The Illinois volleyball team may need to be concerned about consistency.

After the Illini’s intrasquad scrimmage Saturday, there was a general sense of unhappiness surrounding the team’s play.

“We had a lot of issues getting ourselves pumped up and getting energy after points we won,” junior outside hitter Jocelynn Birks said.

Illinois’ inconsistency may have been caused by the match’s format. The Illini were split into an Orange and a Blue team with each team switching a few players in between sets. 

The Orange and Blue teams played a total of four sets, with the Orange team taking the first and second set 25-19 before the Blue team bounced back to take the final two 25-21 and 25-18, respectively.

“I was just surprised to see a group that has played so much together seem tentative to start off with” head coach Kevin Hambly said. “They had a hard time firing up to play and they seemed disinterested at times. It’s an odd thing to play when you’re playing against each other. It’s like practice in front of people.”

Aside from becoming more consistent, Birks said Illinois needs to focus on passing and serving, a sentiment that Hambly echoed.

“I don’t care about missed serves that much. But 25 on both sides, that’s a lot of points you’re giving up,” Hambly said. “It was a really high error game and we’re going to be in trouble if we play that way.”

Although the mood after the match wasn’t ecstatic, Hambly’s disposition changed as he began discussing the positive parts of the scrimmage. 

Hambly is leaning towards starting freshman defensive specialist Brandi Donnelly at libero to begin the season because of her preseason defensive play.

“For her first day she was tentative passing, but she dug and she was playing great defense,” Hambly said. “You can tell that Brandi’s going to be — if she ends up being the bro (libero), which is kind of where it’s leaning — is going to be a great defensive player and at times she can be a great passer, but she’s a rook and she’s trying to figure it out.” 

Donnelly played well on the defensive end throughout the scrimmage, tallying a team-high 25 digs, and seemed to be one of the few Illini players whose play wasn’t marred by inconsistency. 

Sophomore outside hitter Katie Roustio and Birks both played well, finishing with 14 and 13 kills, respectively.

Hambly praised a considerable number of player’s contributions and called the scrimmage a good learning experience before turning his attention to the future. The Illini start their regular season this Friday and in order to compete, Hambly said Illinois will need to improve its consistency and limit its number of errors. 

“Everyone showed glimpses of things that were good,” Hambly said. “It wasn’t like everything we did was awful, but it wasn’t the level we’re going to need to play to be ready to compete with Long Beach State.” 

Nicholas is a junior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected] and  @IlliniSportsGuy.