Injuries - It's Almost Laughable at this Point

Our ride on the roller coaster seems to have no end. As the positives present themselves some tragedy strikes. We came into this past week with some confidence and a feeling that we could battle some demons that have been haunting us since the 2nd week of the season. I have thought that since the last time we played Dakota State at the Corn Palace and lost in 5 that we haven't been able to find our groove as a team. That particular match stole our mojo and we have been searching for it ever since. Well the opportunity to avenge the loss and basically face the "demon" that scared off our confidence came around this past week. We went to Dakota State in a great mental state knowing that that day could be very special. We came out in the match so well, taking the first set and what we thought was the momentum for the match. However, our harnesses from the "roller coaster" tightened up on us and we gave away around 16 errors in the 2nd set to basically hand over set 2. After some major refocusing we came out and battled hard to a 3rd set victory. DSU however was not ready to let go of the match as both teams again battled in the 4th. We had a substantial 5 point lead at a point in the 4th but couldn't hold them as they finished on a 6 point run to end the 4th. I was pleased to hear and see in between the 4th and 5th set that our team was ready to take over the match. They spoke confidently and had a swagger about them as they headed back onto the court. Then all as the 3rd point of the 5th set is scored by senior MH Kacie Sanderson, the dreaded monster that has plagued us all year strikes again as Kacie injuries her knee and cannot return for the match (and remainder of the year). This time our lineup had to adjust in the middle of the match with no preparation. This group of young ladies did not let this setback affect them as they battled for the entire 5th set and even held a match point or 2. We just couldn't escape ourselves as we committed errors in those situations to give the ball back to DSU and force ourselves to scramble to the finish. We couldn't pull out the win and again it was devastating.

We tried to refocus and prepare ourselves for the next match against Midland for our Dig Pink match that was held at Mitchell HS in conjunction with their Dig Pink match. Here is where all of these injuries and illnesses truly become laughable, our starting sophomore MH Rachel has trouble breathing and talking before the match and has to be limited with the amount of movement we can use her while on the court. Our primary hitting option is now limited, haha it just never ends. Midland however was a very solid team and our injury ridden lineup could only hang with them for 2 of the 3 sets played. We had some opportunities to win the 1st set as we lost 23-25 and the 2nd set I believe went to 21 for us. We compete hard and continue to fight.

My phrase for the season has unfortunately been "Of course that would happen now", we haven't seemed to be able to catch a single break in close sets, matches, injuries or illnesses. It is absolutely laughable at this point in time. Any prayers and wishful thoughts that anyone that reads this would like to pass along to our players, we would all greatly appreciate them. (heck any healthy bodies would be nice right now, too. LOL)

We have competed so hard and have made so many adjustments to lineups and tactics that we still believe that we will get off of this losing streak. IT WILL HAPPEN!

The Roller Coaster Continues

It has been a week and half of matches since our last post and ups and downs of playing inexperienced and young players is taking its toll. I will say that this group of ladies are fighters and play with a lot of energy to never give up. We will come up with something shocking here in the next few weeks. I believe it is in us.

We have had 4 conference matches and 1 non-conference match in the past 2 weeks. The conference match ups were not friendly to us as we played 4 of the top 6 teams in the conference. In every match we had some great competitive moments of controlling play for 2/3 of sets and even taking a set but we just seemed to run out of offensive firepower at the end of sets when you need it the most. Every match we played the past 2 weeks has come down to untimely errors on our part. Missed serves after already giving up a 4 point run. Attacking balls in the net or out of bounds on free ball opportunities. Not focusing on the key attackers of the opponent during situations where they need a crucial point. It keeps coming back to inexperience in big game situations, we will continue to grow and I believe that we will get better in this situations this upcoming week. WE HAVE TO!

One performance in the past 2 weeks that needs to be applauded is Rachel Tinklenberg while we were at York this past weekend. She had 24 kills and 3.5 blocks in the match and at a couple of different times in the match she would get 4 kills in a row. She carried our team to a near match victory as we did have match point in the 4th set. However the team could not overcome the 69 errors we committed in the match.

Our roller coaster of positive and negative experiences on the court is continuing this fall. As much as I love real life roller coasters I would really like to get off of this one. This group of young ladies will continue to fight and never give up. They will continue to believe they can reach their goals and achieve great things. I believe in them and will continue to work my hardest everyday to give them more competitive experiences in practice and prepare them for the rigors of the home stretch of our very competitive conference schedule. WE WILL NEVER QUIT ON OURSELVES OR EACH OTHER!!!!

- Coach V

Errors and Injuries - 2 Things Not Good for a Young Team

Hey everyone,
Sorry for the delay in getting some information up here. It has been and extremely hectic 2 weeks. We have gone through some extreme emotional situations over the past 2 weeks and we are truly just starting the recovery and rebuilding process.

Since my last time on here we were at 7-6 and just prior to that we were 7-3 on the season. I am sad to say that the left column hasn't changed in the past 2 weeks and we are now sitting at 7-13 on the season. We have battled hard in most of the matches and had to change our lineups for numerous situations. Coming out of the Viterbo tournament we felt that we were close to getting our consistency figured out on offense and just needed a little bit of pure focus on certain areas of our game to get things running smoothly again. We entered into conference play that week against Dordt and unfortunately our SR passing was not consistent to allow us to get our primary hitters involved in a faster tempo offense to keep their big block split more often and ended up dropping the match 0-3. We had the weekend off to let the team refocus and get away from volleyball for a little bit and be able to come back with a renewed passion and eagerness to learn. Our 3 practices heading into our next conference match against Morningside were highly competitive and intense, we had confidence. We battled during the first set and felt that we let the first set slip away from us with some untimely errors at the end of the set. We then ran into the buzz saw of the Morningside offense as they went through the next 2 sets without committing a single attacking error (there is no one in the country that can beat a team that doesn't commit errors).

We understood that our first 2 opponents for conference play were high quality teams and matches that we were the considered the underdogs. We approached the weekend knowing that our opponent, Concordia, had been playing well and that our two teams were evenly matched. It was going to be a very tough match for both teams. Each team traded sets all the way up to the 5th set and most of the sets were close outside of our 2nd set victory where controlled all of the play to a 25-15 win. I knew that we were the more talented team at that time but hoped that our inability to play consistently was gone for the day. Set 3 both teams played well but they outlasted us. In Set 4 we played better statistically but they fought to keep it close. Then in the 5th, the error bug bit us and bit us in a major way. We opened up the 5th with 5 or 6 straight unforced errors and put ourselves in a major hole that we weren't able to get out of and went on to lose the 5th set. It was crushing lose to us knowing we had an opportunity to close them out and couldn't do it. The worst part for me as a coach is looking at the statistics and seeing that nearly all of the stat categories we won, just not the one that counts, the game scores. I left the gym wondering if a match like this would have a hangover affect on our team. I would get to find out the next week as we went to face Mt. Marty.

Let me preface this next section by saying that this could could be one of the toughest weeks to ever go through as a coach or player.

Even to this day I believe that we are leaps and bounds much better than Mt. Marty and have and incredible amount of talent and athleticism over them. However, on the night we played them it had to be the worst match we have ever played. We committed a total of 55 to 60 errors in the 4 sets we played. Yes, we gave them 2 sets worth of points in our own errors. It was one of the more disappointing matches I have ever been involved in and it was heartbreaking to the team as well. The recovery process was going to be long and the demeanor of the team needed to change as well as the lineup. So we approached the next day at practice (with only 1 day to prepare for the next match) with an intense team meeting and a complete refocus on accountability on the court. I felt good about the meeting and the response from the team in their understanding of the new goals set ahead of them. Then the chaos and adversity we thought we had just gotten past hit square in the face as our senior OH, went down from landing awkwardly after an attack to a devastating knee injury. The positive energy and emotion we had flowing in the gym came to a screeching halt in a matter of seconds. Our thoughts about preparation for USF went directly to concern for her; we had once again lost our focus on the task at hand. As we continued with practice the need for a new lineup was absolutely necessary as we now had to figure out how to fill the hole left by the injury and who would be able to pick up the slack as now our 2nd leading attacker was most likely done for the season. We took the rest of practice not preparing for USF but figuring out which lineup would give us the best shot at competing the next night. We entered into the match against USF knowing we were just trying to figure things out and hoping to play well. We started the match very slow but managed to nearly find a way to win the first as we held a lead very late in the set around 25-24 but then went on to lose the set 27-29. Heart, fight, guts whatever you want to call, we showed it in the first set and were hoping to continue that trend through the rest of the match. The 2nd set was similar albeit that we stayed close for nearly the entire set and didn't let up, but then the error bug bit us again and we dropped the 2nd set 19-25 and the 3rd set was filled with unforced errors that not even our defense could remedy to help extend rallies. We spoke after the match about what qualities we need to have with the team as we go forward knowing that we were needing to change lineups and do things we did not plan at the beginning of the year. It was a positive meeting and we all had an understanding about what needed to come from each person to get back on track.

We then tried to prepare for the weekend as we were making a trip to ND to face Jamestown and Valley City. Our main focus heading into the weekend and from here on out is to fight for every point, extend rallies and with play with great intensity. We played Jamestown on Saturday hearing the chatter in stands they believed that the match was going to go 3 and be the fastest match in their history. Well the first set certainly gave that indicator as we committed around 16 errors and they were errors that we had control over. We took the between game time to emphasize our decision making that was causing the errors and came out and absolutely dominated play for the first 2/3 of the 2nd set. We minimized our errors to where we stayed away from committing 3 or 4 in a row. We gave away 1 run of 4 or 5 points late in the set that got them kind of back in the set but we closed them out at 25-21 (it wasn't really that close until the last mini run by them). We were proving to ourselves that no matter who play if we limit the scoring runs we give on our own errors we can play with and beat anyone. It felt great. But could we do it in back to back sets? The answer unfortunately was no as we went on to commit 16 errors again in the 3rd set and 11 errors in the 4th set. When we keep the amount of errors to 10 or less in any given set we have won nearly all of those sets this season. The Valley City match ended up being a lot of the same from the week, we committed numerous errors in a row early in sets and then had to fight back to get back in it. Our set scores were 19, 22 and 23, the team battled so fiercely and I believe we will get this ship righted very soon, as long as we begin to learn how to limit the errors we give away in a row. We also had to deal with our senior MH get extremely sick during the weekend and then could barely play against Valley City. So we had to adjust our lineup again without preparation. We'll see what happens this upcoming week as we get back into conference play and search for the conference win that has eluded us thus far. Wish us luck and wish us healthy.

-Coach V

Our trip to the State of Cheese

So it has been a little bit longer than I wanted it to be that I wrote but for those of you follow our news stories on the website and my occasional twitter posts (@coachviney) you may have an idea why I have been reluctant to, let's say spread the word about the results from the past 2 weeks.

We came out of the Corn Palace Classic not as confident as a team normally should after going 3-1 over that weekend. The 5 set loss to Dakota State took something out of us. We headed to Presentation College in Aberdeen on the 7th knowing we should be able to take care of business relatively quickly. I think for the most part we did (first 2 sets we only allowed 17 and 12 points) but lost some focus in the 3rd set and let them come back and make that set interesting and forcing us to beat them 27-25. A little hectic but we got the job done. A win is a win!

We had another big trip ahead of us for the weekend. A trip to La Crosse, WI at Viterbo University for a tournament. Our 2 players from Green Bay were so looking forward to this trip. I think I have heard enough reasons why Wisconsin is great - so they think HAHA.
Coming in to the season I knew this was going to be a tournament that had the potential to be difficult. My expectation was 2-2 because of the two potential Top 25 teams we were scheduled to face there (Viterbo & Northwestern). How many of you get that feeling the day before or even the day of a competition and you just don't feel right, like something is missing? I unfortunately had that feeling on the Friday morning of the tournament. I tried to shake it all day and come up with all of these confidence building sayings and thoughts. Well my gut must have been telling me something as we entered in to the first match with Waldorf College (who was winless on the season at that time). They played right before our match and were competing so hard defensively just frustrating their opponent. I knew we were about to have the same match with them. Waldorf came out with the confidence of a team that was undefeated, scrapping for every point and making us have to earn every point. It was taxing on the players. Both teams battled back and forth for the first 4 sets and even through the entire 5th set. We finally made a statement and put our stamp on the match at the (I believe) 12-13 score in the 5th set and us being down. Out of the timeout we had a crossing pattern play drawn out to get a potential matchup for Freshman Danielle Bird to take the biggest swing of the season. In the the timeout, I told her to just put the ball away no matter what. Her response was a thunderous kill that blasted the opposing libero in the gut, I swear the gym was filled with the sounds of Danielle's contact of the ball and the ball's contact of the libero's stomach - it was the momentum play we had searched for all match long. We went on to win 17-15 in the 5th.

Our next 3 matches for the weekend were struggles to say the least. Northwestern played at an unbelievable pace that we weren't ready for and stuck it to us. The next morning we thought we had a great chance to get that second win of the tournament against Hannibal-LaGrange. Our offense was inconsistent and we couldn't put together the runs we normally get and lost each set by 2 or 3 points. Here is the hard pill to swallow - Looking at the stat sheets from both teams we had better attacking numbers and blocking numbers as well as more digs. However, HLG committed 6 less errors than we did throughout the match and therefore earned them the win. We finished the tournament by playing #21 at the time Viterbo. They play at a very high tempo with their offense and their setter is extremely accurate and athletic, the key to the team. We opened up the first set with dismal passing and found ourselves in a big double digit hole. But then we caught a break, during a play their setter got injured and had to leave the match. Informing the team of the big break that was just presented to them about the heart of their team now out for potentially the entire match, we had a chance. Our response was positive for the next 2 sets as we pushed Viterbo to change their offense to set players that don't normally get as many swings. I thought we were going to pull out the 3rd set to force a 4th but as it was the entire weekend our offensive efficiency (ability to score points and not just keep balls in play or give away points) held us back from reaching our goals. We did however, leave the tournament with our heads held high knowing that the ability to play good ball is in us and that we just have to demand and expect more from our individual performances to ignite the team.

Our tournament season is over and now we head into the true purpose for our season - the GPAC conference season. Our overall youth has been a slight reason for our ups and downs but we now have to get through the adversity we create and fight our way to the top. The matches we have played are a big part of the experience we need to compete in this great conference. We must now look forward to achieve our goal of finishing in the top 8 of the conference and make it into the conference tournament. The near future is bright this group of women, it is our time to show that youth is not a negative thing when it comes to competition.

- Coach V

Corn Palace Classic Weekend

That was one extremely busy weekend. 6 college teams and 4 HS teams played 14 matches over the Labor Day weekend here in Mitchell. There was great volleyball played by every team that stepped foot on the court at the World's Only Corn Palace. Check out the stats from all of the college matches on our web page specific for the tournament. Congrats to Ethan HS and Mitchell HS for winning their matches on Saturday. They were fun to watch.

Before we go any further I have to give a HUGE THANK YOU to our JV team and other volunteers for operating the scores table, line judging, and ball shagging all weekend. All of you did a fantastic job and worked extremely long hours. I hope the payment of free food all weekend was sufficient.

Looking back at our weekend we finished 3-1, which is a very positive weekend. However, losing your very last match of a tournament against a rival will always leave a sour taste in your mouth. We opened the weekend on Friday playing Dickinson State. They had recently added 2 players that weren't playing the weeks before from suspension and were 2 very athletic OH's. We weren't sure how much they would change their team but after watching them jump out to a commanding 2 set to 0 lead on York in their first match of the tournament it was clear they were very different then what we saw the weekend before when they were out in Montana. They did end up losing some steam and lost in 5 to York but we still saw them as a dangerous team. We came out extremely focused on our game plan to take the line away from one of those hitters and cross court against the other. The execution of our blocking and then the addition of very solid ball control to keep us in system allowed us to dominate play in a 3 set victory, 25-18, 25-14, 25-15. We hit .370 in the match with only 1 attacker having more than 1 attacking error while also averaging 16 digs a set. It was a great overall match both offensively and defensively. It was an exceptional start to the weekend. We got great balanced performances from Larissa Veldhuizen and Danielle Bird while Kacie Sanderson and TyAnn Buddenhagen were extremely efficient attacking the ball with .417 and .556 hitting %'s. Katie Lindow also came in off the bench as a serving specialist to provide an ace and 3 digs.

We finished Friday night with our match against York College. In the previous few years York had always been a team that you could get school records against because of their level of play. Well not anymore, after seeing them come back from 0-2 to win 3-2 against Dickinson, it was very clear they were a team that had some talent, skill and were well coached. Kudos to Coach Fear for really getting things turned around there at York. This match was competitive the entire time. We could not put them away in any set early to give us that breathing space we like to have to close out sets. We took the first 2 sets (25-22 & 25-20 respectively and then York pushed us to the limit to take the 3rd set 25-23. We had to battle hard again in the 4th to finally close out the match 25-21. We did a great job in the serve & serve receive game with 11 aces and only 2 reception errors. We did well at the net with 11 total blocks and 49 kills. Larissa Veldhuizen was the go to player as she recorded a double-double with 14 kills and 16 digs. Katie Lindow again provided some offense with 6 service aces in her serving specialist role. While Sam Sandua continued her consistency for the season with a .238 hitting % and adding 8 kills. And Rachel Tinklenberg hit .300 with 9 kills and added 5 block assists. Tyann Buddenhagen and Briana Jung both provided quality setting and great defense as both were above 15 digs each in the match.

We opened Saturday against Valley City State. This has turned into a big rivalry match over the past 3 seasons. Heading into this match the 2 teams had played 4 times since 2009 with every match going 5 sets. We had a 3-1 record vs. VCSU heading into the match this weekend. It may have also grown into more of a rivalry since the head coach there is my wife's best friend and college teammate. It was a tight match the entire, trading the first 3 sets with us up 2-1 and barely pulling out the 3rd set. We managed to figure out some things with our offensive efficiency for the 4th set to stop the 5 set match streak at 4 and beat VCSU in 4 sets. I can honestly say that looking at the statistics without the scores one would guess VCSU won the match. However, our perseverance through the adversity of not playing as well as we did the day before and against an opponent that wanted the win was extremely key to the victory. We got another double-double out of Larissa Veldhuizen with 13 kills and 13 digs. Brooke Warne provided 20 digs in the match to anchor the defense and Sam Sandau again was Miss consistency with 9 kills with a .350 hitting %. It should be another great match when we go to Valley City the first weekend of Oct.

The last match of the weekend had us facing another rival in Dakota State. They had played some strong volleyball throughout the tournament and I knew they would come out ready to play. Both teams battled hard in the first set to a 25-22 DWU victory. Dak State committed a lot of hitting errors in the first set to help us in that set. We knew that trend would not continue as they are a team that likes to tip and throw the ball around after making mistakes. The 2nd and 3rd set Dakota State pushed themselves out to quick 5 and 6 point leads and never looked back as we looked like deer in headlights during those sets as we could only score 13 and 17 in those sets. The execution of the game plan was non-existence and the focus on the 2 hitters that Dak State uses all of the time was poor. It did not look good for us heading into the 4th set. Again we came out flat in the 4th but fortunately not putting ourselves in too big of hole. Dakota State began to make a few more attacking errors to help us stay close. As we approached the final 5 to 6 points in the set something changed in the attitude of how the team was approaching game and our energy level rose as well as our communication. We clawed our way back to a 23-23 tie and found a way to pull out the 4th to set up what would be a very intense 5th set. The first half of the 5th was back and forth as both teams played well to the 8-7 switch with DWU up. But after the switch of court we lost confidence after back to back throw kills to both deep corners from their MH. They were devastating kills that took the wind out of our sail and unfortunately the aggression out of our game (which will never happen again). It was heart breaking and even to today I have a sour taste in my mouth about how it finished. We did get some good quality performances from Brooke Warne with 25 digs and another double-double from Larissa Veldhuizen with 13 kills and 13 digs again. Other double-doubles recorded were by Danielle Bird with 11 kills and 12 digs and Briana Jung with 24 assists and 15 digs.

Again we'll take the 3-1 record and move on with a lot more learning coming our way about how to stay aggressive the entire time we play and to limit how much the other team can control what we want to do to score points. We head into the first full week of September with a 5-3 record and with a good amount of confidence as we travel to Presentation College in Aberdeen, SD on Wednesday the 7th and then out to Viterbo University in LaCrosse, WI for Sept. 9-10.

Wish us luck.
- Coach V

Out to the West

The first weekend of competition has already come and gone. We took an extended trip out to Wyoming and Montana with both our JV and Varsity. Our JV team played in a tournament at Sheridan College while the varsity team went to Billings, MT to compete at Rocky Mountain College.

The JV team competed hard all weekend and did well considering 6 of the 8 players that were there played out of position. They played 5 matches during the weekend and had some opportunities to take a couple of sets but kind of stalled out at the end of those particular sets. Assistant Coach Dannie Burt coached them all weekend and said that there were a lot of bright spots from Paige VandenMeerendonk who was being forced to play in the middle rather than on a pin where she is more comfortable. There was also a big moment when 5'5" Lacey Reimnitz (playing LS, out of position) went up and crushed a kill down around the 15 ft. mark for a point in the first match of the weekend. They said that you could see the cape behind her as she flew in the air to take the swing. LOL.

Great job ladies.

The varsity team had what we would consider a roller coaster weekend with only one major drop. Fortunately that drop came in the very first match of the year against MT Tech. That's all we'll say about that one. We have decided to go out of sight, out of mind with that match. We then played MT Western and started off slow, most likely an hangover from the previous match, but somewhere in the middle of the 2nd set things picked up with communication and energy level. We still dropped the 2nd set but we could feel a change. That change came out a 5 set match win with some great performances from Larissa Veldhuizen and Danielle Bird. Check out the stats from the online schedule.

We woke up the next morning feeling better about our chances and came to face nationally ranked Rocky Mountain who in the previous weekend had beaten two top 10 teams in straight sets while out in California. We knew we had our hands full. It was a match of big runs, they had a 8 to 9 point run then we had 7 to 8 point run, each team had big runs like that in every set. Although we lost in straight sets we actually built more confidence in ourselves as we continued to look back at how the match was played, we blocked well and forced a team much bigger than us to have to use more tips and roll shots to get points. We also put a lot of pressure on their serve receive passers keeping them out of system for a majority of the match. We finished the weekend off by playing MT State-Northern, who had been playing extremely well all weekend long. It was a hard fought match with us losing the 1st set, winning the next 2 but dropping the 4th. We went into the 5th just feeling as if we have controlled nearly every aspect of the match but just let our focus slip a little in the 4th set. We came out and took control of the 5th after the 8 point switch to win 15-10. It felt amazing to leave the weekend with a win and to have a great feeling from a vast majority of the sets we played.

A lot of confidence is bubbling as the team enters into the first week of September and hosting our own Corn Palace Classic. Check out the schedule for the tournament here.

It is a good start to the season. We expect to continue this climb with confidence over the coming weeks to prepare us for the difficult GPAC schedule ahead.

- COACH V

Crazy Hot Summer

I hope everyone is staying as cool as possible. This heat wave the past few weeks is just unreal. I have been working a few VB camps the past few weeks and I am thinking of starting a nation wide petition to put A/C in every gym in the country (wishful thinking, HAHAHA). There have been some hot ones this summer. My summer camp schedule is almost complete. Only one more in Houston, TX next week, I sure hope La Porte HS has A/C. If not it will still be fun to get to Houston to see my mom and sister and do a high quality camp.

Big news from the AVCA was just announced on July 20. The AVCA Team Academic Award recipient list was released and for the 2nd time in the 10 year history of award the DWU VB program was on the list for the 2010-2011 academic year. We just missed out on the 2009-2010 award by 0.04 points. We were only 1 of 30 NAIA teams to receive the award. The award honors those teams that hold a cumulative team GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale. We are extremely proud of this award and something we hope will be a consistent thing we achieve every year.

I also have started a Twitter account (@coachviney). Go ahead follow this account as I'll be sending out updates from the season as well as the occasional update from my life. Don't worry, I won't be sending out tweets of what kind of cereal I am eating and that my wife's cat got stuck in the cupboard, lol. I'll keep it about volleyball and other cool things like when my son is born in October. Please follow me @coachviney.

The preseason is just around the corner for all of us. I wish every team the best as you go through your preparations for the fall. I'll keep you all updated as we get closer to the start of the season.

Stay Cool.

-Coach V

2011 Recruiting Class Is Officially Finalized

So as we approach July we are complete with the 2011 incoming class for DWU Volleyball. We have signed 3 more players to cap off the recruiting year for 2011.

We have officially added Paige VandenMeerendonk of Green Bay, WI to the roster. Paige is a very strong OH that can hit with a ton of force. She has a pretty high ceiling of potential and will be a great asset for our program over the next 4 seasons. We are excited to have Paige as a Tiger.

Myriah Beiswanger is a DS from Mitchell, SD out of Mt. Vernon HS where she played the libero and OH positions during her career. Myriah will help provide some consistency in our serve receive game. It will be great to have a hometown kid in our program. It has been a while since we have had a Mitchell kid in our program. Myriah will bring a supportive energy to our program on and off the court.

We have also signed Vonnie Fredrick a libero out of Elba, NE from Central Community College in Columbus, NE. Vonnie is a great competitor and has a great deal of experience as a libero and DS at a high level of competition while at CCC. Vonnie is an exciting defensive player and has high VB IQ and court awareness. We are extremely fortunate to have Vonnie coming to DWU this upcoming fall.

These 3 young ladies are great people and have wonderful personalities that mesh extremely with our current roster. We have putting a major effort in getting the "best people" not just the "best athletes". We are heading in the right direction as a program and I am unbelievably excited about the future of this program.

As this 2011 recruiting season comes to a close the 2012 class has already been up and going and in full swing. We have had around 8 2012 HS seniors on campus from January to this late June time and have a had a great response from each visit and we have even received a verbal commitment at this time from one of our top recruits. Let's just say we stole her away from some major programs and are fortunate to do it so early in the summer. This will hopefully be the first recruit we have signed before the fall season begins since I have been at DWU. I am actually hoping that we can get at least 1 more athlete to commit before the fall season and maybe even 2 more. We'll see and be working our tail off to make it happen. To be a part of an up and coming program that relishes being the underdog and is ever so quickly getting to be a bigger name in our conference and region is exciting for every competitive athlete out there. Our time for greatness is just around the corner.

- Coach V

DWU VB Camps A Great Success

The DWU VB camps turned out to be a great success this year. We went with our normal schedule of Youth Camp and Team Camps and then also added a HS level skills camp for the first time. We had the most Youth campers we have ever had in the past 4 summers and will continue to look for growth each year. The youth camp is so fun to do, we get to help mold these very young athletes with the skills that have made our players so successful during their careers. They are also so fun to coach and to watch them play can be funny and so rewarding when they get 3 contacts and play out rallies.

Our HS level skills camp was exciting. I didn't know what kind of response we would get with it being the first one we have done but we did get a good number of over 25 participants for that camp. This camp was a great opportunity for the campers to get involved in some high intensity drills that we use at DWU and to learn some advanced concepts and strategies about the game. We also had a couple of recruits come up for the camp to from Texas and Minnesota. It was a great opportunity for our players to meet and play with these players in a get to know type of atmosphere. It paid off as we did get a verbal commitment from our Minnesota recruit.

This year's team camp ended up being a good after we were nervous to not have enough teams as heading up to it we had 2 teams back out on us at the last minute. It was amazing to see the growth of the players and the teams as we went through 3 days of hard team concept training. It was such a great camp and so beneficial for the players and coaches. We had a great response from the coaches as to the great amount of time we spent on skill development while at the same time being able to do it in a 6 v 6 format. We held a tournament to finish off camp and Ethan HS defeated Baltic HS to win the championship. We then capped off camp with an All-Star match that included 10 players from the teams at camp facing the DWU players that were at camp to coach. The match started off pretty tight as the All-Stars held a quick lead but the ability to terminate the ball late in the game in transition for the DWU players ended up being too much for the All-Stars as the final margin of victory ended up being 9 points. It was fun to see some of the All-Stars raise their level of play against these college players.

We will always continue to put forth a well planned camp and bring a fun learning environment. I want to thank all of the DWU players that were here to help with camp. Thank you to Brooke Warne, Kayla O'Connell, Liz Humiston, Jordyn Heath, Cara Chomey, Stacie Brinker, Katie Lindow, Vanessa Johanneson, Myriah Beiswanger, Ashley Styer, and Briana Jung. These ladies did a great job with teaching the skills but also staying positive and energetic through the entire week. Great job ladies.

The Beginnings of a Great Class of 2011 Recruits

We have a lot of great things going on for DWU volleyball right now in the present time but we need to talk about the future. The recruiting class of 2011 is rounding itself into shape and we are so excited about the additions we have coming in for the 2011 season. We are not quite done yet as there are a few more offers out to some special players but I had to get some information out about the players that have already signed. We have a few headliners in this class for 2011, such as 2 of the 3 Miss Volleyball award winners from the state of South Dakota. Introducing: Danielle Bird - OH/MH from Omaha, NE - has a unbelievable amount of athletic ability, very high jumping ability and a lot of power in her swing. We "stole" her from some very good NCAA Division 2 programs that normally make it in to the Division 2 National tournament. TyAnn Buddenhagen - S/OH from Huron, SD - The 2010 South Dakota Class AA Miss Volleyball. TyAnn has the ability to play so many positions that we may just have to create a new one in the sport for her. Setting or hitting or even doing both with a particular offensive setup we will able to do a lot of things with TyAnn on the roster. Briana Jung - S from Warner, SD - The 2010 South Dakota Class B Miss Volleyball. A wonderful compliment to the system of play we want to have for the next few years. Briana brings so much knowledge of the game and an understanding of how to run an offense that we will be able to be extremely creative with our offensive system. Katie Lindow - OH/DS from Green Bay, WI - Katie has one of the most unbelievable work ethics that I have ever seen in a player. Just a great example of "what" and "how" to do things to be successful. There are multiple ways to use Katie and we excited as a staff to find ways to let her contribute to our success. Vanessa Johannson - MH from Tea, SD - A very gifted athlete that is quick laterally and off of the floor when jumping. Vanessa will add some athletic ability to our roster that could create matchup problems with quickness for our opponents. We are excited to get her in the gym this fall. Ashley Styer - MH/OH from Wolsey, SD - Ashley, as the daughter of a coach, has a natural understanding of the game of volleyball. She can make the game look at easy at time becuase of her awareness to know what will happen next. Ashley may be looked at to play a couple of different positions over the coming year or two. Her understanding of the game will allow for easy transition into the college level of play. This is a great start to our 2011 class. We have a some more offers out to some very good players and I am extremely anxious to hopefully talk about them soon. This is a class that will be a big foundation for the success of the coming 2-5 years. We have a great plan in place and our next 2 recruiting classes (2012 & 2013) are also providing us with a great deal of optimizm for a potential GPAC championship run in the near future. Who wouldn't want to be a part of that, Right? -Coach V

The Finale to the 2011 Year

So it has clearly been way too long since I have updated the world on the great things going on with DWU Volleyball. Quick Review of 2011 season: Hosted a 1st Round GPAC tournament match for the first time in school history. Continued to make the climb up the conference standings each of the past 3 seasons. Injuries to key people didn't help keep the rhythm we wanted. - Season ending injuries to our more consistent Serve Receive passers during the first weekend of the season as well as the first weekend of October held back our push at the end. All in all a pretty successful season. Something we can look back on as a positive experience. Now looking ahead to the future. There is a lot of work to do. We will be graduating 7 players from the 2011 roster as well as another 4 players deciding to concentrate on their academic futures. I wish all of you the best and will hope to see each of you at our future matches and potential alumni matches. Thank you to each and everyone of you for your commitment to DWU Volleyball. The spring season was interesting as we went through most of the training and competitions with 11 of 12 players available to practice full-time and only 9 of the 12 able to compete against outside competition. We have been working on a couple of new skills that we will be adding in for the 2012 season. Our blocking will be more aggressive and athletic for sure. We competed twice this April and both dates went very well considering the circumstances of each date. The first date we travelled to Augustana and competed against Southwest Minnesota State (one time #1 team in Division 2 in 2011) and Augustana (normally a Top 25 team in Division 2). We held our own against these very veteran teams as we put 3-4 freshmen along with 2-3 juniors at times on the court. We gained a lot of experience very quickly during that evening as we were forced to play at a pace that we couldn't simulate in practice. We had some very good runs of points against each team and all things considered we defended the fast pace systems of offense by both teams pretty well. We also play USF at Augie and had a very competitive match against them as we played 3 sets with them felt in control of most of the match. It was a very solid evening for our players. Our 2nd competition, we hosted Mt. Marty and Dakota State. We played at an unbelievably high level of speed and precision nearly all night. We were extremely organized and focused during each playing opportunity. It was a great way to finish our spring season of practices and competitions. We now prepare ourselves for final exams and then the summer go through the workout that will help get the team prepared for the rigorous travel schedule of 2012. Lot's of expectations and we are anxious to get going. -Coach V