Under The Radar: A Redshirt Diary

Pleased To Meet You

The first two weeks of practice at James Madison were as rough as one would find at any top-20 volleyball school, which suited Sarah just fine given her experience last year at Vanderbilt. Away from Sinclair Gymnasium, she had learned the lay of the land of JMU and Harrisonburg as a whole, met several more people in the apartment complex, and focused on reinventing herself a tad, wanting this new adventure to invigorate and energize her.

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August 18, 2021

Nine days stood between the James Madison Dukes and the opening of their 2021 season, with the JMU Invitational on the 27th and 28th, when they will play High Point, Virginia Commonwealth, and Illinois State. As had become a tradition for the Dukes, Lauren held a closed-door scrimmage on the Wednesday prior to their open-door one, which would be on Saturday at Virginia Tech. The eighteen players on the roster were divided as follows, with Lauren heading up the Gold and associate head coach Michael Henchy the Purple:

Purple: Savannah Marshall, Miette Veldman, Caroline Dozier, Cameryn Jones, Sophia Davis, Rebecca Frye (Danielle Nathan, Elizabeth Helmich, Liv Crawley)

Gold: Jaydyn Clemmer, Annie Smith, Hannah Roberts, Julia de Sa, Chloe Wilmoth, Madilyn O'Toole (Emma Klanica, Savanah Cockrill, Sarah Fuller)

Having the more-experienced players, the Purple got off to a 14-4 start against the Gold, leading to winning the first set 25-11. Sarah was placed in position 4 (left front, opposite Annie) to start the second set and, though learning by doing, was competent in her positioning. The power of the Purple's killers, however, was too much for the Gold's defense and propelled them to a two-sets-to-none lead by a 25-8 score line. The Gold came out of their huddle determined to put up a fight in the third set, scrapping their way to a 18-14 advantage. Michael returned Cameryn to the match in place of Caroline, wishing to use her more aggressive net play to trim the deficit and ultimately take the lead. The tactic did not work out, as she committed two setting errors as part of a four-point run by Hannah that put Gold ahead, 22-14. Following a failed kill by Julia, the Purple picked up three points to bring the score to 22-18. Lauren called timeout and spoke to her players.

Lauren: We can finish this off if we get the ball back on this next serve. Madilyn, you're in for Annie. Emma, you move out to the right side. We get it back, Madi runs it out as I'll bring Savanah in for Julia, giving us a giant front line.

The Gold sextet retook the court and regained the ball on a service error. Madilyn stepped to the back line and sent over a left-handed jump serve that dove to the ground fiercely, giving her side set point at 24-18. Elizabeth and Cameryn teamed on a block to reduce the lead to 24-19, then Savannah picked up an ace to stave off another set point. Lauren called her second and final timeout of Set Three to align her team's reception game for Savannah's next serve. As her team broke the huddle, Annie yelled at her teammates, "FINISH. THIS. OFF!" Savannah sent a cut-serve over the net, where it dropped into the lap of Jaydyn. She scrambled to get the ball up to the front row, but an unexpected spike on 2 from Savanah in the center front caught Caroline flat-footed and Gold won the third set, 25-20. All the effort to stay in the contest came to naught, as Purple churned out a handful of two- and three-point runs to close out the match in four sets by a score of 25-16.

Once re-hydrated, the players took seats on the bleachers and waited for the coaching staff to address them. In the meantime, Christopher Roth, the team's academic advisor, and another man came into the gym. Seeing them, Lauren walked over and asked about their unscheduled appearance. Once informed, she went back to the other coaches and informed them of the purpose of Chris' visit, then the four of them moved toward the bleachers and started with their critiques.