Last night we had our first spring scrimmage. It had been over 4 months since our last competitive match so the girls were ready to play and beat up on somebody other than themselves.
Our matches last night were against the Baylor Club Volleyball teams. Traditionally, Baylor has one of the strongest club programs in the country, with both teams combining for five Final Four appearances nationally and twelve overall top 10 finishes. These matches would give us an idea of where we are and the aspects of our game we need to improve on.
Our first match was against the Baylor Gold team. Our team came out very, very motivated and won game one 25-14. I was able to mix and match line-ups in the next two games and we won both of those 25-17 and 25-20. Both of our setters, Haley Goldwater and Michaela McNeely were able to get in a lot of reps and we even tried a 6-2 with Michaela swinging, and I thought that went well. This versatility gives us options for next season.
The next game was against the Baylor Green team. To give you an idea of what level of play they are, their record over the past 3 years is 93-12. They have multiple athletes on their team that had Division 1 offers to play volleyball but chose for one reason or another to come to Baylor.
We started out a little slowly and I called my second time out down 17-11. It was a good wake-up call for us because every time we did not attack the ball hard over the net, it came back faster at us. It was like we were throwing off speed pitches and they were hitting home runs. We started to play much more aggressive and made a nice run to tie it at 24, but we lost 28-26.
We continued our level of play into game 2 and jumped on them early. We actually were up 24-19, but Baylor made a nice run and we escaped with a 25-23 win. To put this in perspective, this was the first set that the Baylor team had lost since December. Game 3 was also very close. We lost 16-14, making a few too many serving errors and hitting mistakes.
Overall, the improvement that our team has made since the end of last season has been tremendous. Our athleticism has improved a lot and as a result our blocking last night was great. I believe we had about 15 blocks against the Gold team, and the balls that we didn't block we slowed down for our defense to pick up.
Now that we've had some competition, we can keep improving for our next spring tournament, which is Friday April 1 at Brookhaven. This will give us a chance to see how much we've improved compared to other junior colleges. We have 8 returning sophomores that are playing now so we are setting a great foundation for next season!
Until next time...
Friday, March 25, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
It's Friday
Since it's Friday, here's another update about our program. In the last week we signed our last two incoming freshmen to join our team next season. We are very excited and we'll have some pictures up when they have their signing ceremony later this spring. In the meantime, since they have signed, here's a quick breakdown of who they are:
- Camryn Kazmierski is a 6' OH/OPP hitter from Pearland who plays club ball for AVA. Camryn is a very solid hitter who can play both pin positions but is currently playing right side for her club team. She has the potential to come in and give us a big arm and big block at any front row position. More importantly, she is a fantastic individual and will help our team immensely not just with volleyball but also in our off the court programs.
- Phyllicia Cross is a 5'11" OH from Copperas Cove High School and she plays club ball for Waco Juniors with another commit of ours, Cayleigh Drake. Phyllicia is a dynamic athlete who could play all 6 rotations for us next season. She is very similar to Sapphire; a multi dimensional athlete who can hit, receive serve, and play middle back defense.
I could not be more excited about our 4 incoming freshmen. They are all playing high level club volleyball which means they will be ready to compete at the level we need to be at to be successful in August. Combine these 4 with the 10 rising sophomores we have on campus now and I can not wait for next season to start.
In the meantime, we start our spring season this coming Thursday with 2 matches against the Baylor Club Volleyball Team. This is a great way to get back into competition as the Baylor club is already in season and gearing up for their conference championships. I'll let you know how it goes!
- Camryn Kazmierski is a 6' OH/OPP hitter from Pearland who plays club ball for AVA. Camryn is a very solid hitter who can play both pin positions but is currently playing right side for her club team. She has the potential to come in and give us a big arm and big block at any front row position. More importantly, she is a fantastic individual and will help our team immensely not just with volleyball but also in our off the court programs.
- Phyllicia Cross is a 5'11" OH from Copperas Cove High School and she plays club ball for Waco Juniors with another commit of ours, Cayleigh Drake. Phyllicia is a dynamic athlete who could play all 6 rotations for us next season. She is very similar to Sapphire; a multi dimensional athlete who can hit, receive serve, and play middle back defense.
I could not be more excited about our 4 incoming freshmen. They are all playing high level club volleyball which means they will be ready to compete at the level we need to be at to be successful in August. Combine these 4 with the 10 rising sophomores we have on campus now and I can not wait for next season to start.
In the meantime, we start our spring season this coming Thursday with 2 matches against the Baylor Club Volleyball Team. This is a great way to get back into competition as the Baylor club is already in season and gearing up for their conference championships. I'll let you know how it goes!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Update
Sorry about missing the last 2 days. My internet was out, amongst other things. So update:
As we know, Lauren Ray our libero signed with Henderson State last semester. We only had one other sophomore on the team, Sapphire Reid. Sapphire had multiple offers to choose from, and she took full advantage of the process. She visited schools in Indiana, North Carolina, and two in New York. In the end she has decided to commit to Long Island University!!!
I am very excited for Sapphire and her family. I've known her since she was 16 and while I will be sad to see her go, I know she will be successful in New York.
Tomorrow I will give you the updates on our recruits, I promise.
As we know, Lauren Ray our libero signed with Henderson State last semester. We only had one other sophomore on the team, Sapphire Reid. Sapphire had multiple offers to choose from, and she took full advantage of the process. She visited schools in Indiana, North Carolina, and two in New York. In the end she has decided to commit to Long Island University!!!
I am very excited for Sapphire and her family. I've known her since she was 16 and while I will be sad to see her go, I know she will be successful in New York.
Tomorrow I will give you the updates on our recruits, I promise.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
News and Notes
So our team is on spring break this week, which gives me a chance to catch up on everything that has been going on lately. I'll have an update each day this week as we get into the main portion off-season once the team gets back next week.
Fist off, our assistant Kelsey Loop has taken the head coaching position at Northern Oklahoma College! We are very excited for Kelsey as she begins her head coaching career. She did a fantastic job this past season and we will miss her. It's been interesting to go from recruiting with her at tournaments to seeing her in Houston this past weekend in different colors recruiting for another school.
Here is the link to Kelsey's announcement: Announcement
Changing gears a little bit, the first part of our off season has been going great. We've been spending more time in the weight room and doing plyos in the gym, as well as more group and individual work. I've seen a lot of improvement in our team and our freshmen are going to take a big leap next season. The work in the weight room has definitely paid off, as all of our team is now more explosive (some adding over 100 pounds to their squat max) and quicker. One of our players has added 6 inches to her approach jump since the start of last season! This is phenomenal and will allow us to be a very offensive team next season.
I'll have more updates the rest of the week on recruiting for 2011 (hint: we're done and they are signed), our spring schedule, and what else is happening with our program.
Fist off, our assistant Kelsey Loop has taken the head coaching position at Northern Oklahoma College! We are very excited for Kelsey as she begins her head coaching career. She did a fantastic job this past season and we will miss her. It's been interesting to go from recruiting with her at tournaments to seeing her in Houston this past weekend in different colors recruiting for another school.
Here is the link to Kelsey's announcement: Announcement
Changing gears a little bit, the first part of our off season has been going great. We've been spending more time in the weight room and doing plyos in the gym, as well as more group and individual work. I've seen a lot of improvement in our team and our freshmen are going to take a big leap next season. The work in the weight room has definitely paid off, as all of our team is now more explosive (some adding over 100 pounds to their squat max) and quicker. One of our players has added 6 inches to her approach jump since the start of last season! This is phenomenal and will allow us to be a very offensive team next season.
I'll have more updates the rest of the week on recruiting for 2011 (hint: we're done and they are signed), our spring schedule, and what else is happening with our program.
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