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