Growing in Confidence During Conference Play

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – As a player develops, there are times when a coach sees the future.

The moments when Tom Hilbert says, that's the player we knew she can become. Recently, he's noting those occurrences are happening more regularly when it comes to sophomore middle Karina Leber.

Her Colorado State debut in last year's pandemic-altered volleyball season was eye-opening: She put down 14 kills with just one error on 21 swings against Air Force and had three blocks. Yet, as is the case with most freshmen, she rode the highs and lows of a season, and did so again in the early portion of this year.

"We've always seen through the course of her development, we've seen her do really great things, and we're like, 'look at that, this kid's going to be good,'" Hilbert said. "Then, during the COVID year and a bit earlier this year, she'd get into these modes where she was a little disrupted, so she would do these kind of panic plays, wail balls out of bounds, and I haven't seen her do that in a long time. She's maturing, without a doubt."

Leber doesn't take deep dives into her numbers. She doesn't let them affect how she plays or how she works, but instead relies on the day-to-day process and what is feeling right.

In her current six-match run, it most definitely has been feeling good. She hasn't hit below .300 in any of those matches, averaging seven kills per match. She's also produced five blocks in two of those performances, a good sign in an area of her game where she's still trying to raise the bar.

It has her encouraged, but more so because the team has won five of those matches, all in Mountain West play.

"I don't think anything clicked. I can't say a specific time," she said. "I don't really look at the stats to see what I'm doing, I just keep doing what I'm doing, so they're not anything that would change my mindset. I think I'm playing better. I do look at the numbers, but I don't base what I'm doing off the numbers.

"I feel like I'm getting better. It's just limiting errors, managing balls that aren't set perfectly. That's all I can do, that and play my hardest."

If you ask Hilbert, that's what clicked, and numbers will never show a player's growing maturation level. There is no specific stat for that, just the results.

He's worked with her in practice, as has assistant coach Emily Kohan, both on different aspects of her game. Hilbert sees in Leber a player who is growing with confidence as she expands her arsenal of what she can do offensively.

She arrived a middle who could attack head on, but now she is one who can hit a slide in either direction and put the ball in different zones. More importantly, she's become more comfortable doing so, turning a though process into muscle memory.

"You can't use your physical skills unless you're accelerating, and she was thinking a lot about things, and that was causing her to slow down in approaches and things like that," Hilbert said. "That's big. She's also expanded her range of shots. That may be the most important thing she's done, because she's not just a one-trick pony anymore. She can hit slides in both directions, she can hit the 1s back into zone 1, which she wasn't doing before."

So the number which may be making the most difference is sets played. She put 53 under her belt a year ago, and she is one of four players on the CSU roster to have played in all 57 this season.

Watching tape was a new experience for her in college, and while she said it was confusing at first, she's found it to be a rather valuable tool. Not just when the team does so as a group for scouting purposes, but the cutouts of certain opponents, and just as important, those of her on the court. Watching herself play has given her the chance to see what she does well and what she has to do differently.

But most of all, it's just playing. The reps in practice and pressure-filled swings in a match.

"I think it's just court experience and working extra reps with Ciera Pritchard," Leber said. "It's a mental thing. It's not I'm specifically doing anything, it's just nature now for me, I guess. I think doing everything over and over again makes you get better at it.

"I think we are working on new attacks. We've been getting better at what I've been doing so far, and then adding on new things in practice."

Her current run comes with good timing with the start of conference play, and at 5-1 (9-6 overall), the Rams are in a three-way tie at the top with New Mexico and UNLV, and the Lobos happen to be next up on the slate, arriving at Moby Arena on Thursday (7 p.m.) for a Pink Out match.

At the end of the match, Leber will see her numbers, but it doesn't mean she'll study them intently. Besides, how she says she'll gauge herself will be found at the top of the box score.

"If we win," she said. "If we're successful, I'm fine with what happened."

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