“If you can win the first two games, why can’t you win a third?” This seems to be a reasonable enough question. “They’re gonna put it on my headstone,” says Zillah volleyball coach Lindsey Golob. This would be in reference to the four times this season that her varsity club has started a match by winning the first two games and ended by losing the final three. The 2003 Zillah graduate ponders long when asked for some kind of explanation for this strange occurrence. “My latest theory is conditioning,” she then blurts out, “so we are spending more time running in practice. The girls seem to blame some kind of mental break down.” When reminded that one of her assistant coaches is the counselor at the high school, Sarah Rinaldi; Golob just laughs about the possibilities of moving an analyst’s couch into the locker room.
Zillah Volleyball Coach Lindsey Golob
On the evening I sat down to talk to Lindsey, her team had just earned a 3-1 win over Mabton. But in game three she saw her Leopards quickly fall behind 5-0, mostly on unforced errors. “Oh my goodness, I couldn’t help but think it- here we go again!”
Golob who as a player was a setter at 5’ 10” is in her second year of coaching the Lady Leopards. Golob boasts, “We never lost a league match when I was in high school, but we were blessed with athleticism and size.” Two things she says are missing from her club this year. “My Seniors are great volleyball players, but they are not particularly great athletes. I don’t say that in reference to their physical attributes, but more to their mentality. They can play with anyone, but whether they end up winning or not is another question. Sometimes I feel like they have it set in their minds that teams like Goldendale are supposed to win so they do, rather than trying to prove their own dominance. They have the talent to do so!” While Lindsey’s statements may seem harsh, I took it as more of an insightful explanation for this experienced and talented team’s place in the standings. Christina Slack is in her 4th year as the team’s libero, a tough position that she seems to play with ease. Lauren Messmore is playing her third varsity season. Lauren’s talent seems to be as an outside hitter, but doesn’t lose a step when playing in the back row and hits well from the back. Briana Rhode and Abby Bos are spending their second year at the varsity level, and are used as role players on a team that plays a lot of youth. Whether or not a team like that can be successful at a post-season run one can look back to last year. “We had Rosebud last year, who was a competitor and leader, but with a few exceptions we are basically the same team as last year,” says Golob. Last year’s squad went into the District Tournament with the West’s #3 seed and was sent to loser’s bracket after its first game; but then got hot on the last day of the tournament, earning a state trip in a loser out game with a very talented Royal team.
“We have played dominantly over every team on our side of the league for two games, if we can put together the third were good to go!” says Lindsey. “Winning our last two league games would go a long way towards that, because they are both against teams we experienced the fall apart against.” (Granger & Goldendale) The Lady Leopards also saw 2-0 leads slip away against Naches Valley twice.
After a stellar high school career Lindsey (Robertson) went on to play at Walla Walla Community College and the University of Alaska. When asked if she models her coaching style after any of her past coaches, Golob claims not. “I never aspired to be a coach I just loved to play the game,” she says, “so I never really looked at any coaches as mentors. But I’ve rolled a lot of former coaches into my own style of coaching.”
To any observer it would seem that Golob has chosen to build toward the future, when they see that 3 freshman and 2 sophomores get plenty of varsity playing time. Lindsey adamantly denies this is true, while admitting the future is bright for the program, she feels she is making the best moves to be successful now as well. “Our JV team is undefeated, so we will be good in the future, but I also feel I am putting our most talented players on the floor at any given time,” she proudly stated. Even if that includes Freshman like Kassidy Ruggles and Felina Razey who have both been staters periodically through the year; or another Frosh Allison Torrres who was moved up to varsity mid-season. Playing Freshman is not unfamiliar to Golob, afterall Sophomores Whitney Winters and Jen Nelson both saw significant playing time last year. While the entire program only has two Juniors, two of see plenty of playing time in Alisi Uasike and Michelle Tynan.
Despite this team’s lack of size for blocking and dependable hitting, and its apparent lack of killer instinct, Golob believes these things can be overcome. For this team to be successful it will have to play together, for they really have no “go to” player. They will also have to eliminate unforced errors and serve nearly perfectly. For example in their match against Granger, they won the first two games and every serve was put into play in those games. But just in game five, a game played to fifteen, the Lady Leopards gave away six points on errant serves. They won’t magically come up with that “go to” player, but they can correct the things that are within their control to put things together for an end of the season run.
