After ‘big, long heart to heart,’ new NM lineup helps beat O-D in 3

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

DENVER — To North Miami volleyball coach Brianne Chumbley, the issues that had been plaguing her team had to do with effort, not skill.

Moving your feet is about effort, not skill. Communicating is about effort, not skill.

Having said that, Chumbley also changed her lineup, putting freshman middle hitter Lily Greer on the front row with junior Andrea Hoover, and it paid off with a 25-17, 25-22, 25-14 win over visiting Oregon-Davis Wednesday.

North Miami improved to 5-9 overall and 1-1 in the Hoosier North. North Miami was coming off a three-set loss to Triton Tuesday and had lost 11 consecutive sets during a four-match losing streak.

North Miami has no seniors and is trying to adapt after graduating seniors Ashtyn Halterman, Chloe Sparks, Zoey Sparks and Grace Sailors from last year’s 20-win team.

“I just wanted last night out of their memory,” Chumbley said. “We needed to move on and forget about it. We’re young. Those games are going to happen.”

Chumbley, a 2003 North Miami grad who played both volleyball and basketball during her prep athletic career, used a basketball analogy to illustrate her point.

“We had a big, long heart to heart,” Chumbley said. “I explained to them if I tell you to go make 60 3s (3-pointers) in a row, you’d have to go practice that, right? But if I am telling you to move your feet, open your mouth and talk, none of that takes talent. That is something that can be fixed in the moment. So I changed my lineup tonight, which caused some problems. But I thought it looked better. I told them if we’re not going to move our feet, it will be a rotating door because I’m not set on anything. … Yes, they’re 1-8, but I think we needed that. We needed to remember how to finish a set because that was our biggest thing.”

North Miami was leading 21-17 in the first set when it scored the last four points. Junior Andrea Hoover finished with back-to-back kills.

Oregon-Davis was trailing just 21-20 in the second set, but a Hoover kill, a Hoover power tip, a Hoover kill and a kill from freshman Lily Greer from the pin off a Kinley Deardorff assist closed out the set and drew the loudest crowd reaction of the night.

They also scored the final four points of the match, a run that included a power tip from Hoover, a Reese Hostetler kill and a Layla Hampton ace off the net.

Chumbley said the team’s passing was taking away from its offense out of the middle, which led to the lineup change.

“Your middle cannot even get set anymore, so you’re only setting your outsides,” Chumbley said. “And like for Layla, I don’t want her inside. I want her out here. But it’s a sacrifice. Do you want the block? Or do you want the big rips out here on the outside? So it’s kind of a trade-off. So I put Lily and Layla up here to begin with in hopes that we need a bigger gap on that scoreboard for this young team. When they get a couple (points) down, they fall apart. So I was like, hey, if we can keep our serve in, Lily can get more rips on this ball because I had a better back row. … I still felt like we needed that.”

Hampton said she was excited to get back on the court after the Triton loss.

“It was a hard game yesterday,” Hampton said. “We didn’t play the best, but tonight, we switched some things up, and we did a lot better. It was just hot, so we were all kind of miserable.”

As a junior on a team with no seniors, Hampton said she has to step up and be a leader.

“It’s kind of hard,” Hampton said. “Because there’s new people. Our team’s basically all new people. There’s two of us returning from our lineup last year, so it’s kind of been just a rebuilding year, but I think we’ve been doing pretty well.”

Chumbley said she is trying to balance a patient approach for a young team trying to build cohesiveness with the urgency of stopping bad habits as soon as they pop up.

“The throw tips … I wanted that done last night,” Chumbley said. “Andi Hoover throws that thing so hard right there. She didn’t do that once (against Triton). … You have to mix it up. If you rip one hard in the net and you do it three more times, let’s try to get your energy up and stuff. Do a throw tip. Get yourself a kill. Get that good energy back. Then go back and do a swing. … Never get them comfortable – any team.”