Junior setter Emery Herman thinks the Arizona Wildcats’ volleyball team has found a new mindset as the Pac-12 season winds down.
“I think we are at the best we’ve been all season right now,” Herman said. “Preseason was pretty good for us, but there’s a different mentality we have now than we had in preseason … We kind of have a killer mentality now, so it’s flowing over into our play.”
The Wildcats (13-10, 3-9) will have two chances to show off their newfound mindset this weekend, starting with Friday night’s match against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. They’ll take on USC on Sunday afternoon in the Galen Center.
Arizona has eight matches remaining in their 20-game Pac-12 schedule. Herman is looking for her teammates to put the puzzle pieces together and play well. Arizona enters the weekend 10th in the league; only Oregon State (2-10) and Cal (0-12) have lower winning percentages in Pac-12 play. Arizona is coming off a five-set win over Oregon State last weekend.
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“Execute. I think we do it well in practice and all of the pieces haven’t been put together with every single person in a game in a while,” Herman said. “So I think going in expecting everyone to be on their ‘A’ game, everyone to do well, everyone to execute what they need to do is the expectation going into the last few games.”
Herman ranks first in assists on her team with 767 assists, nearly 700 more than the next-closest, libero Kamaile Hiapo, who has 81.
Arizona coach Dave Rubio, himself a former setter, praised Herman for being more consistent as a junior. Taking the next step will require continued improvement, he said.
“Decision-making is still, in my mind, the biggest challenge for her,” he said. “As she gets older, that decision-making is getting better, but she has been way more consistent.”
Arizona last played USC and UCLA a month ago, falling to each team in four sets during a weekend at McKale Center.
Herman believes the Wildcats will be more prepared for the Trojans and Bruins this time around.
“There is some defensive stuff, knowing our roles, knowing what balls are ours and blocking wise,” she said. “I think we got ‘tooled’ a lot and there were some defensive balls that went down quite a bit the last time we played them, and I think we’re doing a lot better job being a little more scrappy.”
