Hastings Volleyball under head coach Elisabeth Curran has progressively taken huge strides in the last few seasons. In 2022, Curran’s first season, the Raiders finished 3-17 overall and 1-7 in the conference. Last year, the Raiders finished 5-19 overall and 1-7 in the Metro East Conference, but the night and day difference between the two seasons, while apparent on the court and in the score of the matches did not reflect much in the record. Last year, Hastings pushed games to be longer with closer scores and better volleys, this year, expect to see those close losses from last year flip to close wins, or in the case against Simley, big wins.
If the 3-1 gutty win against Simley does not build hope for this season, maybe this will. Last year, the Raiders finished seventh overall with one point, a 3-0 win over last place North St. Paul. Two teams finished tied for first with seven points and two tied for third with five points. The difference between seventh and third is only four conference wins. South St. Paul (SSP), North St. Paul (NSP) and Hastings have been the bottom three teams the last two years with Simley and Hill-Murray being not much further ahead.
With the way they played against Simley, on paper, the Raiders should be able to beat SSP and NSP, that leaves two additional conference wins over Hill-Murray, Tartan, Mahtomedi and Two-Rivers. The latter three have been vying for Metro East supremacy the last few years, so Hastings will certainly have to earn a top three spot in the conference if they can get there. Let’s remember, part of being a sportswriter is doing a little positive prognostication and selling hope for the future for the hometown team, right?
Aside from the prognostication obligation, this team was fun to watch in their first match of 2024. There were nail biting saves, dramatic volleys, some ‘holy cow, how did that happen’ moments and even a point saving play over the home bench.
Stats are calculated by the HUDL camera’s AI and Norah Thome led the Raiders with 12 digs, Rachel Notch had 11 and Andi Carlson had 10. Notch led with four aces and Thome had three. Overall, the Raiders had 35 assists to Simley’s 22. Hastings had 13 aces and 3.5 blocks.
Coach Curran took a few moments after the game to discuss things from a more technical perspective versus the ‘oh my gosh that was fun’ lens of a longtime Raider.
“Our serve receive was pretty spot on, and our hitting adjusted throughout the match so that they were actually really accurate in making very few errors and reading the court well. And I think altogether, they played really scrappy, and I'm happy with how they played as a team,” she said regarding the win.
The blocker rotation at the net seemed to have Simley confused all night and Coach Curran expanded on how that came to fruition.
“Well, we try to [confuse opponents]. I think it helps that we have setters that can play all the way around, that can switch. So, we'll say, Haley, you're setting this ball. Rachel, you're setting this ball. That really is confusing for their blockers. And also, we are trying to run free ball, plays, serve, receive plays, so that we're mixing up where the hitters or where the blockers should be expecting our hitters to be. So that's the goal,” she explained.
All that movement and flexibility means that any one of the six players on the court can play in any of the positions. They all have their assigned spots, but anyone of them can easily flex into another spot for a play or two during a volley. The bench players that rotate in also have the same flexibility as the starters, which is a testament to the depth of the Raiders lineup and the ability of the coaching staff from ninth grade on up to build those skills all the way through.
When the game is over, the team gathers in a classroom to do a quick assessment of the night, talk about the things that went well and the opportunities they saw to work on during the next week.
“We talked about communication,” said Curran. “There were, especially in the first set, a lot of miscommunication errors and just bumping into each other, I think playing a little frantic. So, we're working on communicating. We're working on… what else did we say? Oh, serving. We made a lot of serving errors, especially in the first and second set, but we cleaned it up throughout. That can definitely be a focus of our practices till our next game, just the accuracy of serving. Because if we don't get it in, we don't have a chance. So, that's a big deal.”
The Raiders had a game on Tuesday at Apple Valley and will host Two Rivers for one of the tougher matchups of the season on Sept. 5 at 6:30 p.m. They make a return trip to Apple Valley on Sept. 6 and 7 for an invitational that includes: Apple Valley, Avail Academy, Caledonia Area Public Schools, Chatfield, Concordia Academy, Cretin-Derham Hall, Eden Prairie, Edina, Faribault, Fillmore Central, Mounds View, Park, Stewartville, Zumbrota-Mazeppa. They return to regular season action on Sept. 9 at 6:30 p.m. to host Coon Rapids.