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Vball, A Rebuilding Season?
Vball, A Rebuilding Season?
UDBrian
Published by UDBrian
08-23-2016
Vball, A Rebuilding Season?

The volleyball team has been picked by the A10 to finish in 1st place in preseason polls. That is a huge testament to the UD women's vball program.

They lost the A10 player of the year (Alaina Turner), the A10 libero of the year as well as Jenna Jendryk a right side with tremendous all around skills, Jill Loiars who provided instant offense from the left side and Angel Agu who received a lot of playing time in the midde.

On offense they lost
Alaina Turner 497 kills
Jill Loiars 288 kills
Jenna Jendryk 213 kills
Angel Agu 140 kills
A total of 1138 kills out of 1712 kills were lost to graduation

On offense the team returned Jane Emmenecker the A10 setter of the year, Amber Erhahon a tremendous middle, Jessica Sloan a promising left side hitter, Lauren Bruns an unheralded left side hitter, middle Kendyll Brown (played 19 sets). They also returned Megan Giardina the backup setter.

On defense the team lost Janna Krafka one of the best serve receivers in UD history. Jenna Jendryk was also a good receiver and defender.
On defense they return Margo Wolf who is outstanding and played for a great high school program. They also return Maggie Shutter who played in 30 sets and Laura Hubacek who played in 9 sets. Jessica Sloan played #2 left side hitter last year most of the time and never looked totally comfortable receiving serve.

You would expect this to be a rebuilding year and that is what most of us thought when the season ended.

But, several things happened after the season ended. The first was that the players showed great improvement from the end of the season to the spring practices/scrimmage this spring. I was pleasantly surprised with the play of Jessica Sloan who was hitting the ball well from the front row and back row. Lauren Bruns had also improved her hitting and blocking. RS freshman Brianna Pittman definitely looked like she couldl provide offense with great power from the right side.

So, I was much more optimistic when I attended the vball Red/Blue game last Saturday at the amazing Hausfeld Court.. What I saw gave me even more reason to be optimism about this season even though Jane Emmenecker and Julia Brown did not play.

I didn't think that the team returned serve extremely well but they serve really well and that makes it tough to pass the ball well repeatedly.

You can start with a tremendous middle in Amber Erhahon. She is great on offense and blocking at the net.

Kendyll Brown looks to have improved a lot since last season. The middle should be strong on offense and blocking this year.

Jessican Sloan now looks comfortable returning serve and ready to play six rotations. She has also become comfortable hitting every shot necessary. She can go line, cross court, hard cut or roll shot. I was very impressed with her improvement.

Redshirt Right Side Brianna Pittman is a powerful hitter that also puts up a big block.

lauren Bruns has also improved significantly. She has added that hard cut shot which is really diffiicult to defend.

Megan Giardina was the backup setter last year and she has improved both her setter and serve since last year.

On defense Margo Wolf is ready to take care of the defense and serve receive. Maggie Shutter played very well in the spring scrimmage. In addition you have Laura Hubacek who plays very good fast defense and has improved.

The freshmen class was ranked at #17 but some volleyball experts felt it should be considered #10 in the country. Some of the freshmen players had more opportunities than others to make impressions but I obviously had some thoughts on the spring Red/Blue game.

in general all of the freshmen showed that they are well rounded players without college experience and should all have good careers at UD. Jamie Peterson in particular surprised me on one play where she confidently made a very good overhand set to the outside hitter..

Brooke Westbeld played setter on one side during the scrimmage and she will be a star at UD. It is unknown who might win the starting setter job. Jane Emmenecker has been injured while Brooke and Megan battle for the starting spot.. Brooke plays extremely tough defense for a new college player. It is obvious that she takes it personally when the ball hits the floor in her area.

Jamie Peterson really played well during the Red/Blue scrimmage. She is listed as a MB/OH on the roster. It is uncertain if she is ready to receive serve but she can provide offense on the left side or right side.

I was impressed with Jordan Albarran's swing in warmups but she didn't get a lot of opportunities on offense. She is a good defensive player
Olivia Dubay and Sierra Pla looked most comfortable when blocking and they both put up big blocks

After all of this rambling I will say that even though this might be considered a rebuilding year it could be a very successful one. This is definitely a team that can challenge for an ncaa at large berth even if they don't win the A10 auto bid.

The schedule isn't extremely demanding so they cannot afford to lose many matches or they will again be in a dur or die situation needed to win the A10 tournament.

But, they should be a handful when the A10 season ends for any team they might meet in the A10 tournament. Coach Horsmon and his staff have shown the ability to greatly improve a team during the season and I doubt this one will be an exception

I plan on having an article with questions sent to Coach Horsmon and his staff later this week

Don't forget that the flyers play at Wright State this weekend.
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  #1  
By Lifelong Flyer Fan on 08-23-2016, 08:18 PM
Just a heads up for anyone going out to WSU. They charge for VB. VB is $6 for Adults. $3 for 3-13.
http://www.wsuraiders.com/ViewArticl...B_OEM_ID=27000
Matches also supposed to be on ESPN3.
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