Great Falls, Mont. – The University of Providence women's volleyball team looks to gain an edge in an extremely tight conference race when they face Montana-State Northern at 7 p.m. on Halloween Night.
The Argos (5-3, 17-6) are currently
tied for 3rd in the Frontier Conference with Montana Tech (5-3, 20-6). They trail Lewis-Clark State (6-2, 18-8), who beat them on Saturday, and Rocky Mountain College (7-1, 17-9).
The Argos are coming off a
disappointing loss to Lewis-Clark State, who beat them in three sets. However their next three games are against the bottom three teams in the conference, giving them a good chance to make up some ground.
"I think everyone is pretty frustrated after that loss," head coach
Arunas Duda said. "We had such high expectations and we had a chance to move up in the conference standings (on Saturday) and not taking advantage of that, we're all pretty disappointed. Sports is all about facing adversity and rising to the next challenge. That's really what we're looking forward too."
After rewatching the game, Duda decided to focus on more fundamental aspects of the game in hopes up tidying up their execution.
"After watching film on us, we were just frantic and not very disciplined with the fundamental things," he said. "So we've really focused on real fundamental improvements and really harped on getting back to base, resetting and just better communication, better fundamentals, and a little bit better passion with how we play."
Their need to improve their fundamentals started during the team's annual Halloween practice, a tradition that Duda has participated in ever since his arrival in 2004. The Monday of each Halloween week, his team dresses up in costumes for practice that is open for the students and staff to attend. During the team's pass around on Thursday before the game, the team also carves pumpkins.
"I just thought it's a fun idea to carry on," Duda said. "It came at a perfect time for us. We were all still pretty fired up and upset about the loss on the weekend and it gave us the opportunity to laugh and enjoy each other for a while. We like to do things to have those relationships with each other. It's something that's really important to us and we want to make sure that it's not just about wins and losses in our program. It's about family and relationships."
Though they enjoyed a light-hearted practice, both coaches and players are on the same page - the game on Thursday is important and everyone wants to win it. The top five spots in the conference are up for grabs, and the Argos understand how important each match is moving forward.
"We have a great opportunity to take a step further against Northern," Duda said. "We have two big conference matches this week to help move us back up the rankings. The key to victory is going to be execution. And we have to be mentally ready for a challenge. We have to be mentally prepared that everyone is going to come into our gym and want to push us. Hopefully we can execute on the court and really take care of those fundamental things and really work hard on how we step up to each challenge."
Fans who show up in costume for the Spook-a-Roo can receive a blue wristband from the canned goods booth, which is good for $1 entry into the game Thursday night.
