Cape boys’ volleyball hosts play day
The Cape boys’ volleyball team hosted a nine-team play day March 16 for a final tune-up before the regular season starts.
Joining the Vikings were Conrad, Delaware Military Academy, Archmere Academy, Indian River, Smyrna, Newark Charter, Caesar Rodney and Salesianum. Each game was played for 35 minutes. The games were held from 9 a.m. until 2:35 p.m.
The Vikings started off with an improved and very athletic Smyrna squad that battled for every point. Cape then faced off against Sallies in a 2023 DIAA State Championship rematch. The Vikings have just one returning starter, while the Sals boast all but three 2023 grads. The action was a playoff atmosphere as each team wanted to send a preseason message to the other.
The Vikings’ remaining opponents were Archmere Academy, Newark Charter, DMA and Conrad.
“Today was a positive experience for our guys,” said Cape coach Tyler Coupe. “It was their first time seeing competitive six-versus-six outside of our gym, and I think it was the right wake-up call we needed. I think our defensive execution was much higher than I anticipated. Our serve-receive was really consistent and gave us a lot of opportunities to run our offense.”
On the opposite side of that, he said the offense struggled to find a rhythm throughout the day.
“I saw it as a combination of our setters trying to make plays that maybe didn’t need to be made in the moment, and our hitters not always adjusting in the moment – taking swings with a high-risk, high-reward swing as opposed to a low-risk, high-reward swing. It’s something that I think is great for us to work on next week as we head into the beginning of our regular season. It gives us a nice reminder that we are not where we need to be by any stretch, but a good base level to improve upon.”
“I felt the play day was very useful to our team,” said returning starter Talan Stephens. “We were able to try out a bunch of possible rotations we could use during our season, and we played a bunch of great teams in the state. I felt that it really helped us view what we need to work on to help us be the best we can for the season.”
Coupe said Tias Small really stood out at the play day.
“It’s his first year with likely significant playing time and I think he handled it really well,” Coupe said. “He was diverse in how he attacked at the net, and he really challenged himself and our opponents behind the service line. I thought Jayceon White and Kieran Morrissey did a really consistent job in serve-receive. Our offense has such potential to be a powerful force, it just needs to understand when it can and when it can’t afford to make errors. And today, we routinely made consistent errors. By no stretch am I upset with our effort. I think, and I imagine the boys do as well, our intention and execution can be improved.”
The Vikings will open the regular season Wednesday, March 20, at Sussex Academy.
