Carleton, men’s volleyball building confidence with nationals ahead

Early in the second set against the visiting Saskatchewan Huskies last Friday, third-year left and right side Ben Carleton geared up for an attack from the pipe. Set perfectly by veteran Jack Mandryk, Carleton got all of the ball, smashing it so hard that it went off a Huskies’ players face, back over the net and out of bounds for a Bisons point.

The play was a microcosm for the season Carleton has had in 2021-22. With his confidence at an all-time high, he’s currently sixth in the conference with 147 total kills, seventh in kills per set with 3.34 and is tied for ninth in service aces with 17, three of which came in sequential fashion against the Huskies in the first of a two-night tilt last weekend.

Overall on the year, he’s had double-digit kills in all but two matches, evolving into one of Canada West’s most dangerous players on the attack.

“If I get the set, I’m confident now. I’m not really going to hesitate on hitting the ball or tipping it or whatever I decide to do in that moment. If I get that money ball from [setter] Jack [Mandryk], I’m going to swing through it and take someone’s head off if I need to,” he says assertively.

“In the game of volleyball, if you don’t hit it hard enough, the other team is going to recover it. If I get that ball where I’m confident enough and it’s a good enough set, I need to kill this ball for my team. That’s why I swing so hard. I’m either getting blocked, which I don’t think I will, or I’m going to win this point.”

Getting out of his head

The 6’6″ Australia native — who chose to stay in Canada and train with his teammates during the cancelled season last year due to the pandemic — has always been known for his power, versatility and volleyball IQ. Prior to coming to UM, he had extensive experience as a middle, and saw time at both left and right side in each of the last two seasons for the Herd. He played in 15 matches as a true freshman, coming on strong with 42 of his 62 kills in the final five weekend matchups, and in 2019-20, he upped his kill count to 88.

And while Carleton showed flashes of brilliance, he admitted that at times he played with caution. He didn’t want to mess up, because he knew he might get taken off and was unsure when he’d see the court next. Two years ago specifically, the team’s leader on the attack was right side Kevin Negus. He had 264 kills and for the most part would be the reason the Herd won or lost, and so there was less reliance on Carleton to be a game-changer.

After Negus graduated, Carleton, much like fellow veterans such as Owen Schwartz, Zach Janzen, Brendan Warren and Darian Koskie all knew they needed to take the next step. In the case of Carleton specifically, he wanted to show that he could be a constant difference-maker, someone that could be relied upon every single night to win key points for his team.

Through the first two weeks of play, Carleton was efficient with double-digit kills in every contest, but untimely errors were still creeping into his game. Specifically against Brandon on the road in week three, he had nine as the Herd fell 3-1. It was a situation where he was still worrying a bit too much about making a bad play, instead of moving onto the next point and rallying.

In times of tribulation, sometimes all a person needs is some assurance and a small boost of morale. In this case, it came from assistant coach Mike Stephens, a former two-time national champ with the University of Winnipeg, who second-year head coach Arnd ‘Lupo’ Ludwig brought in this season to provide additional expertise.
 

“Mike, he can be pretty scary on the outside. But one of the things that I really appreciate about him as a coach is that he understands everyone’s style of feedback. He’s figured out with me, sometimes I’ll be like tell me what to do, but sometimes I also need that extra bit of confidence,” Carleton noted.

“Sometimes on timeouts he’s just come up to me and been like ‘Ben, hit it over them.’ Literally that’s all he’s said to me and I’m just like alright, yeah I should do that. He’s come into the timeouts, both him and Lupo and said the things he’s needed to say that we haven’t really had in the past.”

Following the loss against Brandon, Stephens made a simple comment to Carleton that went a long way.

“Mike pretty much told me ‘if you get out of your head, you’re one of the best players in this league.’ That stuck with me. He was telling me ‘you deserve to have the ball, because when you’re on, you’re on.’ He was like ‘you need to stop worrying about making an error or hitting it out or getting blocked, and call for the next ball, because I can see it, but you should see it in yourself that you can get those points for our team.'”

At practice prior to Saturday’s rematch, Carleton, who’d previously been on the left side, found out that he’d been moved to the right. During practice, the left sides were being set much more. Carleton was upset, and Stephens noticed.

“He reached out to me and pretty much texted me saying ‘hey, I don’t want to over-step, but if you want to have a chat, I’m here.’ I was still a little annoyed and upset at this point. I was like this kind of hurt. I went to go have a chat with him. It was funny because he was like ‘stop telling me crap. Just tell me how it is,’ and I told him. I want to be set the ball more. I want to be the guy. He was like ‘good, because I want you to be that as well.'”

The no-BS conversation between the two was a major turning point for Carleton. It helped him to stop overthinking and to just do what he, his coaches and teammates knew he was capable of. The following night he had a season-high 23 kills on 44 attacks, also a season-high.

“We had that chat, and [Stephens] really gave it to me to get out of my head. You are one of the best players, you have the talent, you have the skill. You just have to stop thinking so much and play the game that I’ve seen you play before. After that game Mike just comes up and gives me a high five. That was it, he didn’t say a word to me. I was just like darn, he was right. We won the game as well. It went to five, it was a long game.”

A potent attack, with tweaks

Carleton’s ability to single-handedly change games has been huge, but it doesn’t tell the full story of Manitoba’s attack. The steady Schwartz is averaging just under two kills per set and has 55 digs as a consistent six-row player, while Janzen, Warren and Koskie are three of the most efficient attacking middles in the conference with a combined percentage of .353.

In the case of Janzen, his season-high nine kills on 14 attacks on Saturday against Saskatchewan was a major reason why the Herd recorded a dominant 3-0 win. Additionally, a number of young stars have stepped into the lineup in a big way. For example, first-year 6’6″ left side Spencer Grahame, a “top two or three recruit for his age group in 2020” according to Ludwig, is third on the team with 69 kills.

Carleton, Schwartz and Grahame have all been effective with back row attacks, something that Ludwig and Stephens emphasized going into the season, and an approach that many other teams use to their advantage.

“Lupo definitely did help with our back row attacks. I remember very early on in the season with Mike as well — I think Mike was sort of leading at this point — it was like okay, we are going to create a pipe that’s going to win us games. We struggled with it early on. There were two practices where it was like this is the way that we run the pipe, which we didn’t do very often in games, and Mike and Lupo came along as fresh coaches and basically said forget that, this is how we’re doing it and this is what’s going to win,” recalled Carleton.

“That practice I think I hit so many out and into the net. I think everyone did, because it was such a new thing. The moment we all started to click with it, I just remember in practices, it was like oh crap, this works. You were right Lupo, you were right Mike. I remember one game in particular when we went to Sask, I think Jack set me three, four pipes in a row. Obviously in the game of volleyball a lot of the time you can be one-on-one against the block. With any back row ball, you could have no block. That’s just the way Lupo and Mike developed it as a team for us to be one of our strongest things honestly.”

All kinds of chemistry

This season, Manitoba’s roster is unified more than ever before. The rookies are right there with the veterans, and everyone pushes each other to get better in a supportive and holistic way. Schwartz, one of the team’s key leaders, noted that the group’s mantra is “one heartbeat,” which includes open dialogue in practice, games and film study.

“We have that team chemistry. Even with our younger guys it’s sort of ridiculous how close we are. I feel like a lot of teams there can be little cliques or groups, and maybe I felt that a little bit in my first or second year, obviously being a foreigner coming into a team. This year for sure, those younger guys are right there with us,” added Carleton.

“They’re just as close as those guys that are older than us, like [libero] Kyle [Martens] who’s been on the team for like six years. It’s so good chemistry-wise and in practice as well. We just have the confidence in each other that we’re going to have a good practice, like when we split up teams and it’s our starters versus our bench, it’s not like there’s anyone you don’t want to play with. That shows in the games where it’s within our own ability to win or lose games.”

The Herd are currently in a deep battle for top spot in Canada West’s East division. At 6-6, they’re just one game behind Winnipeg for first with three weeks left to go, and have knocked off Winnipeg, Saskatchewan and Brandon at least once, including four different games where they didn’t lose a set.

Because COVID cancelled nationals in the middle province two years ago, the Bisons will once again be able to host this year. But they’re a far different team than they were two years ago. With an enhanced level of confidence, chemistry and a revised philosophy, they’ve set their sights on peaking in a major way come March.

“In the previous year, we knew we weren’t the greatest team. It was sort of like we’re going to go to nationals anyway, so obviously we’re still going to try and win all of these games,” noted Carleton.

“This year, it’s within our own power. With teams like Trinity and Alberta, I feel like a lot of times there’s been comments where even if they play bad, they might be better than us. This conference and the way it’s been, it’s purely us. If we play well, we can win games easily. It’s within our own ability to win or lose games, and I think that’s the mentality that we have now, rather than whether a team is actually better than us or not.”