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Charging Ahead To Oregon
Charging Ahead To Oregon
Published by UDBrian
11-27-2012
Charging Ahead To Oregon

The Flyers Volleyball team probably fell one non conference victory away from hosting the first round of the ncaa volleyball championship again this season. The Flyers are currently ranked #13 in the AVCA poll but the ncaa picked their host schools according to RPI and UD fell just short. Instead of being a top 16 seed and hosting they are charging to Oregon.

Oregon is a tremendous team but there are three other tough teams in the Oregon bracket, UD, Pepperdine and Northern Colorado. I asked Kelly about the tougher than average bracket:

"It's a bear of a draw, no question. But I think you are going in with the wrong mentality if you are hoping for lower ranked teams to be in front of you. There are 64 teams still playing out of 330 Division I programs - so, less than 20% of the sport still has a season. All of the teams are really good at this point, and all of them have had great seasons, and every single team presents certain challenges. With that said, I think our opening match will be one of the premier opening matches in the entire tournament. I thought the same thing going into last year's match. As for the bracket, I thought the committee did a great job. Every team that got seeded I thought deserved a seed and the 64 teams that were picked were the 64 that I thought would be picked going in".

Many local fans watched UD beat Pepperdine in four sets on August 25th in the Frerick's Center. Alaina Turner and Shayne Brown were key offensive contributors in this match. I asked Kelly about the previous match against Pepperdine:

"You're right, Shayne and Alaina were great that match, as was Janna. Rachel and Megan were both hit under .100. I don't think that's ever happened, so I don't expect that to happen again. There will be adjustments made from both teams. They are very athletic and have good size and have played a lot of really competitive matches this season. Their overall schedule was one of the toughest in the entire country".

That match was a long time ago, how has the team changed since then?

"Both teams are a lot different. The have a lefty on the right playing now and they have their left side hitters figured out now, where they were rotating three of them early in the season. At our place they were playing their second match of the day, so they should be even better than what we saw. But we feel like we are a lot better than we were then as well".

The Flyers lost the first two sets against Xavier in the A10 championship match. After the intermission the Flyers dominated the remaining three sets in winning the A10 championship. I asked Kelly about whether a victory like that improved their confidence and he responded:

"I don't think the team ever doubted they were going to win that match. The confidence comes from playing good volleyball consistently. We did that when our backs were against the wall. I think that's the biggest difference with this team. In matches they don't get concerned or scared about the outcome. They just battle. That wasn't always the case last season or in the spring, but that has certainly been the case this season. This team thrives when the score is tight at the end. Some teams love it when they blow people away, I think this team loves the close games. The other difference that I've seen with this team is that I almost think they enjoy playing on the road more than they do at home. The personality of some of the players is that I think they love it when fans are against them - and then shutting them up. Again, that is another thing that is different about this group than it was earlier".

"They are fired up. Hope fans are fired up and that you are all able to watch the match".

Reaching the sweet 16 is a high priority for the team, let's hope they can pull it off in a hostile environment.

Let's Go Flyers!
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