Powerhouse junior outside hitter Meagan Donohoe paved the way for the Blue Jays’ win over No. 21 Salisbury last Tuesday, marking the first time Hopkins has defeated a nationally-ranked team in 12 years. She delivered 25 kills that match, thus earning her the title of Centennial Conference Player of the Week. The offensive threat has already surpassed the triple digit mark in kills, as she leads the team with 112 kills this season. Similarly, the junior from Olney, MD leads the conference in another benchmark, averaging 4.87 kills per set.
The News-Letter caught up with the Maryland native to discuss the historic win and the new secret behind their successes.
The News-Letter: From reading the game report, it seems like your most recent game against Salisbury was a marathon win. How do you stay focused as a team for five sets of high intensity volleyball?
Megan Donohoe: The match against Salisbury was the first time this season we went to five sets, but we’ve spent time in practice competing in tie breaker (fifth) sets to 15. A big goal of ours is to play every point with the same intensity, regardless of the score or what set we are in, and I think remembering that goal really helped us stay focused during a long match.
N-L: The average margin of victory during the Salisbury game was only 3.4 points. Could you sense that pressure during the match? How did you deal with it?
MD: We’ve spent a lot of time this season working on our mental toughness. A big focus of ours is staying calm during pressure situations and not letting a mistake or being down a couple points cause anxiety. All of the sets against Salisbury were close ones, but I think we did a really good job of not letting the scores get to us. When we were down by a point or two at the end of one of the sets, Tim (our coach) called a time out and said “this is exactly where we want to be,” and we all agreed. We knew we would succeed at overcoming the pressure of a close score and be able to stay calm in a way that teams who haven’t had any mental training can not.
N-L: Earlier this season, you played a number of top-10 teams at your first tournament. What do you think is the difference between the Hopkins program and those programs?
MD: Our first tournament this year, we played three top-ten teams, and, even though we lost, we could hang with them and we knew that we deserved to be there. We’ve improved a lot since then, and we are continuing to get better, so we are really looking forward to a chance to play those teams again. We have a drive and a desire very similar to those teams, but they definitely have more experience than us and we do still have a lot to learn. Our program is going through a lot of changes culturally, but we are growing and improving every day. We know it’s going to take a while, but we are all confident that we are going to get there.
N-L: Describe last year’s injury and what it means for you coming back as an upperclassman.
MD: Being injured last season was definitely disappointing, but I had such an amazing support system in my teammates, and I’m just really happy to be back on the court with them. Injury prevention and just good health in general are a big focus of ours this year, so we’re looking forward to having a healthy, injury-free season.
N-L: Although every girl has her own special contribution to the team, it is clear that one of your roles is to score points for the squad. Does that translate into a lot of pressure? How do you deal with it, especially in big games where your teammates are looking to you for that point to clinch a victory?
MD: As I said earlier, we have been working a lot on not letting pressure situations effect the way that we play, and personally it has tremendously helped me grow as a player. I’ve become a mentally stronger and more confident on the court, which has helped me remain calm during close matches.
N-L: Lastly, what did the Salisbury victory mean for the team? I understand you are all focused on the process, not results, but it must’ve felt nice to get that win.
MD: We were really happy with the way we handled the pressure of a close match against a good team, so getting the win was a good moment for us. Salisbury has a lot of talent, and we learned a lot from our match against them that we can apply in upcoming games.
