A winning perspective

A year after winning the ACC championship as an assistant for the North Carolina Tarheels, new head coach Jim Lodes plans to make UB women's volleyball a Mid-American Conference powerhouse.

Coach Lodes used a not-so-novel perspective on coaching to help his UNC squad break school records in both winning percentage (.889) and wins (32-4) last year.

"Work hard, recruit good kids, train well," he said. "Surround yourself with good people, work really hard and it will happen."

After a tough season where the Bulls went 1-15 in the MAC and 8-22 overall, this winning perspective may be just what the doctor ordered. The Bulls already matched last year's total road wins after a 3-0 victory at Marist last weekend, so women's volleyball seems to be shaping up as one the most improved teams at UB this season.

This weekend the Bulls have a great chance to prove that to a home crowd. UB hosts Maryland-Eastern Shore, Army, and Colgate at the Western New York Invitational this weekend.

Lodes was direct and focused when he talked about how he'll prepare the team for this weekend.

"Repetition," he stressed. "I hate to put it this way, but its not rocket science. Perform skills and you'll get better at them. You break it down, make sure you're doing everything the same way every time, looking for same results."

That mentality should help improve the team's fundamentals, said Lodes. He said improving basics of their game would make the team tough.

"We have to become a better ball control team than we were when I first got here. We have to have quality for contacts whether it is in serve reception or on defense," he said.

Of the three teams playing this weekend only Colgate (0-1) has started their season. With everybody trying to get started on the right foot, the WNY invitational should sport some tough competition.

"This weekend we were very balanced and I like that," said Lodes. "Amy (Brown, senior co-captain) did a great job of getting everybody involved. Jenna Map?(c) had career matches so we'd love to see her continue that way, but I like the idea of being very balanced."

Coming off a career-high 16 kills in the 3-1 loss at Albany, Map?(c) should see plenty of sets coming her way this weekend.

The action starts Friday night at 7:30 p.m. when the Bulls face off against Maryland, and will really spike with a double header on Saturday against Army and Colgate at 1:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. respectively.