'I know it's horribly difficult': Moeller head coach Pieper wins first GCL match at Elder

First-year Moeller volleyball head coach Casey Pieper picked up his first win over a Greater Catholic League South rival after beating Elder on the road on Friday, March 22, in four sets, 20-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-20.

For Pieper and the Moeller program, the rivalry wins make for a good ride home, but everything is a means to reaching their peak come tournament time. Dropping matches in the early season can be acceptable if it leads to growth at the end of the year. The win over Elder was representative of that mantra.

"Our guys let the game come to them in the first one," Pieper said. "Then with a lot of energy from the bench and more focus, they really stepped it up and took the game and I think that was the big difference."

Moeller (4-1, 1-1 GCL-South) bounced back from its conference-opening loss to St. Xavier to notch that first conference win. Elder (6-1, 1-1 GCL-South) dropped its first match of the season and has one more tune-up before hosting St. Xavier on April 5.

Communication is key

Pieper took over a program that has won 11 state championships including each of the last three. While there wasn't a need to instill a cultural shift, Pieper still had to deal with the turnover that comes with any year-to-year change in a high school program. To keep the team moving, communication is his key.

"The biggest thing we need is communication," Pieper said. "When we played X, it was a big struggle to communicate. In our first set, we were not talking a lot and I challenged them to talk and communicate. They went after it and our side out got a whole lot better and it made a difference."

Good communication throughout the program is more than on-the-court strategy. Senior Tyler Geselbracht says the base of successful communication starts with supporting the younger players.

"A big thing is cheering on the freshmen and JV," Geselbracht said. "Let them know that we are there to support them. Eventually we're all going to make it up to varsity. We're all going to be playing together, so building relationships with the freshmen and sophomores is good.

"Try to form a bond with them now so that later on in the year it can only grow and can't go down."

"I know it's horribly difficult"

The first conference victory of Pieper's career came over Elder head coach Sean Tierney who has more than a few of his own after taking over the Elder job in 2003.

Tierney's first GCL victory came nearly 21 years ago against Purcell Marian, a program that no longer fields a boys volleyball team and doesn't even play in the GCL anymore.

No matter how the field has changed in over two decades, Tierney is reminded of a similarity of his start and that of Pieper's: winning, especially in the conference, is no cakewalk.

"I can't tell you who my first win was against, but I know it's horribly difficult," Tierney said. "It's horribly difficult to be young and to step into a new program with all the expectations in the world on you.

"I wish him all the luck. They're a good program. Moeller's a good team so I'm sure he'll do fine."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Moeller volleyball beats Elder in Casey Pieper's first conference win