By James Brooks, News Correspondent
American actress Mae West had some words of advice regarding the volleyball team’s five game win streak.
“One and one is two, and two and two is four, and five will get you ten if you know how to work it.”
Fans of the Huskies should know the team’s possession of this five game win streak couldn’t have happened without an undefeated run at the St. John’s classic in Queens, N.Y., last Friday and Saturday.
In the tournament, Northeastern faced off against Brown, Buffalo and the home squad St. Johns. The team did not drop a single set over the course of the two day tournament.
A large part of that nine set run was due to the work of sophomore outside hitter Janelle Tucker, who, in the duration of the trio of games, recorded 35 kills and 23 digs.
Despite the impressive stat line, one person remains unimpressed – Tucker.
“I don’t think I’ve been playing very well,” she said. “I think I’m thinking too much on the court and I think it’s really effecting how I’m playing … I definitely don’t think I’ve started off the season like I’d wished to, but there’s definitely time to turn it around.”
Despite her desire to self-improve, head coach Ken Nichols said he believes Tucker has been “rock steady” for the squad.
Just three days before the tournament, on Sept. 6, Tucker and the Huskies faced off against New Hampshire at home, managing to sweep the Bobcats in straight sets. Although they did not know it at the time, the game would be the start of another streak, as the 3-0 victory signified the first of a now four consecutive Husky shutouts.
“We’re right on schedule in terms of expectations of the staff,” Nichols said. “Considering how young we are, we’re very pleased. The clearest variable is the [team] chemistry.”
Flashing back another three days, the Huskies were closing out the San Diego Invitational. The Huskies managed to win the final game versus the University of California Riverside, but in the preceding games were dealt a pair of back-to-back losses against highly ranked Missouri State and the University of San Diego.
“We played two teams that [were] comfortably in the top 25,” Nichols said. “We learned a lot from those two losses … Although we lost the [matches], I know we scared the hell out of both of them.”
The games snapped the Huskies hope of an undefeated year after starting 2-0 in late August.
That 2-0 record began Aug. 26 and 27, when the team played Fairleigh Dickinson and Central Connecticut state, respectively. The roster of 14 managed to drop just one set over those two days, starting 2011 in strong fashion.
Now sitting at 7-2, the Huskies hope to make Mae West’s words come to life when they head across the Harvard Bridge to Cambridge, Mass., where they will face off against Navy, (Sept. 16) Holy Cross and Harvard (Sept. 17).
“We’re playing teams that are ranked way lower than us,” Tucker said. “I think it will be good for us. We should be okay, but we really have to play up to our potential.”
