Most important weekend of regular season for Lady Buffs?

The No. 6 (tied) WT volleyball team (15-2, 4-0 Lone Star Conference) is playing well enough to go perfect in the LSC again, so this weekend's Holiday Inn Lady Blues Regional Crossover Invitational may be the biggest round of matches WT will play during the regular season.

The Lady Buffs are slated to play No. 6 (tied) Emporia State, No. 9 host school Washburn and No. 20 Truman State. Not only do the results from this weekend in Topeka, Kan., have a profound impact on the national rankings, they will make or break WT's chances of hosting the South Central Regional tournament.

All of the teams in this tournament are in the South Central Regional, and if the Lady Buffs can come back with three or four wins this weekend, they will be the favorite to host, likely at the First United Bank Center in Canyon.

Also of note this weekend, new WT coach Jason Skoch was most recently from Truman State. He said there may be 400 fans there to watch him at his new school, and that he has to make sure not to get too emotional because of his previous involvement with a team he took to the Final Four.

Lady Buffs still looking ahead

It's not that the WT volleyball team is looking past opponents. But the No. 7 Lady Buffs are definitely worried more about the quality of their victories than just winning.

And with that comes an overall focus on making it deep -- Elite Eight and National Championship deep -- into the NCAA Division II postseason.

So as they put down more and more Lone Star conference teams, don't expect WT to be too happy or for their intense, perfection driven coach Jason Skoch, to give them a whole lot of praise.

And on a personal note, that makes my job a bit difficult. It's not easy to write about a conference sweep with nothing but critical quotes from Coach Skoch.

Volleyball coach looking to middle of the year for great play

The No. 7 Lady Buffs (7-2) are good, but they're not as good as they could be.

At least, that's how WT coach Jason Skoch tells it. He said Tuesday that, though practice is getting better after the weekend's losses, the team is still working out some mental flaws. And when those get ironed out, the sky's the limit for this squad.

"We're really not consistent and focused right now," Skoch said. "I think some of us don't have a sense of urgency right now.

"I'm looking to the middle of the season. I think we're going to peak at just the right time."

Lady Buffs lose second match of season in Denver

The Lady Buffs (7-2) dropped their final match of the Colorado Premier Classic in Denver to No. 23 Metro State College (7-1) in another five-set contest.

WT also took a 1-0 lead in the match. Had they won, the Lady Buffs would have at least gotten out of the state with a silver-bracket title.

As it stands, Tuesday's press availability with coach Jason Sckoch at the Big Texan likely won't be lighthearted like it was last week.

Linescore
No. 23 Metro State College def. No. 3 West Texas A&M 22-25, 25-18, 23-25, 25-22, 15-10

WT—Kills: Laura Prinsen 18, Natalie Johnson 8. Blocks: Melissa Harper 2. Digs: Lauren Thedford 18, Lauren Beville 17. Assists: Katie Rickwartz 38, Prinsen 4. Aces: Thedford 1, Prinsen 1.

MSC—Kills: Bri Morley 19, Emily Greenhalgh 14. Blocks: Julie Causseaux 1, Amy Watanabe 1. Digs: Watanabe 33, Ngoc Phan 15. Assists: Gabrielle Curtis 61, Lisa Jones 3. Aces: Curtis 2, Jones 2. Amanda Cook 2.

Records: West Texas A&M 7-2. Metro State College 7-1.

Volleyball drops first set of the young season

The Lady Buffs lost the third set of their match with Western New Mexico on Saturday, 22-25.

WT got way down early, falling into a 1-11 hole. Coach Jason Skoch had the court nearly full of underclassmen (Fr. starting libero Lauren Beville doesn't count) during that WNM run. The Lady Buffs made a good run at it, but even the starters were making some mistakes when they could have come back to close out their fourth sweep of the season.

"I tried giving (the underclassmen) an opportunity, and they didn't take advantage of it," Skoch said. "We have to get them in there. They earned it, they've been working hard in practice. It's good for them to see in a game situation that they still have stuff to grow on."

Volleyball sweeps No. 4 Grand Valley State

The No. 5 Lady Buffs (3-0) took care of the No. 4 Lakers by coming back to win sets and looking more confident each time.

They did it in front of a huge crowd at The Box. The attendance on the box score says 1,623 people showed up to watch the game. The crowd included a rowdy student section and the entire Grand Valley State football team.

As for the volleyball girls, they did their part taking care of the visiting Lakers. Lauren "the threat" Thedford led the team with 13 kills, while Melissa Harper-ized 11 balls to help WT stay perfect on the young season.

The trick now, he said, will be making sure they don't have a let down during tomorrow's games with Western New Mexico (11 a.m.) and Lubbock Christian (3 p.m.), as neither should be on the same level as Grand Valley State (or Nova Southeastern, who they played earlier Friday).

New WT coach Jason Skoch wasn't as impressed as I was with the wins. But, he said he'd take a sloppy win over perennial NCAA D-II contender GVS.

And if the Lady Buffs can do this when they aren't playing as smoothly as they should ...