Alumni Weekend

 

Alumni Weekend 2025 was another success!  It was a smaller turnout this year, but still oh so much fun!!  We LOVE having our former players return to campus and it's always great to see them back on the court for the Alumni Game.  Let me say it, they still got it going on!!  

We faced two tough opponents in Bowdoin and Colby and unfortunately didn't come away with a win this weekend, but we fought hard and had fun catching up with these amazing alums!

Corley, Claire, Lucy, Shea, Britt, Kelly and Jane--thank you so much for coming back and for all of your support of our Program.  MCVB really is a family for LIFE!!  Thanks for everything and good luck with your many adventures!

Birthday Boys

I guess we have fewer player birthdays during the season now, but two of our Coaches had Fall Birthdays so far!!  Assistant Coach Brian's birthday is Sept. 29th, and Our Student Assistant, Spencer had a birthday on Oct. 7th.

They both bring so much to our team, and we all like to share in the celebration of someone's special day...whether it's the singing or the cupcake eating, here's hoping they both had special birthdays!!

Early Season Road Warriors

Our travel schedule this year has been a bit brutal.  We LOVE to play, though, so road or home, we're always ready!!  We had back-to-back non- conference road weekends at Clarkson in NY and then at Scranton in PA.  Fortunately, we had some parents willing to make the trek both places, so we did have some great MIDD fans!  

The Clarkson weekend saw us go 2-1, sweeping both Clarkson and St. Lawrence and dropping a competitive 4 set match with St. John Fisher.

The first picture is Team Dinner at our Scranton Tournament, and the next one is in front of the building that was in the intro of The Office, or Dunder Mifflin.  The team was all pretty pumped about getting to see this!

We played three really tough teams in Salisbury, Cortland and Scranton this weekend.  It was all great experience, but unfortunately, we came away with three losses.  We were competitive and took a set in each match, but couldn't quite come up with the W.  Lots to work on and lots we're doing well, so it should be a fun ride!!

Pre-Season Fun

We are lucky to have time to "acclimatize" during our pre-season now.  It used to be that we jumped in with double sessions and were playing our first match less than a week after we started.  Thanks to some rule changes for health and safety of all athletes, we now have to take things slower, thereby allowing for more time overall before we start competing.  SO, to fill some of that time, we are able to do more team bonding and workshops etc.  

A very popular experience during pre-season is always going to a swimming hole or to the State Park beach.  I just happened to catch up with most of the team at the after-swim creamie!  My personal go-to is a vanilla/choc twist with rainbow sprinkles!  

The pre-season weather was great this year--nice, warm but not hot or humid for the most part, and sunny.  For an indoor sport, it's nice for us to get out and enjoy some of that great weather.

We also did some "speed dating" as a get-to-know-you-better" exercise.  It's fun and especially for the underclassmen, it's a great way to have personal conversations with each of your teammates.  We also met with an alum who works in Counseling at the College as well as meeting with two extraordinary women who work in the Wellness Education office here on campus.  

It's great to have the time to work through our skills without having to try to cram it all into double sessions to get it all in.  It's also better for our bodies, minds and souls.  Being able to do more of this other education and team bonding is also a great way to build on our already strong culture of MCVB.  Our unofficial motto is:  "It's ALL about the TEAM" and what better way to cement that than by really making efforts to get to know each and every one of your teammates and also learning about yourself and general wellness resources available on campus.

 

During pre-season campus is pretty scarce with only the Fall athletes and some resident life staff living on campus.  It's great to focus on practices and getting to know teammates better, so we love it.  This year a couple of the senior captains are living in a house where they hosted a pre-season bonfire night and roasted marshmallows--old fashioned camp fun and a great team bonding event!  Ready to start our season with a Scrimmage at Williams on Aug. 30, our first match on Sept. 3 at Castleton, and then our first weekend tournament up at Clarkson/St. Lawrence on Sept 5-6--ALL before classes even get started on Sept. 8th.  LETS GO MCVB!!

2025 Season Begins With Preseason Family BBQ

 

We start our season as we have for the past couple of decades--with a Team and Family BBQ at my house.  The weather cooperated with us and we had a pretty nice night for our dinner.  My dog Sunny loved all of the attention.  

It's a great opportunity for the new families to start to get to know each other as well as getting the returners' parents together with all of us for a fun family evening!  We also have a new trainer this year, so Phoebe got acquainted with us all over the evening as well.

As we do, we also took pictures of each class to start the new year.  First up are the SENIORS, and the CAPTAINS--Campbell, Ava and Lillian!!

The next pictures are in reverse order, which Juniors (Molly, Gabby, Lauren (w/Sunny), and Sophie--aka Horn.

Then the Sophomores:  Devin, Sophie--aka Fish, Caroline (w/Sunny), Campbell--aka Bart and Annabella--aka AB.

Finally, the new ROOKIES:  Ella, Kinaree (w/sunny), Molly--aka Mac, and Nora.  We have a lot of double names so we need the nicknames so we know who is who....or at least so I know who is who! 

WELCOME MCVB 2025!!!

ALL-AMERICANS--Gabbie & Molly

 

We want to recognize and celebrate our TWO All-Americans this season with Gabbie and Molly, who were quite the dynamic duo!!  Middlebury Volleyball has been in existence since 1994.  We have had quite a few Honorable Mention All-Americans and All-Region honorees, and we had our first All-American in 2021 with Maggie Wise (coincidentally that was Gabbie's first year!), but to have TWO in one year is extraordinary.  

We're so proud of both of these players as they are total TEAM players and helped elevate the level of play all around and guided us to one of our best seasons ever!  This year's team tied for advancing the farthest in the post season getting to the Sweet 16 for only the 2nd time (only other time was 2011). Gabbie leaves the Program with several school records, and is the only player to be named either, let alone BOTH AVCA Rookie of the Year, AND AVCA Player of the Year.  Wonderful bookends to a fabulous career!! Congratulations to both Gabbie and Molly on a momentous year!! 

HUGE NESCAC/AVCA HONORS--Players of the Year

 We had some really great individual honors this year when the post-season awards came around.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right?  SO PROUD TO BE A PANTHER!!

 Gabbie O'Toole was honored by the AVCA as the Region I Player of the Year!!  Molly was voted the NESCAC Player of the Year!  Annabella was voted the NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year! 

These are really great honors, and we're very proud of our whole team, but also really proud of these individuals for garnering these wonderful individual honors.  We talk a lot about the TEAM, and individuals rarely get honors like these without a successful TEAM behind them, so we can ALL celebrate these honors with them.  Well done, TEAM!!