It is Xavier week for UD volleyball. Xavier and UD have a great rivalry and Volleyball is no exception. UD plays Xavier at 7pm on Friday at the Frerick’s Center. There is a chalk talk at 6:30 before the match begins.

To hear why you should attend this match follow the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJmiwkK14zs&feature=player_embedded

Last weekend the Flyers disposed of George Washington and Charlotte. The scores in the George Washington match were 25-17, 25-12 and 26-24. The sideout percentage tells the story of this match (which it usually does). The sideout percentage gives you a great idea of how good your passing and hitting are as well as how good your serving and blocking are on defense. In set one UD had an 82% to 56% advantage in sideout percentage. In set two UD had a 69% to 33% advantage in sideout percentage. In set three it was a different story as UD had only a 62% to 57% sideout advantage and this set went extra points (past 25 points).

Against Charlotte the Flyers easily won all three sets and had a convincing advantage in sideout percentage. The scores were 25-19, 25-16 and 25-19. UD easily won the sideout percentage by 78% to 60%, 82% to 54% and 63% to 47%.

Shayne Brown showed the ability in practice and warm ups to hit the ball with great pace last year but she was completely untested coming into this season. But, you can see marked improvement in Shayne’s game and confidence as the season goes on. Here is what Kelly had to say about Shayne:
　
“I really hate to compare players to animals (I can’t believe I just typed that sentence), but in this case I think it is a pretty good description. Shayne came in like a young colt – very excited, very determined, and very all-over-the-place. She’s turning into a thoroughbred right before our eyes. This is the first time she has ever played on the right, and early on we just wanted her not to make mistakes. But now she is getting sets in big moments and more and more is coming through. She is so competitive and isn’t afraid to work to get to where she wants to go. I’m telling you, Shayne is going to be really, really good someday”.

The Flyers are currently in first place with an A10 record of 6-0 but Xavier is 5-1 and if the Flyers don’t win on Friday they would be tied with Xavier for 1st place. I asked coach Sheffield a few questions and he was kind enough to provide us with some good insight.
　
Kelly, you mentioned in a previous interview what a great rivalry UD and Xavier have. Can you put into a couple of sentences why this is a can’t miss match for current or potential fans?

“If I have to explain to Flyer fans about the UD-X rivalry, then I’m guessing we’re not talking to real Flyer fans! As for volleyball, both teams have been at the top of the conference for the better part of the past decade. It’s such a great university rivalry, and I can’t answer this, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of sports where both of these schools, year-in and year-out, are battling each other for the conference title. These two schools, with this intense natural rivalry, are always going at each other with a regular season or conference championship at stake. That, in itself, makes the rivalry more intense. In addition to that, there have been some classic matches between these two teams. Last year at their place, the two teams played the closest match in the rally score era. All 5 sets were decided by two points. That had never happened before – or since! At the start of that match a X student stood across from our bench, and for 2 1/2 hours, yelled “I HATE YOU!” over and over and over. To mix it up, she changed which word she emphasized. After 5 minutes it became pretty annoying, after an hour I thought about calling a psychologist, after two hours I was pretty impressed with her dedication”.

Xavier runs a very very fast offense. The advantage to that is that they can sometimes be hitting the ball without a blocker in the right position. The disadvantage is that if the blocker is in position on a low quick set the hitter might have trouble adjusting to the block. Running this offense requires great passing so it is even more important than usual to serve well and make their passing more difficult. So I asked Kelly. What type of attack can we look for from Xavier?

“Come to the chalk talk and find out”. :D

“There are advantages and disadvantages to their style of play. They put pressure on you with their speed. In our sport you don’t match speed with speed. If that was the case, we’d match up with anyone. It just means that we have to be more disciplined. That’s a big-time challenge!”

Will Xavier play a defensive system similar to ours?

“There are a lot of similarities. They bunch their block in, like us. Occasionally they make decisions where they front some hitters and go 1v1 with other hitters. We try not to do that. They have their Libero positioned in the middle back and a little shallow in the court. Since this is where most balls go, they want her getting them. We like our outside hitters to be in the middle back so we can have a strong back-row attack. If we didn’t have strong back-row attackers like Yvonne and Rachel I would probably stick Paige in that position and she’d average another dig or so per set”.

This is always high level volleyball and if you can only make it to one regular season match this is the one to attend. Kelly had one final comment for current and future vball fans:

“Hope people are fired up, and I hope fans are proud of the way this team is competing and improving. Hope to see you all in Frericks on Friday! GO FLYERS!!!”

I hope to see some of you at the chalk talk, 6:30 downstairs in classroom 10. When you come into the frericks center bear to your right. Take the staircase down and again bear to your right to classroom 10.