Nine matches. Nine losses. It’s been just over a month since Utah’s volleyball team has won a game.
Yes, there are underlying stories and different contexts this losing streak can be placed in: This team is young and inexperienced; the schedule has been tough, playing against such skilled Pac-12 teams; the team is still testing out different lineups and strategies.
Regardless of all that, losing still hurts.
This nine-game losing streak ties the longest in Beth Launiere’s head coaching career. In her very first season as Utah’s head coach, the Utes got stuck in a nine-game losing streak that ended with a home victory against Weber State. This is a Utah program that has become accustomed to a degree of success under Launiere, so watching her team fall night after night can’t be easy in her 26th season with the program. But she still tries to keep her chin up for her team.
“We aren’t really focusing on the losing,” Launiere said. “We are focusing on what we have to do to get better. It’s not easy. We talk a lot about staying bought into the process and bought into the team.”
Kendall Cygan knows how much her coach cares for the players on this team.
“[Launiere] has full support for us, and we trust her 100 percent,” Cygan said. “She is always looking out for what is best for the team. It’s nice having a coach that is always focused on how we are going to get better.”
The losses mount on the player’s shoulders, too. They continually work and fight every night, searching for a way to win, but for the past month these efforts have been in vain.
This team has not seen a win since the Pac-12 opener against Colorado on Sept. 23, and going that long without a victory really drains players. They lose motivation. Team morale drops with each loss, and energy becomes harder and harder to come by. In the end, players need to dig deep to keep playing their hardest and keep fighting every serve, every set, every match.
One way the team has tried to stay focused is through a new workout: yoga. On Monday afternoon, instead of a team practice, the players got together and practiced some yoga. Launiere does yoga herself and thought the peace and relaxation would benefit her team.
“We thought it was a great idea,” Launiere said. “You go through the stresses of a season: travel, school, pressure. It’s a good way to get some relaxation in. I felt like it was a really good idea to do it.”
With Oregon and Oregon State coming to the Huntsman Center the Utes will look to find success against these two teams. They hope to break this streak and regain some lost confidence.
Records on Hold
Launiere and Cygan have each been with the Utah program for a long time relative to their perspective positions.
Launiere has been with Utah for 26 years and is two wins away from 500 total victories as a head coach. Cygan is in her senior year with the team and is 90 assists away from taking over the sixth spot on Utah’s all time career assists list.
At the start of the season, these milestones were almost foregone conclusions that the team and fanbase were expecting to come about this season. Everybody was ready to celebrate. But then this losing streak started, and these storylines have almost completely disappeared.
Cygan has started to split setting duties with redshirt freshman Jessie Jorgensen for the sake of the team, and Launiere is doing her best to help this team find a win to break the slump they are in. The record books will be set aside for the time being as Launiere and Cygan focus on other aspects within the team.
No Set Success
In their two losses against Arizona State and Arizona this weekend the Utes couldn’t pull together a single set win.
They lost all three sets to Arizona State on Friday (14-25, 17-25, 23-25) and all three sets on Sunday afternoon against the Wildcats (17-25, 19-25, 16-25). In the last five games, the Utes have only managed two set wins, both of which came in a loss to California.
“Part of it is, we need to get everybody playing well at the same time,” Launiere said. “We need everybody going 100 percent this week in preparing for these two matches so we can all play well at the same time.”
@Twelvegage96