By ANJEL GORDON, NEWS3 Reporter
MACOMB, Illinois (NEWS3) – The Western Illinois University women’s volleyball team having only three more matches left in the regular season.
Head coach Ben Staupe said he wants to end the season strong and contend in the postseason.
“We are looking at four, five, six and seven games in the league,” Staupe said. “That is always our goal to try to get into the conference tournament and be the top six team in the conference and really turn the program around for us and really trying to change the culture,” Staupe said. “And now it’s time to change to a winning culture, too, and start winning more games.”
Staupe said one thing he is proud of is that throughout the season the players have been constantly fighting so hard.
“In the locker room, better in the community, be better women or be better people, be more accepting and those types of things and make our locker room even better than it is, as far as the culture and things like that and obviously winning,” he said. “We’ve got to win. That’s the bottom line of what we are here for and that’s what they want to do.”
Staupe also said the team has been very competitive all year.
“They want to win and, obviously myself, my coaching staff and our support staff, our athletic director and everybody want us to win,” he said. “We have a great support staff, and we have to make sure we now execute, go out and show them that we are Leatherneck tough. We go out fighting, no matter what the score is, no matter the time is, no matter the day. If you play us, hopefully it will be tough game for ya and we are going to come out and keep giving ya everything we have.”
Staupe said the team’s motivation also continues to improve.
“The motivation is always keeping getting better. Like I said in the locker room or whether it is the culture whether on the court,” he said. “But at the end of the day, the motivation is these women are playing for each other, with each other and for their family and for themselves. That is always the motivation. We always ask the why is this? Why do you do this? And a lot of them play for each other because they love each other. It is a family.”
WIU Volleyball schedule
