Oct. 27, 2004
By Greg Knowlden
Athletic Communications Graduate Intern
In a sport where a 30-25 game score usually doesn't feel that close, it's often how a team wins points that makes a difference. The Lafayette volleyball team has an 11-10 record in 2004, its first 10-win season since 1995. And the Leopards have won more than one match this season by ruling the service game.
"If you look at the stats against Bucknell (in which Lafayette scored a 3-2 upset win), you'd think we lost the match, by attack percentage and everything else," said third year head coach Terri Dadio Campbell. "But we won free, easy points serving. We had 17 aces to their nine and made fewer errors. We proved that by doing that, we're able to win matches."
"A lot of teams lose a lot of points off serve and it's something they don't take into account," explained freshman Michaela Donohue (Los Gatos, Calif./Archbishop Mitty). "Most teams are hitting centered or attack centered, but the serve starts every point so it's important to stay consistent."
Donohue, an outside hitter, doesn't lead the team in aces - that status belongs to sophomore Veronica Canto-Ponce - but she has been Lafayette's most efficient performer behind the end line. Donohue has 30 aces and only eight errors for a +22 total that leads the Patriot League. Classmate Karla Barbiche ranks second at +16, with 25 aces and nine errors.
"My mentality is to keep consistent and keep the ball in play," said Donohue, who has earned Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors twice during her freshman season. "I like to use my short serve and I get a lot of points off of it, but I'm also working on a deeper serve. If I miss, I want to miss a little long so they still have to play it. It's important to make the defense move to be effective."
Canto-Ponce (La Jolla, Calif./The Bishop's School) was 15th in NCAA Division I with 0.63 aces per game as a freshman, and has maintained that pace through her second season. As one of a handful of players in the Patriot League who use a jump serve as their primary serve, the right-side hitter equaled an NCAA record with 15 aces in Lafayette's 3-0 win over Delaware State a year ago.
The motion of the jump serve is the same as an attack, which explains why Canto-Ponce is so prolific in both aspects of the game. She leads the Patriot League with 4.47 kills per game and is second with 0.64 aces.
"I think the advantage of the jump serve is intimidation, since the float serve is actually tougher to pass since it moves around," Canto-Ponce mentioned. "It does have some power on it, but I also focus on hitting areas and keeping it in. If I hit an aggressive serve or a safe serve depends on the situation and how I feel in that match."
"(In the match against Delaware State), I was just having fun back there," she continued. "After I got a few aces I was really confident. I didn't know I had that many or that I was close to breaking a record though. I don't know what the stats are until my dad talks to me, but coach is quick to correct me when I make a mistake."
Although she has a few more errors than aces this year, it's a risk/reward situation that usually pays dividends for Lafayette. The defense will overpass a Canto-Ponce bullet at least a few times a match, creating easy points for the Leopards.
"To me, it doesn't matter whether I get an ace on the point or if they overpass for one of our middles to get a kill," the sophomore said. "Either way, it definitely helps our momentum in the match."
Canto-Ponce has 116 career aces, which ranks third at Lafayette since the school entered the Patriot League in 1990. Sometime next season she'll pass current senior Heidi Olichwier, who has earned a spot in the top 10 in Patriot League history with 151 in her career.
But Canto-Ponce isn't the only record-setting server in the Lafayette lineup. Freshman Maura Kelly, who stepped into a starting role after veteran middle blockers Shannon Fisher and Erin Brune suffered season-ending injuries, was a prolific server a year ago on the high school level. Kelly set a national record with 245 aces in her senior year and 325 in her career at James Caldwell High School in New Jersey, including 36 aces - another record - in one match.
While she is the first to acknowledge that the level of competition in that match wasn't as strong, she still served a remarkable 43 straight points and won 50 points in all. But another serving feat might be more impressive. In the state semifinals, Kelly served out all 15 points, including three aces, in the deciding fifth game to send Caldwell to the New Jersey state championship match, which it won for the second straight year.
"Our previous matches had given us a lot of confidence and in that game we brought everything together. I felt like I was hitting the ball well and we were mentally strong. It was definitely a team effort," Kelly said.
Lafayette has been ranked as high as seventh in the nation in aces per game and has 13 more aces than errors this season, but that's only half of the story. The Leopards thrive on returning serve as well. Lafayette has allowed only 120 aces and has been the beneficiary of 205 service errors for a +85 margin. In all, this year's team has earned 98 more points than its opponents in the service game, once again a total that leads the league, after being -67 last season.
"Our serve receive has allowed us to have a more consistent offense," Campbell explained. "It's been an Achilles heel for us in the past, but this year it's been a constant part of our game and something we rely on."
The serve receive performance has been all the more remarkable, considering that Fisher was one of the team's best passers before going down with a knee injury. Campbell made the change from a three-person to two-person receive system and is seeing the benefits, as freshmen Donohue, Barbiche and Lauren Dalsky alternate depending on the rotation.
"We struggled in the transition but now we're really solid there. Those are our three best passers and we want them to handle the ball the most," Campbell said. "In practice, we're constantly serving at them and they're being consistently presented with certain types of serves so they're ready in the match."
Of course, being able to prepare against the best is an advantage that few have. "It helps our returners since they get to practice against us all the time," Kelly said.
Donohue echoed the thought, saying, "It's almost like any other jump server in the Patriot League isn't a threat since we get to see Ronnie every day in practice."
The transition to the two-person setup was especially critical since Lafayette's first match after the switch was against three-time defending league champion American. "It could have been detrimental but we were able to adjust and won the first game, and we've had the mentality that we're able to do it," Donohue said.
"We were at a point where we could have thrown our season away and moan and complain (with the injuries which coincided with a six-match losing streak), or we could come out and put the work in," Canto-Ponce mentioned. "After the first game against American, we knew we had to work harder."
Lafayette's most recent win, a 3-1 victory at Lehigh for the program's first league road win in seven years, might be the capstone of the season to date, since the Leopards rallied from a game down.
"Last year we couldn't have come back," Canto-Ponce said. "This year we said, alright, we'll just have to play four."
"I think the fourth game against Lehigh was a statement of our changed mental approach to the game," Campbell concluded. "We were down 27-29, and those spurts of two or three points in a game are so critical. In the timeout, Ronnie said to the team, it's just two points. We're going to win this one, and then the next one."
Lafayette won those points, and then two more, to close the match with a 31-29 win. The Leopards won 13 more points than the Mountain Hawks in the match, and held a +10 advantage in the service game, with eight aces and three errors compared to three aces and eight errors for Lehigh.
As Campbell builds the Lafayette volleyball program, it has become abundantly clear that one path to success starts at the beginning of every point. The Leopards realize the importance of being fundamentally sound in the service game, and they're appreciating the results.
