Cape volleyball holds four-team scrimmage

Cape volleyball hosted three tough local teams Aug. 27 for a final tune-up play day. Playing along with the Vikings were Sussex Central, Delmarva Christian and Sussex Academy. All four teams made the DIAA tournament in 2023.

Teams competed in a round-robin format that included 40-minute games.

“I thought our scrimmages today were a good improvement from Saturday,” said Cape head coach Tyler Coupe. “We were able to be more in system, which is a positive improvement of our defensive assignments.”

Coupe thought Emme Smith did a really nice job forcing some sets to Amalia Fruchtman, Harper Mamele and Camilla Willis out of the middle.

“We have the potential to be such a long team from that position, and it’ll be imperative we keep them involved,” Coupe said. “It’ll just open up so much more space for our left and right pin hitters.”

Coupe said serving was really consistent, which forced each opponent out of system and gave the defense a nice advantage.

“We have a really unique level of athleticism in several positions that allows us to recover within a rally when things go wrong,” Coupe said. “However, we really want to try and ensure that we don’t need to rely on that athleticism to save us.”

Sussex Academy coach Hailee Gooch said her team will be very young this season. 

“We were missing our starting setter, Jopie Smith,” Gooch said. “It was a great lesson for the girls on perseverance, and it helped us to gain more insight into what we need to work on as a team. Cape probably had some of the toughest servers and best serve-receive we have seen so far this preseason. We were happy how the team progressed throughout the scrimmage, especially how the girls stepped up during playing Delmarva Christian. It’s all about finding that best chemistry and lineup that works for us.”

Delmarva Christian coach John Luong said he was happy with his team’s play during the scrimmages.