Post Season NCAA Run Takes Us to Baltimore

Despite not advancing to the NESCAC Championship game, we earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament!  We ended the season ranked 2nd in New England, and earned the 3rd seed for our Regional at John's Hopkins University, playing Manhattanville in the first game. 

 Because of the extremely long drive, we practiced early in the morning before classes on Tuesday, and then departed after the last class that day for NJ.  We stopped along the way to pick up Thai takeout--our preferred dinner on the road, and then went on to NJ to spend our first night.  

Then we went on to Baltimore where we checked into our second hotel (and where we would call home for the next few nights!)  We practiced at the facility that day and then went out to dinner at Cava, which was new to me but even better than Chipotle!  Our hotel was nice, and we had some down time to finish work, and because it was the final week before Thanksgiving Break, we had a few players who needed to take exams while at the hotel, so I proctored a couple of those and people finished up work and we prepared for our NCAA run!

In-Season Birthdays!

During the season, we celebrated four birthdays with three players and our assistant coach, Brian.  First up, we had Kelly on the 11th of September.  Followed at the end of the month by Brian, whose wife Sylvie baked us all celebration cupcakes after our Tufts victory at home! 

And then we had Steph on the 10th of October and I baked the gluten free, vegan chocolate cupcake recipe that we all agreed was surprising good!  I recreated it for Gabbie's birthday on Nov. 1.  

I'm not sure how we missed taking a photo of Kelly's birthday, and then Gabby Pribisich had her birthday right after Thanksgiving, but we were no longer practicing together, so we didn't celebrate it together, sadly.

Season Work Culminates in #3 Seed for NESCAC's

One of the bonus features of a longer pre-season is that we get to help out the Middlebury HS volleyball team with some practices and skill building.  We also partnered with them to raise awareness about mental health and change the stigma to being one of understanding.  This partnership with the newly formed Varsity HS team is a very rewarding experience for our team and for their young team as well, so it's a wonderful, shared experience expressing our collective love of the game of volleyball.

Once we actually started the season, we played a tough non-Conference invitational at Kean University.  We played the hosts to a 1-3 defeat on Friday night and battled a tough Gettysburg team to a heart-breaking 2-3 loss on Saturday morning.  However, we capped off the tournament with a convincing 3-0 sweep of SUNY Cortland, who would go on to only lose 3 matches all year and all three opponents that weekend would go on to make the NCAA Tournament in November.  That first weekend, we were striving to find a groove and a lineup that would be successful.  We had our veteran setter, Gabbie and a strong defensive lineup of senior libero Kelly and senior DS Britt.  We had returning starters and fellow seniors Katie and Lexi, but Lexi was coming off an injury from last year that followed her through the summer, but Katie picked up where she left off and was our leading returning point scorer...until we discovered our new freshman phenom, Molly!

We knew Molly could be a hitter, and a good one, but our most pressing need was a practice setter, and she was very good at that also, so we recruited her to be our setter (and hitter), but quickly found out that first weekend that we'd need her to set in practice but HIT in games!  She emerged from that first weekend as a dominant hitter for us getting double digit kills in every match except the first where she only played one set.  We were playing different OH's all the time trying to find the right combination, and three emerged from the weekend as the main contenders, with Katie leading the way and sophomore Lillian and freshman Lauren coming through in the Cortland match with 11, and 9 kills respectively to cement their places in the running for that spot.

Our first NESCAC match saw us lose somewhat badly to a seasoned Williams team 0-3, but we went on to sweep Amherst the next day and then take down a tough Hamilton squad 3-1 after they had narrowly lost to Williams 2-3 the weekend before.  We then went on an 8-1 run with impressive sweeps of Tufts (electric match at Home!!) and Eastern Nazarene and were drawing a great HOME crowd which made for a really fun environment at home!  

We went over to Skidmore to play a couple of tough non-conference foes in Clarkson and Rochester and scored a 3-1 win against Clarkson, who is a perennial power in NY.  However, we suffered another heart-breaking 2-3 loss to Rochester of the UAA Conference.  It was a game of spurts, and although their head coach got tossed in the 4th set (which we went on to win, forcing a deciding 5th set), we couldn't quite finish in the end.  We got behind early but staged a significant comeback being down 7-11 and then taking a commanding 14-11 lead, but just couldn't get that final point and lost 14-16.  Devastating.  Our serving was a huge reason for our success at this point in the season and it seemed to be improving as we went along, which was great to see.  Our receive was also a strong suit of ours to aid our offense that was becoming more and more balanced with both Ava and Lexi (and Gabby) emerging as strong forces in the middle and with Molly on the right side and Katie and either Lauren or Lillian on the left, we were becoming a force to contend with.  

I want to note, however, that because Molly stormed onto the scene with impressive hitting and shut-down blocking, Steph was relegated to playing fewer minutes as our only lefty RH but was very quietly crushing it every chance she got and went on to hit an impressive .429 for the season to lead the team in hitting %!!  Also, this was the first year EVER that I was the ONLY one to dress up for Halloween!! Thanks to Kelly Bevere, I had a "Bull suit" to wear but I couldn't believe that no one else dressed up. 

After a nice home stretch, we hit the road for two more NESCAC weekends, going first to Conn and Bowdoin and then right back to Maine the next weekend for Colby and Bates.  Conn and Bowdoin was a great weekend.  We held off a feisty Conn team in a hard-fought sweep, and then swept Bowdoin the next day with the 2nd set being a 25-7 rout!!  Unfortunately, Kelly suffered a concussion during the Bowdoin match, and although she finished that match ended up missing the next three weekends of play.  Colby handed us our second loss in Conference and then we swept Bates in a competitive match.  

Next up for us was the New England Challenge matches hosted by Williams college.  We stayed again at Jiminy Peak Resort, which has become a fun tradition while playing at Williams.  We stay in condos, so the configuration of beds and groups is totally different than staying in a hotel.  Heading into that weekend all three NEWMAC teams were on a roll with MIT ranking in the top 25 Nationally, and Springfield coming in at 25th Nationally and Babson right behind them.  Other than the loss to Colby, we felt like we were playing well and starting really coming together as a team.  We beat Springfield in a closely contested 3-1 match and went on the next day to lose a very tight MIT match 0-3 and then beat a good Babson team 3-1.  Babson was missing some key players so the match wasn't as tight as it could have been, but they still battled, and our team came through with a big win, nonetheless.

That brings us to our final two NESCAC matches of the year, to determine the final seeding for the tournament.  This was also Senior Night, so it was fun to celebrate these four fantastic seniors!  Because they'd changed the format this year, we had already secured a home playoff game being in the top 4 regardless of outcome, but there was still some room to move up...Wesleyan was coming in undefeated in Conference and we played them to a very tough 2-3 loss, but we felt good about how we competed and played a very good team.  Trinity had been having a great season and was also fighting for a spot in the top 4, but we dashed those hopes with a 3-0 win on Saturday to end the regular season.  

So, we finished the regular season 15-7 and earned the #3 Seed for the NESCAC Championship, meaning we'd host a first round game for the first time ever!

Start of Season Fun!

Lots has happened since my last update, so we'll try to summarize things here.  We welcomed our new freshmen at our Team BBQ at my house as our first gathering of the new year.  Fun times, despite the bugs--it was a super wet summer here in VT, so the mosquitos were fierce this Fall!  Pre season was full of practice, meetings, bonding time, and lots of volleyball fun.

The pictures below are of each class, starting with seniors and moving down to the new freshman class.  It's a really fun group and we're enjoying working together and competing every day.  Practices are competitive and fun, so we're improving steadily, which is really fun to see.

 In addition to the pre season schedule of practices and meetings, we also were able to get over to the local High School and help out with their newly minted varsity volleyball program!  Vermont is the last state in the country to add girls volleyball as a sanctioned HS sport, so in town they've spent the last two years as a JV sport until they built up the program with numbers etc, to compete at the varsity level.  Our team has partnered with them and we went over a few days during our preseason and helped out with their practice and taught some new skills to these new young players.  It's a fun connection for all involved!

We also had some time to just relax and recoup from practices, and the cold Otter Creek River was the perfect place for a post-practice cold bath!  Now the season is underway and I'll get some game updates in here soon.

Graduation 2023

Graduation day was another gorgeous day in what was a gorgeous Spring here in VT!  I'm so proud of these young women.  Lucy Ambach (Molecular Biology and Biochemistry) and Manya Kula (Psychology) were both honored with Magna Cum Laude status, and both Laney Sullivan (Economics) and Addie Mahler (Joint Environmental Studies/Biology) were Summa Cum Laude, so right off the bat that's an impressive group of seniors!

On top of that, Laney received high honors by the Econ Department and was also the recipient of the D.K. Smith Economics Prize.  This is an award given to the student who writes the best senior thesis in the Economics Department.  WOW--well done, Laney!!

Addie also received department honors in both departments.  Additionally, she was awarded the Michael Moss '16 Prize in Environmental Studies.  This is an award to recognize a graduating senior whose academic success stems from a passion for the outdoors and the natural world, whose motivations transcend a job search or class ranking, and who demonstrates a genuine love for wildlife.  Very cool!  And, to top it off, Addie was selected as a Phi Beta Kappa recipient, so kudos to her for that wonderful list of honors.

Pictured here are the original class that started four years ago, so we all had a fun dinner out in town during senior week!  I'm going to miss this group, but fortunately Kelly will be back as a super-senior in the Fall!

And, as a throw-back, here's the picture from our opening BBQ their freshman year at the Knoll.  Finally, the last picture of the group is from Senior Night at our last home match of the season this Fall.

More Spring Awards and Presentations

Addie, Kelly and Laney all had thesis or senior work presentations this Spring, but at a later date than my previous post around the time of the Spring Symposium, and all three were fantastic.  Addie's was an oral presentation, and Laney's was a poster presentation, as was Kelly's.  Kelly did another presentation on her thesis work, this time in poster form, and it was fun to see the adjustments she'd made from the earlier time of her oral presentation for the Spring Symposium.  

I'm not sure you can read the titles of all of these presentations, but Addie's was for Environmental Studies and Biology, and both Laney and Kelly's were for their Economics majors.

I'm so proud of all of these seniors for their incredible careers, both academically and athletically!

Then, the other award that was presented at the Student Leadership Awards Ceremony this Spring was to Catilin Smith.  Caitlin received the Franklin G. Williams 1913 & Sara H. Williams 1912 Memorial Award.  This is awarded to sophomore student on the basis of deep human qualities of natural kindness, perceptivity of the needs and feelings of others, and an abiding sense of personal responsibility.  Caitlin is a very deserving recipient of this award and I was honored to be there to see her receive it.  

Spring Happenings: Symposium, Poetry Readings, and Archery

Spring is a wonderful time of the year.  Obviously, I love the Fall and being in season, but Spring in VT is also a gorgeous time of the year, and there's always a lot going on as the semester wraps up.  There will be more updates, but we've had students present their work at the Spring Symposium, the Black Studies Student Work Gallery, and even some more recreational events like learning Archery from Coach Sarah!

First we had presentations at the Spring Symposium from Kelly and Lucy, both of whom crushed it!  Lucy presented her information in poster form and talked to small groups all after noon about her research.  Kelly presented her research for her thesis as a pre-cursor to presenting and defending her thesis.

Next, Reya wrote a poem for her Black Studies class and then performed a reading of it at the Black Studies Student Work Gallery.

AND, finally, Gabbie and Steph had a little free time and asked if I would teach them Archery.  Now, I'm no pro, but I do teach Beginning Archery for PE and I have to say, they were quick studies!!  I mean, I'm sure I'm a good teacher (ha ha), but look what they did after about 15 minutes!  

So fun to engage with my players outside of the normal sphere of our learning environment, and I love to see them explain what they've been working on academically and also see the adventurous spirit of wanting to learn a new activity!  More updates to come...

February Graduates: Unique Tradition at Middlebury

 

February Graduation: A Unique Tradition

I hope you enjoye reading about this uniquely Middlebury Tradition!  This year this special celebration was moved to campus due to the extreme winter conditions and high wind/low temperatures warning.  It's a bit more of a "ski down" on the mountain, but for some, the gentle hill in front of the Chapel was probably welcomed!

Here's the write-up in the Campus, our college newspaper.  Feb graduation to continue with some restrictions in place - The Middlebury Campus