Lady Frogs get back in stride

After bolting out to a 16-1 start, the TCU volleyball team struggled in the early weeks of October, dropping three of four to Mountain West Conference foes.

Luckily, however, the Frogs finished the month better than they started it.

TCU swept Boise State 3-0 Saturday afternoon at the University Recreation Center, winning their ninth straight set and notching their 20th victory of the season.

The Frogs (20-4, 7-3) will take a three-game winning streak with them when they travel to UNLV Thursday night, and head coach Prentice Lewis said she is happy with how her team is playing as they head into the home stretch of the regular season.

“This is our second round of conference play, and I feel we’re playing well right now,” said Lewis, who has had six 20-win seasons since coming to TCU in 2000. “We’ve got a great team and as long as they believe in themselves every time they step on the floor, they’re pretty darn good players.”

As for her team’s woes earlier in the month, Lewis said struggling at times is just part of it, and that it happens to most teams over the course of an entire season. The fact that the Frogs have snapped out of it and are playing their best ball near the end of the season is what really matters, Lewis said.

“All teams go through lulls,” Lewis said. “You don’t ever want to have them. There’s always going to be the times where you get a lull where you don’t really want one. But I can say, it’s always better to lose at the point of the season that we did lose than at the end of the season.”

Senior outside hitter Jordan Raines agreed and said the Frogs’ recent play has shown they could make some noise once postseason action begins in two weeks.

“It’s really encouraging,” said Raines, who was named Mountain West Player of the Week last week and notched a team-high of 17 kills against Boise State Saturday. “I really think we have a shot, especially how we’ve been playing the last few games.”