October 20, 2010

The Tough Stretch

As any coach heads into the season the circle two parts of their schedule; one that they realize that they can make a run and get potentially many wins in a row and the one part of the schedule that will be gruelling for their players and challenge the team to the greatest extent of their physical and emotional strength.

We are almost through that gruelling stage right now. We have almost completed the part of our schedule that had us playing all Top 6 teams in the conference in a row. It started with #19 in NCAA DIII poll (3)Nebraska Wesleyan on the 9th, #4 in the NAIA national poll (1) Northwestern on the 12th, (6) Hastings on the 15th, #15 in the nation (2) Doane on the 16th, #19 in the nation (4) Dordt on the 19th. We have (5) USF this upcoming Saturday.

The schedule has never been friendly to us at this time of the year but yet neither has the ability to shoot ourselves in the foot with unforced errors. This is one of those points in time that you get through and then move on as quickly as possible and try to put it to the back of your mind and forget it ever happened.

Some positives that we can look at as we progress in the final stage of our season is that we get to go back to our 6-2 setup with the return of Rachel Tinklenberg, back from an injury which held her out for from the start of this part of the schedule. Ashley Kley is beginning to get her offensive game back from a year ago at this time. Kimi Lueders is showing her offensive talent and the reason why she was put in the lineup on a little bit more consistent basis. Meghan Cronberg is beginning to understand that attack location is just as important as power and the combination of the two is lethal. We need these four players as well as Carina Fesenmaier, Stacie Brinker, Andrea Johnson, Kacie Sanderson, Brooke Warne, Sam Sandau, Wendy Schmaltz, Kayla O'Connell, Kalissa Wade, Kara Robertson, Liz Humiston, Kelli Swenson, Lacey Reimnitz, redshirt Larissa Veldhuizen and even our injured players Lexi Townsend, Sage Knudson, Nikki Gleich and Sarah Stahlke to be at the top of their emotional, mental and physical abilities on an everyday basis. We need the commitment to self-improvement and the ability to help teammates improve to be at is greatest level than ever before.

We have an opportunity to go out win our next 6 matches. Our opponents are all very beatable and not to our level of play when we have absolute focus on our game plan, skills, and togetherness. I go back to last week's comment, "IT IS THAT TIME OF THE YEAR". We are in that moment, that stage, that time of the year where great things only happen when you fear nothing and you give every drop of energy to your play, your sport, your TEAM.

- Coach V

October 10, 2010

That Time of the Season

It's that time of the season. Geez that can mean so many things. For us right now it truly does. It's that time of the season that the body starts to break down for the athletes. Well, we currently have 5 players out with season ending injuries and just had a starting middle go down with an ankle injury over the weekend. We back problems, shoulder issues, and other foot and knee ailments. It's that time of the season.

It is also that time of the season that our conference schedule becomes very unfriendly to us. This past Saturday was the beginning of a stretch of matches where we play all top 5 teams in the conference in a row, then a non-conference match, and then the 6th place team. Why not throw that schedule right on top of the pile, lol. We are ready for it and are going into this stretch with a great deal of focus and preparation. To be the best in this conference you have to go through the top teams eventually (not all at once though). Yet this seems to be the schedule we have every season in mid-October. It's that time of the season.

So here is a quick review for those of you that missed out on our previous week of matches. We came off of a great match win at Midland University on the 2nd of Oct. feeling great. Our next match was at USF on that Tuesday. We came in confident and focused. We had to adjust our lineup due to the season ending injury to Sarah Stahlke, our most consistent serve receive passer on the season. Although we felt that we could manage and still perform at high level. We certainly did for the first set and half. We controlled every aspect of the match during the first set, forcing them to make at least 3 substitutions they were not planning to make. We then came out again with a quick start and about a 7-8 point advantage at like 16-8or9. And then we froze up, our serve receive passing became our worst enemy. We were stuck in one rotation for 12 straight points and that comfortable lead we had became a deficit very quickly. It was heart-wrenching and we all knew that it wasn't going end well. We struggled the rest of the match as we could not find a way to build our confidence against basically 2 of their servers as they ran us off the court with extremely aggressive serving. It was like being hit in the chest and not ever seeing it coming, everything just leaves you and you struggle to find your breathe and bearing as to where you are. We knew we let them off the hook.

We came back into the next couple of practices with that extremely sour taste of "what if". We had to figure out a way to just suck it up and get better with our ball control. There was an understanding that heading into the weekend that our Friday match against, then 0-6 in GPAC play, Concordia was a must win situation for us. We adjusted our lineup again during practices to give us a little bit more consistency with our passers. Then Friday came and with our lower numbers we were forced to play some Varsity players in the JV match. One of our starting MH's, Rachel, came down on a teammate during the last segment of the JV warm up and hurt her ankle. She played during the first set of the JV but couldn't do much with movement so we decided to shut her down for the night. With that decision we had to make a drastic change from what our practices had prepared us for. Without the additional hitter we were forced to go back into a 5-1 setup that we used earlier in the season. It seemed to work out OK. We had our struggles passing but we played consistently enough to win 3 close sets to take the match. Carina set a very solid match after not running a 5-1 in about 2-3 weeks. Our OH's came out to play and sparked our offense. Meghan and Ashley will need to continually perform at a high level within out of system hitting to keep us stable since our passing has been streaky of late. It was a great win for us and something we felt we could build on heading into the next night.

On Saturday, we faced Nebraska Wesleyan. Who was just coming off of very long 5 set match against Dordt. I thought we would have the advantage with energy level, feeling that they may have been tired from the gruelling match the night before and the 2 hour travel in the morning. However, in the first set it looked like we were the ones that traveled 2 hours and just woke up. We needed a spark, some emotion, some fire. We found it in the 2nd set as we battled extremely hard to come back and win the set 27-25. We felt good about our play and felt that we could pull out something special. We battled hard in the 3rd and 4th sets but could pull out the wins. There always seemed to be 1-2 rotations that held us back from controlling the tempo of the match. Our offense power was not with the rest of the match as it seemed all of our attacks were dug up by NWU and they limited our kills. A lack of offense has been a key contributor all year to some of our struggles. We are trying to implant that "killer instinct" into our hitter's attitudes and mental approach to attacking balls. I tell them all the time if we are going to go down let's go down swinging and trying to take off the opponent's blocking arms or digger's heads, haha.

We head into this week with an uncertainty about Rachel's ankle as well as our serve receiving passing confidence and attacking attitude. It is going to very interesting to see how this group of young ladies responds to the great challenges ahead of them with playing the top 6 teams in the conference all in a 2 week period of time. It's gut check time, who has the mental fortitude to not care about who the opponent it and just go out and execute the skills and game plan that is required of them. Who can face the challenge, stare it right in the face and scream as loud as they can, "I WILL CONQUER YOU".

IT IS THAT TIME OF THE SEASON!!!!

- Coach V

October 3, 2010

The Midway Point: WE BELIEVE

Well let's see where we left off last time. We had just switched our lineup around with a four day practice window and a weekend off in between and went out to beat Mt. Marty in 3 sets, albeit that the 2nd and 3rd sets were close and we had to come from behind to win both of those to win the match. I guess you can say that is our forte.

We had 3 days to prepare for Morningside, a team always at the top of our conference but with them having a lot of new players on their roster and with some of the matches they had lost I felt that this could be a time to get while they were a little down. During the week of practice we tried to emphasize starting quick and controlling the serve receive portion of our game to give us chances to compete throughout the match. The first 2 days went fairly well for practice for all of the players. However, on the Friday practice only half of the team really showed up to compete in practice. I feared the worst after the practice heading into Saturday's match against Morningside. My fears held up true as nothing seemed to go right for most of the match. We missed serves, we didn't pass well in serve receive, our defensive discipline was non-existent and we had a lot of hitting errors. It was one of those matches that you swear all of the players were abducted by aliens and it was just their bodies there and not their minds, hahaha. So our JV lost quickly in 2 and our Varsity lost in 3. It was one of those days that you just hope as a coach that the players realize that your past successes only mean something up until the start of the next match. You have to give everything for every match and when you give teams that are struggling a little bit of momentum it is tough to take it away from them. It was time to refocus on discipline and constant focus.

So we had an opportunity to get ourselves back on track by hosting Dakota State on the following Tuesday. We were very confident coming in and gaining confidence with our new lineup. We did know that Dakota State was going to come in with a great amount of energy and really looking to steal a win from us. Both teams came out with a lot of energy in the match and it seemed that all the way up to the 17 point area of each of the 1st two sets that both teams were even in play but then DSU would make a small 3-4 run and separate themselves from us and go up 2-0 in the match. We went in to the intermission between the 2nd and 3rd set knowing that something was missing, not necessarily with skill and strategy but with heart and purpose in every movement we do on the court. We talked about discipline and passion during the intermission and came out of the locker room a completely different team. We came out and seemed like we could do nothing wrong offensively or defensively. Our team defensive positioning and discipline was outstanding. We put DSU away in the 3rd and 4th sets with them only scoring 14 and 13 points (complete dominating performances). So we again force another match to a 5th set and again when we started down 2-0. The 5th set started with both teams going back and forth a with points. After a few points back and forth our defense and offensive transition took over and we seemed to continually go 2 or 3 points to their one to finish of the match. It was another 5 set victory for us and we always take them. We are certainly becoming that team that no one wants to let hang around in matches because we will find ways to get the win.

The very next night we had a conference match against Briar Cliff. A team that I feel roster wise and system wise we matched up very well against. It was an opportunity for both teams to gain a spot in the standings as both of us were sitting at 1-3. We played well for most of the match but at the 15-17 point area of each of the 3 sets we played we just seemed to run out of gas a little bit. Could it have been that the 5 set comeback from behind win the night before took a lot out of us? It is possible. Again it always came down to defensive discipline as we were constantly finding ourselves out of position at key moments in each set. We also did not have an outstanding offensive showing which kept us from putting more pressure on their defense. We dropped the match in 3 but could have a small feeling of leaving the match that with how inefficient we were offensively we still gave ourselves chances to stay in each set and potentially get the job done.

We looked at the next two days of practice as great opportunities to get more in tuned with our defensive intensity and discipline. The two practices went very well leading into our match against Midland University. We left to travel to Midland on Friday night after practice to make sure that we got great rest for the afternoon match time. There was a great amount of focus in both matches. The JV unfortunately lost in 2 but it there were some really good moments in the match. The varsity came out with an unbelievable amount purpose, discipline, and focus. We came out and took the first two sets with great confidence. We went in to the next set knowing that the match was not over and that we needed to continue to raise our level of energy and play. Midland for sure increased their energy and started to really complete their game plan against us. They served aggressive and kept us from being in system to get quality swings. They had us playing very inefficiently in all aspects of our game and took the next 2 sets of the match easily to even it up at 2-2. It was kind of a role reversal for us. We were normally the team that starts down 2-0 to come back to even the match. It has never been the other way around. It was going to be interesting to see how we would respond from being so close to closing out the match early. The 5th set started with both teams trading points for nearly the entire set. Midland found a couple of times that they would pull out in front by two points, their first time was at the switch at 8-6. We were forced to make some lineup changes due to and injury and it was nerve racking because we had to bring in players that were being put into positions they don't normally play. We battled the rest of the way, eventually finding ourselves down 13-10 after being aced for the 16th time. We sided-out and found some phenomenal discipline in our defensive structure for 3 plays in a row to get us a 14-13 lead and a match point. I felt this was our moment and that we needed to finish it on the next point. Midland came up with a great play to sideout to even the score and get one of their servers that had given us trouble all match going back to serve. After that you don't normally feel comfortable about the next serve to receive. However, we found a way to pass a perfect ball and sideout on a first ball swing to tie up the set at 15-15. We took advantage of the opportunity to and won the next point which was a long rally that both teams fought very hard to win. We fortunately had the best offensive opportunity of the rally and won the point. We went back to serve and Midland's serve receive let them down on the serve as they had to chase a ball down to their bench and give us a free ball. They knew exactly what we were going to run and had 2 blockers in great position to defend the attack but our aggressive swing to the edge of their block sent the ball out of bounds to win the match for us and let the celebration begin.

We have had a roller coaster of performances during the season to this point and this Midland match was a perfect example of it. However, most of the stuff before ended with losses for us. I believe now we have a true understanding that we can still win matches when things aren't going well in a match for us. We have the talent and size to compete in every match we play. Yet this is the point in time and I think this is the match that will catapult us into a wonderful run in building confidence and putting us in a great situation to compete at the highest level of our abilities night in and night out.

We believe we are a team on the rise and team that no one wants to face because we will never quit playing hard and we will always find ways to make it difficult to beat us. We have half of the season to build on this huge win for us. The time is now to see where we can truly go.

-Coach V

September 23, 2010

Week 4/5: Days off are always great

I guess when you get a few days off from playing matches you kind of let things slide. So I apologize for this update coming a little later than anticipated.

After our weekend of hosting a great tournament at the Corn Palace we had to quickly refocus and come back with a conference match against a very strong and nationally ranked (24) team in Dordt College. As we looked at film and then eventually as both teams were warming up we noticed something potentially could and would play a big factor in the match. Dordt is a very tall team across the front row all of the time. They ran a 6-2 offensive setup and in every front row position they had a not 1 player that was under 5' 11" (I think only 1 was 5'11" and the rest were all 6' and taller). We have 2-3 players with that kind of size. This was a match that we felt coming in was going to be controlled at the net and by the end of it Dordt clearly had the upper hand with their size. We did not find much success on sets to the antennaes as their double block on the right and left side was very good. However, we did have a lot of success in the middle of the court. Our middles did well when they got the ball and put Dordt in a lot of very difficult positions. If we only could have passed a little better I think we could have gotten them the ball a little more often and slowed down the speed of their blocking movements. Our success in the middle was not enough as we fell in 3 sets. Fortunately, we will get another chance to play them later next month and with our experiences against them as a bigger blocking team we will have the advantage of understanding how to hit around those big blockers and potentially how to use their size to our advantage by attacking the ball lower and off of their exposed arms to the edges of the court.

We left the Dordt match feeling that we didn't leave enough of ourselves out on the court, we held back for whatever reason. Was it an intimidation of a team that is better on paper or that we have struggled as of late and not overly confident with ourselves? We didn't know exactly what is was at the time but we knew we could figure it out. We didn't have time to dwell on it as we had leave the Dordt match behind us as the very next night we had to get right back up and play another match, this time against Presentation College.

We entered the Presentation match with the sour taste we had from the match the night before. We came out with a sense of purpose in our play at the start of the match and jumped out very quickly to big early lead in the first set. We went trying to focus on correcting the physical errors we committed the night before. There was a concsious effort put forth in making those changes. We were also fortunate that Presentation was not as big as Dordt; it actually turned out opposite as we were the team with the unbelievable size in the match. We controlled the tempo for pretty much the entire match. Presentation had a few good runs at times but never put us in real danger of feeling that we would lose any set. It was good to get the win and stop a nasty losing streak we were currently on. We still had some things to adjust and most importantly we had to build our team confidence that the hardwork does pay off.

After the Presentation match on Wednesday, we were fortunate to have 5 day period of time before our next match. We took that time to put together a new lineup together that would help solidify our serve receive passing while at the same time give us more offensive options. This was the only period of time during the season that if we were going to make any drastic changes it had to be now. It was great to get 4 practices in with the new setup and then to be able to come out and use it against conference foe Mt. Marty.

Our focus and level of energy was at a level it hadn't been all year heading in to the match on Tuesday. Dannie, our assistant coach, pointed it out to me right away as the girls were warming up, "They are here tonight focused and ready, no goofing off tonight". I looked out and saw the very same thing; It was wonderful to see 13 "game faces" on and ready to compete at the highest level. The night was ours to be had and there was no way that the team was going to let anyone take anything from them easily that night. It showed very quickly as we just came out and controlled every aspect of the game to take a very quick 11 point lead about halfway through the 1st set. We controlled the tempo of the game and momentum was all ours. Even when Mt. Marty made nice 6 point run near the end of the set to get them back to about 4 or 5 points away, we never budged with our toughness. We closed out the set with a 4 point run of our own and I believe it ended 25-17. We felt really good about things heading into the 2nd set and I think that our dominance of the 1st set gave us a little bit of a easy comfort level. Mt. Marty came out in the 2nd set and put together some nice runs to get a lead of anywhere between 3-5 points for the first probably half of the set. We then just chipped away with each serve opportunity we got. We go back and get 2-3 points while they would just side out and then lose their serve. Those little 2-3 point runs added up quickly for us and we pulled it back to even. Just before we pulled it back to even, I think we had the kill of the season so far as Andrea Johnson came on 1 foot take off "go" set out of serve receive play and just absolutely crushed the ball (I swear it hit the 10 ft line and made the line move) to short left back and bounced halfway up the bleachers on just the bounce from the contact in the court. The entire crowd gave the whole "OHHHHH!!!!!!" sound all at once. A few points later as a timeout was called Andrea was still in shock, "That is the hardest ball I have ever hit in my life". Of course my response was, "That is just the beginning for you". We battled back and forth from there on out in a tough 2nd set and had face a couple of set points and some moments that most teams would have normally folded and given the set away to come back and take the set 27-25. We didn't crack under the pressure and again our confidence and competive spirit was growing. Going into the 3rd set it was clear that we were going to find any and all ways to finish this match in 3 sets. Even when we came out slow again in the 3rd set, there wasn't the feel of "here we go again, not sure if we can dig ourselves out". It was kind of the opposite feeling in that we were going to figure this opponent out and just create small scoring runs to chip away and get us back to even where we could then show our dominance. Mt. Marty fought with a lot of hear in the last set and had us scrambling around and playing a style of play that is not like ours. At times the play was sloppy and slow with a lot of tips and junk balls sent over the net. Our team did an excellent job of adjusting and using their unconventional style against them as we turned many of their tips into quick offensive transition plays for us. Both teams battled right to the end and by the end of it we didn't commit errors while they did and we came away in the 3rd to close out the match with another 27-25 set victory.

It was great to get the victory and get ourselves comfortable with our new offensive and defensive setups. We passed in serve receive extremely well and our offense was very balanced. It looks good for the future as we progress. I truly believe that we can keep it going and continue to build confidence in each other, our system of play, and our ability to compete and beat the top teams in our conference.

- Coach V

September 13, 2010

Weekend 3:Corn Palace Classic

Playing in the first volleyball ever played at the "World's Only Corn Palace" was a great experience. The tournament matches that went along with the event were all good and fun to watch. It may end up being that DWU plays all home matches there in future seasons. We'll have to see how that progresses though.



Friday was a full day of college matches that started at noon and ended around 10pm. What a long day but so much fun. Well we started off the tournament with NCAA Div II program Colorado Christian. Wow were they athletic, discipline and very explosive. They did a great job in transition turning our attacks into kill opportunities for them. We came out a little slow in each of the 3 sets played and had to play from behind each time. We couldn't rely on our comeback ability in any set as CCU was dominate in the middle of the court. They blocked and attacked well from the middle and we struggled to either block or dig them from there. We had our runs of points but their aggressive serving and quick transition plays were just a little too much for us in the end.



We came out in our next match at 8pm (the nightcap of the first day) against Dickinson State with a lot of energy and fire in our mental approach to the night. We competed very well in all of the sets up until point 17 or 18 and then it seemed that we would hit a wall. Our serve receive passing or side out ability was not strong throughout the weekend and really held us back from closing out some sets. We had a great opportunity to change the momentum of the DSU in the 2nd set. We had the majority of the momentum throughout the entire set, our attacking percentage was better than theirs, we had more aces, and more blocks in that set. Yet it came down to our inability to side-out right away; we gave a final 3 point run to close out set #2 and it really hurt our confidence for the start of set #3 as we dropped 5 straight points to open the set. We battled back but the initial start really hurt our chances to really get back into the set. It was great to see that there was some fire in us, some push. We will just need to find it more consistently for 25 points and not 18. Ashley Kley played well with 11 kills as well as Kimi Lueders who had 6 kills, 0 errors and hit .545.



The second day was the true start of the fun for the tournament. We had 3 college matches start the day on campus at DWU at 9am and then some HS matches started at noon at the Corn Palace. The noon match at the Corn Palace with Hanson facing Marion really kicked off the day as that match went 5 sets and had a lot of emotion poured into it by both teams. The second HS match of the day had Mt. Vernon facing Corsica/Stickney for the CBH Conference Tournament Championship. Corsica/Stickney got through Mt. Vernon in a quick 2 set match to win the tournament championship. The third HS match was the nightcap event and had rivals Mitchell HS against Huron HS. All expectations were that Huron would run away with the match. However, Mitchell had very different plans. MHS came out with so much energy and passion that Huron didn't know what hit. Mitchell played solid all night both offensively and defensively to take the match in 4 sets and make waves in the rivalry. Congratulation MHS. Great finish to the Corn Palace Classic.



The second match was us facing Kansas Wesleyan. We came out with great energy, focus and determination to get the job done. We battled to close victories in the first 2 sets to only lose a little focus and drop the next two sets in close fashion. We conquered the 5th set again in close manner after first pushing out to an early 6 point advantage. We managed to get it done and win the match even though not having a great offensive performance overall but we found ways to win. Congrats ladies. There were a few players that had solid matches. Brooke Warne had 32 digs to lead the team. Carina Fesenmaier had 45 assists and 21 digs. Ashley Kley had 11 kills and 20 digs. Kimi Lueders had 10 kills and only playing in 2 sets Rachel Tinklenberg played a great backup role and came out with 8 kills on 13 attacks. There was great balance throughout all of the stats and something we are hoping to continue for the rest of the season.


The last college match put DWU vs. Valley City State University. This has grown into one great rivalry. So let's set this up, these two teams have played 3 prior to this match over the past 2 seasons with each match going 5 sets and a DWU victory. Two of those victories were when VCSU was up 2 sets to none forcing DWU to come back and win the next 3 sets. Which happened just the week before at the USF tournament. Needless to say, VCSU really wanted to get the monkey off their back. They came out on fire in the first set just putting it to us 25-12. We had no answers due to our serve receive passing, setting, and hitting not being up to par. However, we would not falter to the challenge and came out to have our best offensive set of the season putting up 18 kills in the set and hitting .406 to go on and take the set 25-19. As we made the crossover to switch sides VCSU's staff and I could only laugh and say "why not go 5 and continue the streak". We all knew that the fight was on for this match. We came out in the 3rd and played a roller coaster set of play while at the same time so did VCSU, a lot of errors by both teams. We came out on top 25-22. Heading into the 4th set our players were demanding to finish this in 4; the talk was there but not the walk. We came out flat with our serve receive execution again and it started us in big hole to start the set. We couldn't quite pull it back to even and eventually lost the set 25-21. So why not a 5th set between DWU and VCSU, keep the rivalry alive. However, this time VCSU decided that they had had enough of losing these type of matches to us. They had a determination in their play that we could not match, unfortunately. I think our previous wins in the 5th set gave us a false sense of comfort thinking that they would just fold. Unfortunately we could not defend their pin to pin offense in the 5th as their OH's picked us a part to an easy 15-8 match win. This match hurt yet however gave us a great lesson in understanding that you always have to remain hungry for the victory. They just won't happen because of history.

The weekend was a success for all of the teams. I want to thank all of the volunteers that did everything from taking tickets, security duty, scorekeepers, stats, and line judging. Without all of you this tournament would not have run so smoothly. Thank you to everyone who came out to support all of the teams that played. I am sure you had a lot of fun getting to watch so much volleyball in one weekend.

- Coach V

September 5, 2010

2nd Weekend: USF Tourney

Go ahead and call us the Cardiac Kids. There seems to be no deficit we can't come back from to either win or make a score close at the end. This past weekend at the USF tournament we found ourselves in a lot of trouble situations early on in nearly every set of each match we played. We left the weekend knowing that we can fight our way back into matches and bring our play to a different level even during matches we are not playing our best volleyball. We also learned that we need to develop a killer instinct during every point of a match and to value every point we score as well as give up.

We started off the weekend with a noon match against Waldorf College. A very much undersized team in comparison to us but a team with a lot of defensive fight in them. I realized it was going to be an interesting weekend from the opening set when we committed 16 errors to give them an easy first set win, 17-25. After a regrouping of our composure we went out in the next two sets to absolutely dominate play and come away with 2 easy set victories (25-14 & 25-15). We then decided that the 2 easy set wins were enough to finish the match easily, but our opponent wanted nothing to do with it. We didn't have the killer instinct to finish them off and they took the 4th set 25-21 and stole the momentum of the match right from us. So we headed into the 5th set playing a completely inferior opponent in size and athleticism but with more confidence, a clear danger zone. The 5th set started off with us jumping out early and again relaxing thinking the lead was safe. It turned into a back and forth battle from the 8 point switch with neither team backing down. I think we pulled from our previous match experience with Black Hills State, in which we went 5 sets but lost, and learned a lot about ourselves. The experience paid off as we closed out the match barely with a 16-14 win for the first match win of the season. It wasn't pretty (we committed 43 total errors in the match) or exactly as we had hoped but we got the job done. Good teams find ways to win even on bad days. There were a few players that stood out with solid games to help lead to the victory, Ashley Kley had 14 kills while hitting .344 and 9 digs; Sarah Stahlke had 9 kills while hitting .368 and 7 digs; Carina Fesenmaier had 43 assists and 10 digs; and Kayla O'Connell, getting her first ever varsity college playing time came in and had 14 digs, she was a pleasant replacement for an injury that came up during the week of practice heading into the weekend.

The second match of Friday was against Valley City State, with a new head coach who is the best friend and former teammate of my wife while at MN State-Moorhead, this match had a different feel for me as a coach. I enjoy beating my friends the most, LOL. So after winning a tight match just previously and not coming out with fire or a sense of urgency in the that previous match, one would think that you next match in that same day would be an opposite start. Well I hate to say it but I think it got worse; no emotion, no heart, no desire, and no fight to start off the match. Valley City, a team that lost to us last season in 2 heartbreaking 5 set matches was out for revenge. They played with so much passion and energy that we didn't even know what had hit us for the first 2 sets (18-25 & 13-25). It had the feeling of us just lying down and taking the beating with no resistance. The 3rd set started off and there wasn't much of a change, we committed errors and made a lot of defensive positioning mistakes; it was rough for us. I remember looking at the score with one timeout remaining (I used the first one in the first 5 points of the set) and seeing us down something like 13 or 14 to 19 or 20, some score that you normally pack it up and go home when down 2 sets to none. Yet we put together a small 3-4 point run, then sided-out quickly and put another 3 point run together. They then put a small run together and i look up and its 24-21, we are looking at 3 match points in the face and we have just finally put some passion and pride into our play. I told my assistant at this time that if we win this set we will win the match, WATCH THIS!!! All of sudden our front line decided that they would begin to own the net and or the next 3 points we had 2 stuff blocks with about 4-5 other touches at the net during that span along with a great counter attack swing from Meghan Cronberg and we have put our nose in front at 25-24. VCSU sides-out and then scores on a quick transition play to put them up at 26-25 with another match point. Normally this is the time when a some random fluke play wins the match for the team that had been playing the most consistently throughout the match. However, we found something within our blocking scheme that just wouldn't allow them to get the ball across the net easily and put together the final 3 point run to take the 3rd set. It was amazing we only played well for the final 12 points of the set and somehow extended the match. We then went on riding such an adrenaline rush from that 3rd set to just pound them in the 4th 25-12 and then carried it over to the 5th and win the match 15-6. Our blocking, emotion, and energy only showed up in the last 2 1/3 sets of the match but it was a great way to finish the day.

Saturday came rolling around and I was personally pumped for it; we just came off of some high emotion matches and great wins to prove that we are never out of a match. We faced Grandview, a very solid team that is athletic and well coached. Oh and they also have this OH that can hit every type of set and to any area of the court without you thinking that she can, she is very good and powerful. As the match starts, we come out flat again (Deja vu anyone). However, this team was not going to give anything to us. They did a great job of keeping the ball in play when they couldn't get it to their main hitters and when they did get it to them, they play was for sure over with most of the time a point going to them. They ran away with a match that was neither easy nor difficult for them. We made some runs in each set at them, of course late in each set but it was always a little too late.

Our last match of the tournament was against SD school of mines. We again came out flat to open the match. However this time we figured it out quicker that we need to pull ourselves out of the hole quicker. We were down late in the first set 22-20 or something and found a way to close out the first set 25-23. I was thinking to myself, here we go we figured out how to have the sense of urgency, that killer instinct. Set 2 was fought out well by both teams, SDMT showed some resiliency to come back and win the 2nd set after dropping the first when they probably could have taken it as well. The 3rd set comes around and 4th set and eventually think to myself that I might have spoken too soon about us getting that killer instinct as we eventually dropped the final two sets of the match but not with putting together final runs in each of those sets to put the pressure on the other team. It was a heartbreaking match and one that we won't get the chance to revenge, we let it slip away from us and we all feel it.

I think we were relying on our ability to make comebacks too much in these two matches. We talked about having that passion and emotion from the first whistle. Have sense of urgency and understand that every point does matter. We are capable of coming back but more times than not in rally scoring you will always come up short in the end when you try to do it too often.

We had some great learning moments over the weekend and made some strides as a team. The quality of playing with passion and purpose everyday and having that killer instinct has not been a part of the history of this program. It has to begin somewhere and with one group of athletes. These are the athletes that it will start with, they too are going through the growing pains right now of learning how to handle the pressures of being that group that did it first.

We look forward to this week and Tuesday we face top team Northwestern on their home court. A huge test for us. Which teams shows up? The one that waits for the end or the team that controls the match from the very first whistle. If we can dominate the net blocking and force Northwestern to have to play longer rallies because of defensive attitude then the advantage will be with us. We will just have to go out and put it all on the line and play with Pride, Passion and Purpose.

- Coach V

August 29, 2010

A Positive Weekend of Growth

As outsiders (people more focused on results rather than the process of progression) may look at this past weekend as a disappointment due to the match record finishing up 0-4 to start the season. Those of us that are a part of the program and were fortunate enough to watch the weekend of play got to see a team really find their rhythm together during the second day and gain more confidence then any win over lesser competition could ever give. I am extremely happy with the effort, supportiveness, and leadership from everyone on our roster this weekend. The mental toughness that was shown from one day to the next was outstanding and a great foreshadow for the remainder of the season.

We scheduled this weekend to be tough and to see where we could potentially fit in with the national spotlight. 3 of the 4 teams we faced were either in the NAIA Top 25 or receiving votes to get in the Top 25 list. The 4th team has been a 30 win team 3 of the 4 years and formerly in the Top 25. We found out that we can play at a higher intensity level on a consistent basis and can potentially beat some very good teams within the national spotlight.

Our first match on Friday was against Indiana Wesleyan. We came out in the very first set and made great runs of points in the early part of the game and had the momentum for a vast majority of the set. Near the end of that set we faced one of the top jump topspin servers in the tournament and we struggled to keep her serve controlled to run efficient offense. We finished that set losing 22-25 and had 4 more total errors than IWU, the difference in the set. We talked about the difference in errors during the break and I think it changed our mentality in a way were not looking for. We came out in the next 2 sets playing timid and not wanting to make mistakes and our aggressive nature suffered. For the first match of the season and the first time playing against outside competition, we found out right away that we have two different speeds of play and that we don't want to be in the second one ever again. We are better when we play aggressive and fast.

Our second match on Friday was against #17 Bellevue. After watching them struggle against a Top 10 team right before our first match we had a sense of confidence that we could compete with them and potentially steal a set. However, Bellevue decided to make sure that they didn't have the same performance they had in their first match and played out of their minds defensively. We threw everything we could at them from different attack angles to different types of shots and they just dug every ball possible. We had some bright moments with some runs of points on our side that came from solid defense and good team play. When it was all said an done Bellevue flexed their muscles and proved why they were the #17 team in the nation.

Heading into the second day we may have been a little shell-shocked still from the finish of day 1. We played Jamestown first and came out sluggish. We forgot that there always need to be a certain thought process going on as we are on the court. Everything was chaotic and in complete panic for the first 2 sets of the match. During the break between the 2nd and 3rd set, we talked a lot about getting ourselves mentally reorganized and getting back to our aggressive style of simple play. The 3rd set was a complete 180* style of play from the previous matches outside of the very first set of the tournament against IWU. We played with wonderful communication and with PURPOSE. We stuck with our plan of correct positioning defensively and with a smooth offensive rhythm. We took the 3rd set to give the match a different feel and the 4th set was a battle until they went on one last solid serving and blocking run of about 5-6 points to finish off the match. We came out of this particular match learning so much about ourselves and finding the understanding of what level of energy it takes to compete at the national level.

The first 3 matches were tough matches and probably the greatest learning lessons for our team. We had to see that just going through the motions and not having a specific purpose for our movements and decisions would be detrimental to our potential success. I must say that this team full of fast learners.

Our 4th match was against a very powerful swinging, nearly every swing was as full power as they could swing, in Black Hills State. We played with PRIDE, PASSION, & PURPOSE from the very first serve of the game. Our challenges from the first 3 matches completely paid off for this match. We had a simple defensive plan and found ways to be balanced offensively and keep BHSU confused as to where we would attack and what pace we would attack. We held a 2-1 set lead heading into the 4th set, it was a battle and a back and forth set with each teaming sharing the momentum at least 4-5 times. They stole the 4th set from us (potentially due to a major scoring discrepancy in the first part of the set) and heading into the 5th set the match was up in the air. No team had a distinct advantage or the momentum. It was a great chance for us to get our first match win of the season. However, BHSU had a crucial 2 point run at 12-10 to push them to match point. We had our own 2 point run to get close but couldn't complete a block or dig against their top attacker for match point. We played wonderfully and actually gained more than just what a win could have given us.

I am going into this next week of practice feeling confident about our next tournament and upcoming matches. We have proven to ourselves that we can play consistently at the highest level of energy and focus. The season now truly starts with a complete understanding that each day we will get closer to being the high quality team we talk about being. It won't be easy but it will be worth all of the hard training and adversity that will challenge us everyday.

Great job ladies, the record to this point doesn't show what we truly accomplished. Our process will pay off, I think it will this upcoming weekend.

- Coach V

August 27, 2010

The First Weekend is Here

It is finally here, the time to play against outside competition. We have an exciting weekend ahead of us. We will put ourselves to the test this weekend by playing 3 of 4 teams that are currently either ranked in the NAIA Top 25 or receiving votes to get in. Our goal is to be in the position of one of these teams. No better time than now to see where we fit in.

Not much else to say or really to prepare for. The time we have all been waiting for us here. Roll up your sleeves, put on your hard hat, and bring your lunch pail. IT IS TIME TO DO WORK!!!!!!!!

- Coach V

August 18, 2010

5 Days In and Looking Good

Five days in and about 15 sessions (6-8 practices and 5-7 conditioning sessions) in I must say that we are ahead of schedule than the original plan. It is great to have the ball control of every player on the team to be at a level that will always keep a drill going to its maximum potential and not have to start over after the 2nd contact. Great job ladies, stay with the focus on all of the footwork we have taught and continually trained. It only makes it easier to be successful when you do it correctly, consistently.

Our primary defensive system has been put in and the initial stages of our offense is coming around. It is awesome to not have the feeling of needing to rebuild the team roster or teach every player the systems of play. The third season of a coaching staff is a season where we can see the hard work for those that have been with the program for that long start to sink in and pay off. Our returners are taking the leadership roles we expect from them with motivation and helping to teach the insights and strategies of our offenses and defenses to our newcomers. It has been wonderful to see the amount of teaching and learning going on every single session.

Our teams have not been divided up into JV and Varsity at this time and we most likely won't know for sure of those roster spots until after our inter-squad scrimmage on Sunday night. There are a lot of starting and roster spots open and each one has some great competition by many different players. Along with this competition the comraderie, support and positive atmosphere by the players towards each other has really helped everyone reach higher levels of play each practice.

We still have some work to do and with still more than a week of practices before our first Varsity competition we feel good where we are right now but have the understanding that there is still a mountain to climb to reach our goals.

5 days down and 4 to go of Preseason practices. We are on the verge of great things and we have not even started yet.


GO TIGERS!!!!

- Coach V

August 15, 2010

The First Day Has Come And Gone

Some would say it went by fast and other say it was the longest day of their lives. I think that is about normal for most first days of practices (3 sessions a day). However the FUN has only just begun. It is on the the next day where we build on the technical skills from the previous day. It is a pattern over the next week that will build excellent habits in work ethic, physical toughness, and most importantly mental toughness.

Team support was high during the first day and the energy level was at it's peak as well. Now the challenge for the rest of the week, can we sustain the focus, energy, and high spirits for the rest of the week? We will soon find out. STAY TUNED!

- Coach V

August 5, 2010

Just Around The Corner

Alright who is just pumped up beyond belief about the start of a new season. This goes for all of you, even you recruits, that are starting up with preseason in short amount of time. The anticipation of seeing what has paid off from the training, lifting and conditioning from the spring to the summer sessions. All of it coming to one pinnacle of time that all of the players are on the same page mentally, emotionally, and physically to play at a level teams only dream about.

As I have daydreamed (way too often) this about this upcoming season and smile knowing that this will be the first season that we do not have to have a full overhaul of new systems of play and players into the system. This gets to be the first season where we get to just "GO" from the very beginning with preparing to play in our system rather than taking many days to teach our system. It is definitely the cliche but "the sky is the limit" for us and this 2010 season. The aspirations and expectations are and will remain high all season. We have a lot of athletes that have the drive and just enough chip on their shoulder to make things happen.

This 2010 will have a lot of meanings to many different people. For me I am envisioning that 3, 5, 10 years down the road we will all be able to look back and say, "that 2010 team was the true start to this DYNASTY"

-Coach V

July 29, 2010

2010 Recruits and 2010 schedule

We added 9 players for 2010 season and we are extremely happy about each and everyone of them. Each will bring something special to our roster. Please check out the links to see our press releases on these athletes.

April Press Release
July Press Release



We have also released our 2010 Schedule. We have had to make a few changes to the original with the closing of Dana College. We have also made some slight changes to the 2010 Corn Palace Classic. We have added some college matches to the schedule and have some local High School matches scheduled on Saturday Sept. 11. Here is the full schedule of matches:


TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

FRIDAY Sept. 10: @ Corn Palace
12pm Dakota Wesleyan vs. Colorado Christian

2pm Dickinson State vs. Valley City State

4pm Colorado Christian vs. Kansas Wesleyan

6pm Kansas Wesleyan vs. Valley City State

8pm Dakota Wesleyan vs. Dickinson State


SATURDAY, Sept. 11:
@ DWU
9am Kansas Wesleyan vs. Dickinson State

11am Valley City State vs. Colorado Christian

1pm Dickinson State vs. Colorado Christian

@ Corn Palace
12pm Hanson vs. Marion

2pm Dakota Wesleyan vs. Kansas Wesleyan

4pm CBH Conference Championship

6pm Dakota Wesleyan vs. Valley City State

8pm Mitchell vs. Huron

Please come out a support DWU Volleyball in this potentially magical year.

-Coach V

May 27, 2010

FRESH START

Oh my I did truly forget about this thing for quite some time. My apologies to everyone.
Well it is the time of the year where we all love to be outside and soaking up the sun. However, i am in my office right now writing this blog but I promise I will be outside soon. I have to enjoy the weather when I get the chance.

Well we are near the completion of our recruiting season. We have made one announcement of our 1st half of our recruiting class and are getting ready to announce our 2nd wave in the coming weeks. We just have a few more Letters of Intent to get back and a visit to complete very soon.

I'll talk about the individual players throughout my next few posts. I can't waste everything I want to talk about on my first one back. I have to leave the suspense for all of you, lol.

I am happy to announce that we will continue to have a full coaching staff for the upcoming season. I have excited about the two coaches I have helping out for the 2010 season. Jessica Lucas and Dannie Burt will give be great assets to our progress to a championship in the fall. Jessica comes to us after coaching at a few local high schools the past few years. She is going to give great balance to our staff as she has a high energy level and shares my "no non-sense, no excuses" mindframe. Dannie Burt returns as an assistant coach after taking last season off. Dannie helped out periodically in 2008 as he continued to pursue his college degree. It will be nice to have Dannie back with the staff as he is someone that has an idea of what we want to accomplish within our systems of play. Welcome aboard you to, it's certainly going to be fun.

I have enormous expectations for the Tiger VB team this upcoming fall. When I was hired on I told everyone that my 3rd year was going to be special. I feel that with the core of the team returning and some very key additions to the roster we are certainly poised to carry out our dream of not only getting into the Top 5 of the conference but winning either the regular season or tournament championship. We will all have to make some sacrifices of our personal egos to accomplish that and do everything for the good of the team and teammates. This is the moment. This is the year that DWU Volleyball gets its FRESH START.

-Coach V