night. Pohlman said the first-year player did a great job in Burnett's place, but there's still a lot she needs to learn fundamentally.
DCCC had nine setting errors and served 16 balls out of bounds in Wednesday's defeat.
"I know we lacked a lot of basic fundamental volleyball tonight," Pohlman said. "If we can take care of just simple fundamental volleyball — like serving and setting — then we'll be fine."
The Conqs struggled early and lost the first two sets, but in the third, Dodge rallied to take an 18-12 lead. Barton closed the gap quickly, however, as DCCC's advantage shrunk to two, 21-19.
The two teams went back-and-forth in the final points, but the Cougars inched out the set 28-26 and won the match.
Pohlman said the Conqs did accomplish one of their goals on the night, and that was slowing down Barton's 6-foot-2-inch sophomore setter Mengya Wang. Pohlman said the Beijing native has the ability to score 10 to 12 points on her own during any given set.
"She's fully capable of dominating," Pohlman said of Wang. "One of the things we sat out to do tonight was to make sure we limited her effectiveness, and I think we did just that."
Dodge will head to Colby Friday for the Colby Classic Tournament and be back home again Sept. 18 for a homecoming tri-match with Bethany and Cloud County.
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The show must go on.
Head coach Shaun Pohlman and the Dodge City Community College Conquistadors volleyball team encountered a road block in their trek to success in the 2009 season last Wednesday when five members suffered injuries in a car accident.
As a result, Pohlman and the Conqs were unable to travel to Roswell, N.M. for their season opener against Frank Phillips over the weekend.
But Wednesday, with its team captain, outside hitter Janelle Burnett, sidelined for the season with a grade-four concussion, Dodge had to sort through the adversity and the loss of its team leader as it hosted Jayhawk Conference-foe Barton County.
The Conqs, however, were unable to regroup in time as they lost to the Cougars 25-17, 25-15, 28-26.
"It was hard because we practiced almost the entire month with a certain team, on a certain rotation, a certain degree of what we expect is going to happen and who we expect was going to get the job done," Pohlman said. "With Janelle being a captain, you don't really expect that person to be out of the picture."
But she is. Not only for Wednesday's match, but for the entire season. Pohlman now has to gather his team and prepare for a season without its captain.
"We don't have her," Pohlman said of Burnett. "And we have to continue down the path of understanding what we can do with the team that we have. Adversity is a fact of life, it's going to happen. We can't change it. We can't control it. We can control how we react to it, and these are young adults and they are still learning how to deal with these types of issues. To them, something like this is probably one of the hardest things they'll ever have to go through."
As Burnett watched from the bench, Freshman outside hitter Allison Taylor played in her spot for most of the night. Pohlman said the first-year player did a great job in Burnett's place, but there's still a lot she needs to learn fundamentally.
DCCC had nine setting errors and served 16 balls out of bounds in Wednesday's defeat.
"I know we lacked a lot of basic fundamental volleyball tonight," Pohlman said. "If we can take care of just simple fundamental volleyball — like serving and setting — then we'll be fine."
The Conqs struggled early and lost the first two sets, but in the third, Dodge rallied to take an 18-12 lead. Barton closed the gap quickly, however, as DCCC's advantage shrunk to two, 21-19.
The two teams went back-and-forth in the final points, but the Cougars inched out the set 28-26 and won the match.
Pohlman said the Conqs did accomplish one of their goals on the night, and that was slowing down Barton's 6-foot-2-inch sophomore setter Mengya Wang. Pohlman said the Beijing native has the ability to score 10 to 12 points on her own during any given set.
"She's fully capable of dominating," Pohlman said of Wang. "One of the things we sat out to do tonight was to make sure we limited her effectiveness, and I think we did just that."
Dodge will head to Colby Friday for the Colby Classic Tournament and be back home again Sept. 18 for a homecoming tri-match with Bethany and Cloud County.
