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2011 Volleyball Season Preview
2011 Volleyball Season Preview
UDBrian
Published by UDBrian
08-25-2011
2011 Volleyball Season Preview

DAYTON (OH) -- We have been spoiled the past two seasons with dayton volleyball success. The team seemed to crank up their play to a higher level almost whenever it was necessary. But, the goals remain sky high this year even with many new players are in the mix. How do you go about replacing four All A10 players? Kelly said "You don't. You try and get every player to max their potential and then go to work on putting the pieces together".

EXPERIENCE FACTOR

"We graduated a lot of great players. All of them (Lindsay, Becky, Rachael, Tiff, Anna, Amanda, Jess and Tiff) grew into the great players they ended up being" said Coach Sheffield.

Last year's team had four starting players who had played together for two seasons. They had many monumental comebacks to their credit and backed down from no one. They had major swagger from winning tough matches and coming back by gutting it out. This team according to coach sheffield "will have five players in the rotation who have combined for a total of 10 collegiate starts". Just because the team lacks experience don't expect them to back down from anyone.

IT ALL STARTS WITH PASSING

Those of you who know me well are probably tired of me quoting Karch Kiraly saying that the most important skill in volleyball is forearm passing. Without great passing it makes things difficult for the setter and hitter, giving the defense an advantage. With a great first pass the setter usually has two or three options. With a poor pass the setter only has one option. To equate it with basketball it would be like having four guys on your team that couldn't make a shot, the defense would know where the ball needed to go.

"Amanda Cowdrey was one of the best passers in the country last year" said coach Sheffield. Paige Vargas played next to Amanda and returns with more than 1000 digs. We expect and need Paige to be an accurate passer and key defensive player. The other keys to UD's passing this year will rest mostly with Yvonne Marten, Rachel Krabacher and Allyson Morey. Both Yvonne and Rachel will be playing six positions this year.
 
When asked 'How do you feel about your passing ability going into this season compared to recent seasons" coach sheffield responded':

"Yvonne passed thousands of balls this summer and has turned herself into a really good passer. Ally has gotten a lot better as well. said coach sheffield. Kray and Rachel Jones are in the middle of making some adjustments with their passing. As with most learned things, their passing was lower than they probably wanted the first few days of preseason because some of the technical adjustments, but they seem to be getting more comfortable the past couple of days and their numbers are moving in the direction we like to see".

Expect to also see good things from Rachel Jones a DS from Michigan.

Setting

UD lost a great setter last season with Jessica Yanz but you can expect Samantha Selsky to do a very good job this year. I have watched her in practice and she is very accurate. It takes time for setters to develop a chemistry with hitters But as the season goes on coach Sheffield expects: "Our offense will improve as Sam gets more comfortable with our hitters and learn the nuances in putting them into good situations. We'll also get better as she learns how to hold blockers and when to be offensive".

Kaitlyn Krause is a very athletic freshman from Michigan who will make the most of her playing time based upon the Red/Blue game.
 
On the Attack

UD's attack strategy last year was very dependent upon the middle hitters. When you have two middle hitters like Lindsay Fletemier and Becky Novacek you use them until the other team figures out a way to slow them down. The tempo (height of the sets) was slower (sets higher) to lindsay fletemier because it makes it easier to set the ball. So you can expect the tempo to speed up a little bit without having a 6'6" middle hitter. Running a fast tempo offense requires great passing.

Yvonne Marten has been very determined fighting through injuries and I expect her to shine like a bright star this season. Here is what coach sheffield had to say about Yvonne Marten "Yvonne is one of the hardest workers I've ever been around. She is playing a position that she has never played before and will be a 6 rotation player for the first time in her career. If you walk up and suggest that she won't be a great all-around player for us this year you had better be wearing body armor. Her determination is steel. Her goal isn't to take pressure off of the young players. Her goal is to be great, to show her teammates how to excel, and to be a great teammate".

Rachel Krabacher has been a key outside hitter for two years but she will be asked to do even more this year as one of the few experienced hitters on the team. "Rachel Kray will be taking a bigger role for us as well. She'll probably take more swings than anyone this year. She's going to be the person that opposing teams spend a lot of time watching video on and trying to stop. It will be a big challenge for her but it's part of being a great player - coming up big time and time again when everyone in the building knows what's up. She has worked extremely hard and I see a player who I think is going to absolutely thrive in the biggest moments".

The final key player with experience is Megan Campbell who will be playing in the middle this year. Megan played right side hitter last year and played very well for her first season. Don't expect to see the same player this year. Here is what Kelly had to say about Megan: "Megan "Hammer" Campbell will be worth the price of admission this year. Yes, I know we don't charge for matches, but if we did, she'd still be worth the price of admission. This summer she tied Amanda Cowdrey's All-Time points for strength, conditioning, speed, and jump. The next seven, in order, are names UD Pride fans might remember: Jaime-Lee Richards, Erin Schroeder, Faye Barhorst, Kortney Norris, Becky Novacek, Sam Selsky, and Yvonne Marten. There are some incredible athletes listed above, and some great ones who played here that aren't. Hammer doesn't just want to start for this team, she comes into the gym like she wants to be the best player in the country THIS year. She has come a long way in 12 months. Look for her to have a monster season.".

Shayne Brown has been at UD for two seasons. She has had a couple of injuries that have slowed her down, her most recent injury prevented her from practicing.during the spring. Shayne said "it was a long spring". Shayne is healthy now and she hits the ball with a lot of power.

Angel Agu is a 6'2" freshman middle from Texas and she is joined in last year's recruiting class by Isolde Hannah a 6' middle from Columbus. I haven't watched either of them play but expect them to get playing time, possibly on the right side.

Brigid Campbell is a 6' freshman outside hitter from Illinois. Based upon pictures she is also very athletic and has great hops.

Serving

The object when serving the ball is to cause the opponent to make a bad pass which disrupts their offense. Getting an ace is great but if the server causes a bad pass they have done a good job.

Here is what coach Sheffield had to say regarding the team's serving this season: "Ally and Kray are two of the best servers in the country. We are trying to get on people all six rotations. Serving is not like free throws. You don't get a point for serving the ball over the net and in play. A weak serve means a good opponent is going to be in their offense and most likely terminate. We don't want people teeing off on us and we are not interested in simply just putting the ball in play. We want to pressure teams with our serve. We believe every time we go back and serve there is a winner and a loser. Our opponent wins if we have a service error or if they are in system with their pass. We don't want either. We believe we win if we get them out of system with their pass or we are fortunate enough to get an ace. These little "battles" are really fun and something we are trying to get our players to embrace. This preseason we have four radar guns in the gym trying to get our players to push the envelope with the speed of serve. We also put an elastic band half-way down from antenna to antenna, and then we put a 6x4 piece of carpet somewhere on the floor and we say "go under the elastic and hit it." Hit it with great speed, proper trajectory, and make sure the ball is dancing with the float that is put on the ball. We are getting better and we are learning how to execute at a higher percentage".

Defense

Coach Sheffield's teams always play tremendous defense. I have been to the chalk talks where he goes through offensive and defensive strategies and they are very informative.

Besides needing great passing you need great blocking against good teams. I would not expect this team to block as well intially as last year's team. Lindsay and Becky were both extremely good blockers and they had developed good chemistry with the outside blockers.
But, Yvonne Marten, Rachel Krabacker and Megan Campbell are all very good blockers. I would expect the blocking to be below UD's standard early in the year but improving rapidly. It will take a little time for the newcomers to perfect UD's blocking scheme.

What You Should Expect To See

There are obvious concerns with experience but here is what Coach Sheffield had to say about the non conference schedule and expectations of this team:

"We want to be playing our best volleyball in November and December. I think our out of conference schedule is as challenging as it's ever been. We are not hiding from competition and this team certainly won't be protected by its schedule. We will have to prepare the players and they are going to have to be resilient. I love coaching this team. They want to be great and all they want is for us to show them the way. That motivates me like crazy. Our coaching staff takes it personally to help every single player reach their dreams - and hopefully have some fun along the way. I think people are really going to fall in love with this team and enjoy watching the improvement every time we take the court".

What I expect this season

I was surprised that UD was ranked #19 after losing so many players to graduation but as Kelly said it is a popularity contest based upon the previous season. I know the experienced players coming in and have heard great things about several freshman. I think that UD will win the A10 this year but won't go undefeated.

To all of the Xavier, St Louis and Duquesne fans "I am completely unbiased"
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