“When we play a conference opponent, and they’re playing lights out — better than we’ve ever seen them play on video — we could say, ‘Why does that have to happen against us?’ But it’s all how you look at it,” he said.
“I tell our team it can be a positive for us. It makes us work harder and push. Those things help us become the best team we can be.”
After sputtering to a 9-9 start, the defending league champions hit the reset button and appear ready for whatever the league throws their way.
They’ve won three straight matches and six of their last seven to improve to 11-3 in the conference. They trail only 11-2 Milwaukee in the standings.
The Raiders and Panthers meet at McLin Gym at 6 p.m. Friday. Both teams have three more matches after that before the six-team league tourney Nov. 17-19.
“We really tried to challenge our team and put into perspective where we were in the season,” Green said of the late-season charge. “We looked at the teams we were going to play and talked about how it could be a mental test for us.
“We really needed to attack it in a way that builds momentum toward the conference tournament.”
Junior Jenny Wessling, who transferred from High Point, is tied for first in the league in digs at 5.38 per set. Jenna Story, a four-time HL defensive player of the year, averaged 5.28 for the Raiders last season.
Fifth-year player Katie Meyer also replaced a program legend in Lainey Stephenson. Meyer leads the league in assists at 9.95 per set, just behind Stephenson’s 10.66 average last season.
Two more fifth-year players, Megan Alders and Callie Martin, are first and second on the team in kills with 291 and 271, respectively.
“Megan stayed here in the summer and worked out with our strength coach and probably sacrificed some of the personal things to put herself in the best position volleyball-wise. It certainly has shown,” the second-year coach said.
“Callie has been one of the most complete players I’ve coached in my career. She just impacts the game in so many different areas.”
The Raiders will hold Senior Day when they host Green Bay at 4 p.m. Sunday.
Meyer, Alders and Martin will be playing their final home game.
The top six teams are all but set for the league tourney: Wright State, Milwaukee, Northern Kentucky (10-4), Green Bay (9-4), Oakland (9-4) and Cleveland State (8-6).
Purdue Fort Wayne (4-9) is seventh and likely eliminated.
The No. 1 seed hosts the tourney, which is why the Raiders probably need to beat the Panthers to have a shot at the top spot.
“There’s a lot of conference implications that can play into that, but we’re trying not to read too much into it. There’s a lot of volleyball left,” Green said.
CROSS COUNTRY: The Raiders had three runners earn all-league honors for the first time since 2019, but they didn’t have enough depth to pull off a top-tier finish in the HL championships Saturday at Fairborn Community Park.
Junior Kaitlyn Miller finished sixth in the women’s 6K race in 21 minutes, 24.6 seconds to make the first team. That tied the second-fastest time in program history and helped the women finish seventh, while the men were ninth.
Senior Alicia Neumeier was 13th in 21:42.1, making the second team. Senior Emma Johnson was 20th (22:11.0).
Junior Alex McCarty was seventh in the men’s 8K race and made first-team all-league, finishing in 24:34.9. He now has the third- and fourth-best times in Wright State history.
Freshman Noah Sharp was 17th (24:51.9).
Youngstown State won its second straight men’s title, Oakland won the women’s race for the first time since 2019.
SOCCER: The Raider women tied their final regular-season match against Northern Kentucky to qualify for the league tourney. But they were eliminated in a 4-1 quarterfinal loss at Robert Morris on Sunday.
They finished with a 6-7-5 record
The men have their final regular-season match at home at 2 p.m. Wednesday against Northern Kentucky. They’re 3-8-5 overall and tied for last in the league at 2-4-2.
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