I had some extra time this weekend so for those of you who don't have the time to listen to Dave's podcast, here is my sumary.
Dig City Wed 9/21/2022 with Coach Dave Shondell and Cory Palm
Dig City Wed 9/21/2022 with Coach Dave Shondell and Cory Palm
- Where We Are - Dave likes the non-conf season and is overall pleased with our record. Our RPI not quite as strong as he would have thought because some of the teams we have played have had such a tough schedule that their records are not good. But several (Ball State, Northern Kentucky, Bowling Green, Milwaukee, Bradley etc) are going to do very well and will finish with good records.
- For example Northern Kentucky is 2-9 but once they start playing in the Horizon League they will probably finish around 20-10 or similar
- Our match against Ball State Saturday was a barn burner in the last two sets. Ball State won 30 matches last year including beating Michigan in the NCAA. They only lost one spot (left side hitter) and when they get that figured out they will be really good.
- Our middles were not as good in this game “for whatever reason”.
- Ball State could have easily won sets 2 & 3 and our team fought tooth and nail to win.
- The crowd & students were great and I hope they are like that on Friday when Minnesota comes in.
- We have played a lot of very tight sets even though we have not lost many. Dave feels the team members who were here last year are here to win and they have made the difference
- Eva Hudson - She has that desire to win. She has grit and fight and a “nastiness” and that will, hopefully, spread through the team.
- Hudson has won 3 out of 4 Big Ten Freshman of the Week Awards. That is good and bad - it is good we have such a highly competitive player and it is bad that other teams will now focus on how to stop her. BUT, that allows other players (like Chinn, Ellis and Koch and our middles) to rise to the occasion so even that is not all bad.
- Lourdes Myers - She played well in very limited exposure last week and this week has had the two best practices of her career. Lourdes is 6’3” middle from Alliance, Ohio. In her 1st year she had a leg issue which required surgery so then she had two redshirt years (for her surgery and COVID). So she is virtually a freshman.
- She has one of the best arms of any player I have coached. And her jump is 10’6” - that is 6” above a basketball rim. And now she is beginning to put it all together. She has been OUTSTANDING the last two practices and really, in the last week. A light bulb has come on in her.
- She is nipping at the heels of our two really good middles. So she is another person we can not hesitate to put in when our middles are not playing well like on this last Sat. She gives us a size presence greater than Colvin & Clayton.
- As for Rastovski, she got thrown in the fire last week as an OH. She played very well for us.
- Others - Another is Brielle Warren (OH), a freshman from Texas. She simulates other teams in practice but “Boy, nobody takes practice more seriously than she does.” She is a GREAT competitor just like Hudson. She has been outstanding for us.
- Lizzie Carr, who will almost certainly redshirt this year, is 6’6” and plays every bit that tall. She is probably our best blocker. So people say “if she is your best blocker why isn’t she playing?” Because we know her potential and she will be an All-American type player by her 5th year.
- Dave is really pleased with our younger players.
- Practices - Dave tries to make our practices like a Big Ten match so the players experience competition at an elite level
- The three men practice players we have could all be playing in the MIVA (Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association). They are a big challenge for our team. The competition they provide is knock-down, drag-out. Then you have Myers, Carr, Rastovski and Warren. And you’ve got good setting with Balensiefer and Yim.
- The culture we’ve created to develop our team is really, really good.
- Minnesota - They come in 5-3 for the year and have been in the Top 10 all year long - currently #8. Their 3 losses were high-profile - Texas, Stanford and Pepperdine - all in the Top 20. And they have some great wins.
- They always have run a fast game but I think they have actually even sped it up a little this year. The ball rarely gets above the antenna, setting a really quick ball to their pins.
- They have these high-flying pins on the outside with Landfair at 6’5” and probably touches 10’9’. Freshman McKenna Wucherer (only 6’1” but probably touches 10’6”) has only played (the last) two matches due to an ankle injury, She came in last weekend and in two matches had 28 kills. Wenaas on the right side is a junior and named one of the Top Ten returning players in the Big Ten. They moved her from the left to the right. So now all three pin hitters are really dangerous.
- Booth in the middle is a freshman is 6’7” and they have Husemann, a 6’3” middle who played most of last year. And they have two transfers - Davis (a “really good” sophomore middle) from Ohio State and a Michigan State transfer (Dave did not identify). Both are waiting in the wings for a chance to play.
- Their libero, CC McGraw, is highly respected and tough in her 5th year.
- They also have a 6’3”setter in Shaffmaster, a junior from Newcastle, Indiana. She committed when she was about 12yo. She always wanted to go to Minnesota which is not a bad decision. The knock on her was that she did not set the middles very well but she has really improved on that this year. She is the best offensive setter in our league. She will score points.
- Problems - They do have to fill the Big Ten POY void of Samedy, who got 50% of the sets last year. But they have the personnel to do that.
- They are a little bit like us in that they are figuring out what to do and how to make it work. But offensively they are a juggernaut.
- Match - The game will be Friday at 8PM televised on BTN. It has been sold out for weeks and I hope everyone shows up. We need all those people. Our gym is not a pleasant place for visitors to play and it needs to stay that way.
- Holloway is designed for volleyball with a few wrestling matches thrown in - wrestling does not practice there but play like four matches in Holloway. Most other gyms are basketball arenas and if you are in the upper deck you do not even feel that you are part of the game - you are watching it on the video board. In Holloway you are right in the game. All fans come in on the floor level right next to the players and you can admire their athletic prowess.
- Schedule - The Big Ten this conference has done a nice job this year of having at least one day between the games (like Wed/Sat or Fri/Sun). That is kind to the athletes.
- Iowa - On Sunday we go to Iowa. Jim Barnes, a friend of Dave’s, is their new coach. He did a great job for 11 seasons as Baylor’s HC bringing in the players that took them to the Final Four but he was dismissed. Then he went to Tulane for 6 seasons and won the conference championship there before coming to Iowa. He called me when considering taking to job at Iowa and I said to him “How many hours do you have in day?” and he decided he had enough.
- He doesn’t have the players that he needs there yet. A lot of payers left Iowa but he brought some players with him from Tulane and got some transfers through the portal and they have been very competitive in non-conference with a record of 6-5.
- They play in that hockey arena off-campus where we were last year. It’s a “nice” place to play. We are excited to go up there.
- Hannah Clayton is looking forward to going up there to play the team she helped carry for 4 years before she transferred. She loves her former teammates. She had a great career there and was a top blocker there. She started every single match in which she played. I know they miss her because even though she will only be here one year I am going to miss her.
- She has been a wonderful addition to our team. She left because she felt with the extra COVID year she wanted to find a new experience. Dave is really “proud of her.”
- Meg Renner will also be playing close to home having grown up in Cedar Rapids which is about a half hour away from Iowa City. For years she has been watching us play Iowa mostly from the sidelines and Dave is sure she is looking forward to this game.
- The Iowa game is a 1PM (EST) start on ESPN2 (now moved to ESPN.)
