Week #2 Update - Getting Better Every Day

Hello All,

Another week in the books and another solid showing for DWU Volleyball. We started the first week of September off by traveling to Aberdeen, SD for a match. Our JV team played against North Dakota State College of Science for their first match of the year prior to the Varsity team playing against Presentation College. The JV match was a little shaky but we still had some great play out of Kalissa Wade who set a 5-1 offense and delivered some great sets to our hitters. Our hitters had a small case of the yips and allowed NDSCS to get out to early leads in the 3 games. Overall it was not a bad showing for the first match of the year and we still expect great things for this group throughout the season.



The Varsity team came out a little slow against Presentation and trailed most of the first game and then decided to turn it on to take the first game 28-26 (ladies please stop trying to give me more grey hairs I already have plenty). We then went on to control the rest of the match rather easily as we cruised to the 3-0 win. It was a good match to set us up for the upcoming home tournament.



On Friday, the 4th we opened up the home tournament with a match against SD School of Mines. It started off as a relatively easy match with a first game win of 25-12 but then turned into a dogfight as we traded the next 3 games with all of them being 2 point games wins for both teams. We had a fight on our hands from a team that was young and taking every opportunity to put their mark on the match. We eventually made a great run at the beginning of the 5th game that eventually led to 15-10 win to seal the match. I think we put a lot of effort into that match and even though we did get 2 matches off before we played again we looked physically and mentally drained as we started our second match of the day against Dickinson State dropping the 1st game 11-25 and not knowing what had hit us. We battled extremely hard the next two games but offensively never got on track as the DSU block kept our LS attack in check all night and finished the last 2 games losing 23-25. It was both a positive and negative feeling after that match knowing that we played so poorly offensively yet still had chances to win 2 games and possibly change the outcome of the match. We talked about just coming in the next day knowing it was a new day.



The next day started off with an early match against Montana Western, we played exceptional during the match with relatively easy wins in the first 2 games and then UMW played well in the third to push us to win 25-23. We then had a very tough match against Rocky Mountain College, a team that is receiving votes for the Top 25. We came out very well and just couldn't finish the 1st game as strong as we started and lost 25-20. The 2nd game was similar where RMC had 1 more 4-5 point run than we did and finished us off 25-18. The 3rd game was difficult for us as we had put a lot of energy in the previous 2 games and fell rather easily to finish the match.

It was a good weekend for us and a weekend that we learned a lot about where we are as a team. We can be a very strong defensive team that carries to battle it out in games. Offensively we are getting better and more balanced with each practice and match. It will continue to be a fun year.

We head into the upcoming week with a great challenge and opportunity. We play Northwestern on Wednesday in Mitchell. Northwestern is #5 in the Nation and always a big match when they come to campus. We come in to the match very confident in our abilities and understand that it will have to be a true team match to accomplish our goals for the match. SHOCK & AWE that is what we are looking to do.

-Coach V