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A Great Alumni Weekend
A Great Alumni Weekend
UDBrian
Published by UDBrian
10-08-2010
A Great Alumni Weekend

DAYTON (OH) -- What a great week for the #19 women's vball team. They didn't have to get on a bus, they win two matches by 3-0, they hold a free volleyball clinic and a free chalk talk.

UD had not played in the Frerick's Center for more than a month and efficiently disposed of Rhode Island on Friday in three straight sets. Becky Novacek, Lindsay Fletemier and Yvonne Marten all recorded seven kills. Amanda Cowdrey and Allyson Morey both recorded two aces.

Saturday was a very busy day for the coaches and players. On Saturday at 12 noon the coaches and players hosted a free volleyball clinic at the Frerick's Center. There were between 50 and 60 kids in attendance at this clinic which is enjoyed by both the players and coaches. Brittany Dildine enjoys the clinics and said "If there is an opportunity to create enthusiasm for the sport or inspire young children, then I am thrilled to be a part of it. The fact that we can do both at the same time is special".

"We have never had too many kids to handle (although that would be great!). We teach the fundamentals. Not a lot of team play, but more individual skills (pass, set, hit, serve)."

One prominent UDPride poster said that he brought his kids to their first match on friday and then saturday's volleyball clinic "add to that the free volleyball clinic they held the next day and my kids are addicted". Here is a link to some pictures taken at the clinic http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...5951581&ref=mf

There is plenty of room for more kids at the clinics, if you didn't make it last time try to take someone between 3 and 13 next time.

Prior to the Saturday match Kelly hosted a Chalk Talk in the Frerick's building. We were treated to a special guest, Vera Gomes who is the Academic Coordinator for the volleyball team. Coach Sheffield says "this story has been told before but it bears being told again" what great support the team receives from Vera.

Vera meets with some student athletes once a week but she monitors monthly progress reports for all volleyball student athletes to make sure that nobody falls through the cracks. By all accounts she is doing a tremendous job and the team is lucky to have her. High GPA's and academic all american awards do not occur by accident.

After Vera Gomes spoke to the crowd Kelly Sheffield gave everyone a great lesson on blocking techniques and offensive strategies. He showed slow motion video of matches against Northern Iowa and Nebraska (and others) explaining their offensive strategies against UD's blocking. Northern Iowa's offense was the fastest Kelly or anyone else had seen, even faster than Xavier's in the past.

Kelly's talk was made even better by the high school team which was brought by their UD Alumni coach. They were very impressed with Lindsay and Becky and said at one point "Becky is a horse, I want her phone number". Those young ladies won a pizza at the volleyball match following the chalk talk and were great cheering for the Flyers. I hope they come back. There is plenty of room for more attendees, if you want to learn more about volleyball this is a great way to start. You are welcome to ask questions but you can sit quietly and observe.

Following the Chalk Talk on Saturday UD disposed of Fordham in three straight sets. This was alumi weekend and there was a great crowd at the match, 1802 to be exact. UD was led by Lindsay Fletemier and Rachel Krabacher with nine kills. Becky Novacek and Amanda finished right behind them with 8 kills. For the match UD had 87 attempts, 44 kills and only 7 hitting errors which is outstanding. Their hitting percentage for the night was .425.

After the match I tracked down a few of the alums that I knew and who would recognize me. If you enjoy reading this type of information let me know so I can prepare to speak with alums who don't know me in the future. I was lucky to run into Chelsey C, Bethany A, Robynne G, Jamie Lee and Kortney. So what are they up to now?

Kortney as you probably know is working with ex coach Horsmon at Maryland. She is an assistant coach who focuses on serve receive and recruiting. I always felt that Kortney was just tremendous at getting herself in back row position to make digs. We discussed the art of playing back row and she agreed "You don't have to be quick" if you can read the block and the hitter.

Chelsey, the owner of the million dollar smile is working as a waitress at this time in her home city of Chicago. She isn't involved with volleyball but said that could happen in the future.

Jamie Lee is working in sales for Cintas at VA Beach. She is coaching AAU level vball and having a great time with it. She was surprised that the subject of her game winning aces had been discussed recently on the UDPride.com board.

Robynne Green is working one on one with students in the Chicago Special Education Program. She is a girls varsity volunteer coach and is involved with the Young Life Youth Group. Whenever I speak with Robynne I feel that this is a woman with an extremely big heart.

Bethany is working in Indianapolis as a pre kindergarten teacher and loves it. She is tired at the end of a day but has great kids and wonderful parents to work with. She is playing in both doubles and six leagues.

These five alums provided me with some more info which will be shared at a later date.

I had a great talk with Yvonne earlier in the week and I will share our discussion in a day or two.
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