After more than a month of action for the men’s volleyball team, the Lions are now set up for the bulk of their schedule; most of their next slate of matches are all in-conference. Despite a 3-9 record on the season so far, the team remains resilient.
At the end of last season’s roster, the Lions were only set to lose one player to graduation. That quickly changed to five, leaving only three returners on the eight-man roster this semester: sophomore middle blocker Cash Muse, junior captain Riley Goldman, and senior captain Semaj’ Byrd.
“That’s what happens when you end up being a top 10 film program in the country, and opportunities open up,” said Head Coach Ben Read in an interview with The Beacon. “Unfortunately, [over] the last few years, we’ve lost more and more guys that go to [Emerson Los Angeles] in the spring, but I’m not going to blame them for getting jobs.”
As the team’s lone senior, Byrd has put in the work in order to get his new teammates up to speed when it comes to playing in college. But it hasn’t come without its struggles.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s been tough,” Byrd said. “I had to get humbled quickly compared to my expectations from last season. It’s a lot more of a physical and mental journey than you think it would be.”
With more of the spotlight on Byrd as a leader of the team, he’s had to iron out his early-season jitters to be someone teammates can look to for help and define his role as a pillar of the team.
“I’ve really tried to be a common and welcoming presence in any scenario we find ourselves in,” he said. “We have a lot of big personalities on the team, so I’ve learned to be more of a mellow presence to calm everyone down so we can stay focused and consistent on the court.”
That increased focus has started to become noticeable on Emerson’s statsheets, as they record the second-least amount of errors committed in their conference, at just 249. While the lack of errors has not resulted in wins, Read said he has seen growth in his players as the season progressed. There now comes the issue of playing at a consistent pace.
“We find ways to beat ourselves up when we’re in situations after we make a solid block on defense or a nice kill on offense,” Read said. “One mistake on our end snowballs into more points we give up, and we can’t do that. Teams need to earn their points off us.”
Now, Read says the growing pains have started to show results. He’s noticed the improvements right from the start of each set.
“From the service line, I can see a massive improvement from where we started off in the season,” he said. “We’re aiming to be more aggressive to force teams into bad positions and not give them an easy ball, but there’s also managing the errors that can come from that.”
But just as the team began to celebrate its growth, it also faced a plague of injuries, leaving only seven healthy players. This forced the Lions to reschedule their match against the Wheaton College Lyons, originally set for Thursday.
“It’s pretty straightforward with the amount of guys that we have out, we wouldn’t be able to field a team that wouldn’t put people at risk of playing a position they aren’t comfortable doing,” Read said.
The team will finally get a much-needed rest during the upcoming spring break. Coach Read believes this will be time for them to rebound.
“If you look at other programs, they might use spring break to travel and play games, but I’ve always used it for a break,” he said. “This time of year, people are wrapping up their midterms, so they’re exhausted physically and mentally, so I want them to rest and be ready for the next three weeks.”
The uninjured players still on the court are playing with a next-man-up mentality, meaning they’re all open to trying new positions to compete.
“Right now we have to be ready to do anything we possibly can for the team,” Byrd said. “Everyone is a utility player right now, and that changes what we practice for. I’m working on things I wouldn’t traditionally as a libero, just in case I need to be there.”
First-year middle blocker Jack Ferrie is making sure not to let this point in the season break the team, instead using it to stay motivated to work harder.
“We want to play for each other in times like this,” Ferrie said. “So it’s important we remember we’re part of a team, and we’re enjoying what we’re doing, so we’ll want to be together to grow.”
As the Lions march towards their final month of the season, Ferrie assured The Beacon that Emerson won’t be a pushover on their opponent’s schedule, and wanting to be league champions will be present in every play.
“I want to be able to look back on this year and say we didn’t roll over and die when the games got tough for us,” he said. “There’s no point in making excuses if we could’ve played better, so I want to be able to confidently say that we left it out on the court every single game.”
