Delta’s volleyball team remains in the top three of the Big 8 Conference as the season passes its halfway point.
The Mustangs (10-5) remain in third place with a conference record of 6-2 following the team’s wins against Diablo Valley College on Oct. 15 and Cosumnes River College on Oct. 20.
As the most decisive points of the season approach, Delta’s volleyball team knows it has to continue playing high-level volleyball if it wants to remain as one of the top teams in the Big 8.
The Mustangs’ home matches against Sierra College on Oct. 29 and American River College on Nov. 9 are perhaps the team’s most important matchups of the season. Although these matches take place one week apart from each other, they could decide what position Delta will finish in the Big 8 Conference.
“Our conference has always been one of the strongest conferences in California in junior college volleyball. Every year it’s a battle sometimes for even fourth and fifth place. Every match that we play can be anybody’s game,” assistant coach Kristie Plateau said.
Sierra remains in first with an undefeated conference record of 9-0 while American River follows in second at 7-1.
While it is tough to finish among the top teams in the Big 8 Conference, Plateau said coaches enjoy the fact that it is a difficult conference to compete in because it allows teams to see how capable they are of constantly playing at a high level.
“As coaches we actually like that because it gives an opportunity to get better every single match that we play,” said Plateau.
With most of the second half of the conference season left to play, the Mustangs have plenty of room for improvement.
Plateau thinks the team still has more to give and hasn’t reached its maximum level of performance just yet.
“I definitely don’t think we’re close to being where our potential is. There’s still a lot of growing that we can do, but we are seeing improvement and that’s a great thing. We always hope that our teams continue to get better and better even through playoffs. Ideally the time to peak is at state,” said Plateau.
The players themselves recognize how difficult it is to compete in the Big 8 and want to raise their level of play to improve Delta’s chances of finishing the season strong.
Outside hitter Savannah LeBarre points out how they’ve seen all the other teams after passing the conference’s halfway mark, and that this helps them in knowing what they need to improve on.
“We’ve seen all the competition we needed to, so we’ve been practicing extra hard for the teams that we didn’t beat,” said LeBarre.
Apart from getting better on the court as the season progresses, LeBarre is glad about playing an important role on the team.
She leads the Mustangs’ offense with a total of 225 kills this season and said she isn’t afraid of assuming responsibility as the team’s most important player when it comes to racking up points.
“It’s tough because when I have off days I might not be as good, but I kind of use that pressure as motivation to do better for when my team needs me,” said LeBarre.