Walk through the locker rooms in between matches at this weekend's Texas A&M volleyball tournament and you'll notice some familiar sights. A few teams will be getting pre-game pep talks, others will be stretching and the Virginia Cavaliers will be focused on a rousing game of ... Pictionary?
"Usually on the road we'll play something silly like Pictionary or charades in the locker room before a match," Virginia captain Kristin Chaney said. "There's always a lot of laughter on our road trips."
Outside the locker room, this weekend's matches are all business. Virginia will face two nationally-ranked teams over the course of the Texas A&M/McDonald's Tournament that goes through Saturday. After opening their season on Friday against Lehigh, the Cavaliers will take on No. 23 Saint Mary's and finish the weekend with a match against No. 16 Texas A&M.
After dozens of practices in the safety of Memorial Gymnasium, the transition to playing in front of hostile fans will be an adjustment, especially for some of Virginia's newest faces.
"For some of our freshmen, especially Shannon [Davis], this will be their first opportunity to play [in real matches]," Chaney said. "We've been practicing a lot, but it pales in comparison to actual competition."
The tournament also will give Virginia coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton an opportunity to size up her team's strengths and weaknesses for the first time this season.
"These are all educated guesses, because we haven't actually taken the court yet [this season], but I'd say our strengths will be our defense and our back court, our serving and our hitting," Shelton said. "We've got a pretty good spread-out offense. Our weakness will probably be the fact that we're untested against other competition. Depending on how the day goes, our passing could also be an issue."
For a few Cavaliers, this weekend could also decide their fate on the roster. The starting libero and middle positions are up for grabs as the team travels to Texas, and injuries have forced the Cavaliers to play with a paper-thin depth chart.
"We've been very limited in the middle because of injury," Shelton said. "Shannon Davis and Katie Oakes will start at middle during the tournament, but they don't have any backups. We've been limited even in practice because we don't want anyone else to get injured.
On defense, Shelton has the opposite problem. Sophomore Melissa Caldwell, junior Emily Perilli and Chaney will all see playing time on the back row, but the starting libero spot is still up in the air.
All seriousness aside, however, Chaney emphasized that nothing bonds a team together like a 1,400-mile trip across the heartland.
"Road trips in the past have been really fun," Chaney said. "Obviously it's a stress academically, but being on a bus with these girls for hours really brings the team together."
Besides strengthening team relationships, this weekend's tournament will give Shelton and the rest of the Cavaliers a chance to test their potential against some of the best talent in the country. If all goes well, the players also will get a chance to dust off their pencils for a mean game or two of Pictionary.
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