Volleyball team to keep feet on the ground as they wait for playoffs

As the season winds down and they keep on piling up win after win, the Brahmas women’s volleyball team keeps preparing harder and harder each day for playoffs.

Being ranked #1 in the state for the entire 2011 season and undefeated on top of that, the Brahmas know they are the team to beat this postseason.

“Nabil [Mardini] is really good at keeping us on our toes, everyday he reminds us how grateful we should be for having the record we have and that is not easy to keep it going,” said sophomore Jasmine Levi. “He makes practice harder, gives us more pressure, we owe him all that, because its so easy to get cocky and lose track of everything but he keeps us on track.”

Since Pierce College won the Western Southern Division with the best record, the team will have home court advantage throughout the first three rounds of the playoffs until the state finals, if they go on to advance.

The state championship rounds will be played on Dec. 3-4 at Shasta College in Redding, Calif.

Although everyone seems ready for postseason, head coach Nabil Mardini takes care of his players and takes it step by step.

“One game at the time, I just want to make sure they stay healthy [for playoffs],” said Mardini. “We don’t have a big bench so I try to rotate players more.”

Although they have won every match so far, coach Mardini said that there is still room for defensive improvement.

Freshman Danetta Boykin has been unstoppable so far at the net, posting 295 kills in 544 attempts this campaign, which ranks her among the top players in the state.

“My mentality on all games is to always come out strong, be a big hitter, and try to do my job,” said Boykin. “We need to lower down our errors as a team, we need to pick up on balls that we know we can execute.”

Although playoffs start at home for the Brahmas on Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m., coach Mardini has prepare them for this moment since they arrived at the beginning of the semester.

“He’s [Mardini] been talking about it [playoffs] since day one, he is taking it day by day but everyday we’re working towards it, right now the regular season is our main goal but everyday we work towards a state championship title.” said Levi.

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