Cooper volleyballers prepare for next playoff game

By TED DUNNAM / Assistant Sports Editor

The last time the Cooper volleyball team made it past the area round of the playoffs, Richard Nixon was just beginning to formulate his bid for the presidency.

But unlike Nixon - who went in with a bang and exited with a whimper - the Lady Cougars hope to ride the victory train to a pleasant finish.

Head coach Beth Wills' team will play El Paso Eastwood (12-15) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Peocs High School. The Lady Cougars take a 19-9 record into the contest.

Cooper suffered a surprising and disappointing setback at this stage of the volleyball playoffs a year ago to El Paso Coronado. The Lady Cougars are taking every prepartion not to let that happen again.

Should Cooper win, it will remove an albatross that has been plaguing CHS for some time.

"Cooper hasn't gottne past the area round of the playoffs in 29 years," Wills said. "1967 was the last time Cooper won an area playoff game. We're using that as a motivitational tool to get these players ready."

And if that isn't motivation enough, last year's playoff defeat is.

"What that showed us is that you can't have an off match at any time in the playoffs," Wills said. "I'm still trying to figure out how we lost that match. We might have been a little overconfident.

"We definitely expected to win and we thought we should have won, but that doesn't travel very far in the playoffs. You have to be ready to play every match."

Last year's Cooper playoff team and this year's squad bear few similarities.

"We have three players who have been in this position before - Kris Lukauskis, Gloria McDonald and Catherine Weir. Catherine was starting as a sophomore this time last year, but her responsibilities have changed, and we're really a completely different team.

"We had 12 seniors last year and this year we just have five. The kids have listened really well, trusted the coaching staff and we've all stuck together."

At the beginning of the season, Cooper was hailed as a team that could have a shot at the playoffs, but certainly not one that would post an 11-1 District 4-5A record.

"In a lot of respects, this was not seen as a team that was going to overpower anybody. I think the general opinion was that Cooper is usually successful, but we'll wait and see.

"We told the players believed that if they trusted the coaching staff, worked hard and stuck to the game plan, they we're going to be successful. This is definitely a team that has not been overconfident. But they have gained confidence with every game. I don't think they're really sure of what they can do."

Wills said Eastwood will be a formidable opponent as it proved in a 15-5, 16-14 win Tuesday night against El Paso Austin.

"Eastwood has three primary hitters, but the two main people they go to are a 5-10 senior and a 6-foot sophomore," the CHS head coach said. "What impressed me about Eastwood was that they're not going to follow up a mistake that you make with another mistake. They were very opportunistic.

"They jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the first game and 14-7 in the second game."

Wills said her team won't make any major adjustments in preparing for Eastwood.

"We're going to look at some defensive schemes, mainly getting some blocks up, which Austin did not do that well against them," Wills said. "We'll also look at some offensive options, too. We're not going to do anything drastic, just try to fine-tune some things that we hope we'll win the match for us."