April 18, 2011

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

April 14, 2011

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