New Program Record Set by Starting 14-0

We opened Conference play at home against Colby and Bates with two wins!  We actually dominated both teams allowing a maximum of 19 points in any given set in the two match sweep.  We combined tough serving along with high hitting percentages for the wins.  Against Colby, we hit .293 with 6 aces (5 all from Jane!), and against Bates the next day we hit .340 with 10 aces. Gabbie ended the weekend with almost 10 assists/set, which is fantastic!  Maggie and Corley led us offensively along with Katie and Laney.  It's so great to play at home and we continued to get big crowds in Pepin for our matches, which is such a fun atmosphere.  We have the perfect scenario, I think, since we have a strong veteran Team and everyone is desperate to watch live sports again!

The following weekend we continued our Home stretch with another Conference match against a tough Amherst team followed by Brandeis, who plays in the perennial power conference UAA.  Our Amherst match-up was a repeat of last years Quarterfinal match where we emerged victorious in the 5th set, and this match was a prefect repeat of that--including the 5th set win by 2 points!  It was a very tight, back and forth match, just like last year.  We won the 1st, 3rd, and 5th sets, and all were tightly contested.  Here's a great sniped of match point!

 

 Brandeis didn't pose as much of a threat as Amherst as we held them to a dismal .010 hitting % and swept them 3-0 with scores of 25-14, 25-15, 25-13.

The last week in September saw us play Skidmore away, and then we hosted Trinity on Oct. 1, and a double header of Endicott and Clarkson on Saturday the 2nd.  Against Skidmore, we continued our efficient hitting percentage hitting .324 for the match.  Our top kill leaders remained the same with Maggie (11), Corley (9), and Jane (8) leading the way again.  Gabbie continued to lead our offense and Kelly (18 digs) anchored our defense, along with Jane and Lucy (3 blocks each) and Corley (2 blocks.)

Our final weekend of our THREE week home stand saw us play Trinity on Friday night, followed by both Endicott and Clarkson on Saturday, both of whom have been NCAA teams the last couple of years.  Trinity was an up and down match with us winning easily in the 1st and 3rd sets, but struggling to pull out a 28-26 win in the 2nd set!  Neither team hit particularly well with them hitting .009 and us only hitting .173.  We did come up with twice as many blocks and more than twice as many aces, which was great.  Lucy and Gabbie both had 5 blocks and Corley had 3 while Britt led us in aces (3) with Kelly right behind with 2.

Saturday was a tough day having to play two strong teams in the same day, unlike our previous multi-match days in the opening weekend featuring teams that were not as challenging.  We lost our first set to Endicott 21-25 before dominating the rest of the match by scores of 11, 16, and 15.  They had a lot of fire power, but our defense held them to a .113 hitting % while we countered by hitting .283.  A key for us was our serving--Katie led with 5, Kelly with 3 and Britt with 2 while we tallied 12 total aces for the match!  Corley led us in kills (13) and blocks (5), while Maggie had 12K, 2B and Laney had 7K, 3B.  Gabbie had match high assists with 32 and Kelly led all players with 14 digs.

Clicke here for the Endicott Highlight VIDEO

The second match of that day saw us again lose the first set to Clarkson 24-26, and then we really had to grind out the win in the next three sets.  We could never quite pull away and they just kept tipping us to death and they were very good at it.  The stats were odd...they tallied more kills, aces, assists and digs than we did, but we out-blocked them 10-3.  They were both very good teams, so to come away from the weekend with three wins, we felt very good about that.  The wins also set a program record 14 straight wins, which is fun!

Click here for the Clarkson Highlight VIDEO

MCVB Off To A Great Start!

We're off to a great start being undefeated through our first 6 matches, and it's sure been exciting, especially after a year without any competitions.  Our seniors are a huge reason for our early success, and they've been instrumental in leading this team through the pandemic and out the other side.  We've done a lot of work over the course of last year through the summer.  We've developed a new set of Core Values, have re-committed ourselves to working together to help each other be the best versions of ourselves, both on and off the court, have been educating ourselves through workshops and small group meetings on issues of inclusion and current events, and are also finding lots of ways to strengthen our bonds with each other.

We started our season off with a Home match win vs St. Mikes on the 2nd day of Freshman Orientation, so only the first year's were on campus.  It was a pretty quick match that saw us win in straight sets, and we had a great crowd despite the fact that most of the campus hadn't arrived yet!  So fun!  Then we took to the road and got another four wins down at the Wheaton Invite where we played Worcester State, Farmingdale State, Rhode Island College, and the host school Wheaton.  It was a long weekend of volleyball, but rewarding as lots of people saw some court time and we got to actually compete again and travel together as a team.

We also celebrated a birthday over the course of that first weekend--Kelly turned 21!!  As a re-classified sophomore, she's now old for her class!  (Ha ha!)  My daughter goes to school at Wheaton,so I knew of a nice bakery down there that would make gluten free/vegan cupcakes, so everyone on the team could enjoy the birthday treats!  

Our last mid-week match before heading into our first Conference match was at Colby-Sawyer.  They didn't pose much of a threat as we easily defeated them in straight sets as we're still fine tuning our lineup and transitions and responsibilities etc.  It's starting to come together, and as we get into Conference play, we'll be challenged and find out just where our areas that we need to improve on really are.

Pre-Season Fun

We had an extended pre season this year thanks in part to some new health guidelines (not related to Covid.)  These new guidelines stipulate when you can start to have double sessions and when you can add strength training and even testing into practices.  Normally we start double sessions almost right away because we have so much to fit in before our first match, so being "forced" to slow down that process, but actually having the time to do it was very nice for all of us! 

It also added some extra time for some team fun!  One of the things we did was take a morning and go to the Killington Mountain Resort to do a Ropes Course.  Here are many of our pictures from that day!  The team also has gone to the gorge to swim on the super hot days a couple of times, as well as just hang out on campus and get to know each other!  We have another pretty large roster with 18 players, and after a year off when the whole team wasn't together as a group all year, and now almost having two classes of freshmen who haven't competed with us yet the extra bonding and practice time has been great.

Inside Look at MIDD During Covid

 Well, it's been a weird year to say the least, but we survived and hopefully have come out the other side of this pandemic with a renewed sense of resiliency and determination to look out for our fellow humans.  As we gear up for a more normal Fall, I hope you enjoy some short video clips of various spaces on campus that we filmed this past year.  Enjoy!!

Leadership Meeting in Spring

Downstairs in McCullough--Crossroads Cafe

Upstairs at McCullough--The Grill

"Grill" Video Explanation w/Britt

Bi-Hall with Katie

Room Tour with Lucy

Axinn Multi-Cultural Center with Lexi

Atwater Dining Hall with Lucy and Laney

Congratulations Seniors!!

Wow, pandemic or not, four years seems to go by faster and faster!  It's hard to believe we're saying goodbye to this group already!  As restrictions eased across the State and on campus, I invited the seniors out to my house for one last meal.  I didn't cook, however, because I still wasn't sure about those rules, so we got take-out from the Arcadian--one of the favorite restaurants in town (other than Sabai Sabai!)  

 Both Jaime and El were living off campus and still not allowed on campus until graduation, and Shea and Emma were living on campus so the only place we could all get together was off campus somewhere and since we were all vaccinated, including my kids, my house seemed like the perfect place.  

 We ate, laughed and talked about fun times and what's next.  A variety of choices with Emma headed to graduate school,  El working in NY, Shea as Mass General in clinical research, and at the time, Jaime was still undecided, but word has it that she will be staying in NY with a job offer coming right before graduation!  Congrats to you all, and more updates to come!  

 Graduation this year was in person, but to keep the overall numbers lower and to accommodate everyone's guests, there were 5 or 6 different mini ceremonies across campus.  While this was a little unfortunate because it's nice to have everyone be in ONE spot and share one graduation experience, it was certainly better than not having it be in person!  Here are a couple of the pictures the seniors sent me, since I also wasn't allowed to go this year.  It was graduates and family/guests only.  Brian and I always go and always really enjoy it, but at least the graduates got to have some sort of celebration in person with their families and some of their classmates.

Here are pictures from both Shea and El.  Shea's parents and sister came, and El's parents came.  The cane in the pictures is a MIDD Tradition, so I'll give a little more history on that sometime in the near future.  I'm also still hoping to get pictures from the other two...

 We will miss you ALL!  Good luck with your next adventures, and we look forward to seeing you back on campus to cheer us on, only this time as Alums!  But, as we all know...MCVB is family for life!

Spring Strength Training

 All right, we're over half way through Spring Semester, and we're getting a lot of good work in!  We're practicing a couple of times a week with one session more geared toward skills and drills and the other on play and competition.  Additionally, we're getting in some great work on the Strength Balcony!

 Here are some quick videos of the team showing up for morning lift and then heading to classes.  We are certainly loving our new Team Strength Balcony!  It's also been one of the nicest April's on campus with many days in the 60's and 70's--and we love that!

Welcome Back, Students!!

WELCOME BACK STUDENTS!!

The students once again had to go through an intensive protocol both before coming back (14 day pre-arrival quarantine), as well as the Day 0, Day 4, Day 7 testing protocols once on campus.  I worked many of those testing days and got to see several players during either the check-in or the medical observation stations the first few days, and again on Day 4/7 testing.  I was able to choose Laney on her arrival day since she arrived when no one else was coming in, so I called her over to my station!  On another day, Britt actually was assigned to my station (and there were 16 different stations, so that's pretty impressive!)  I've seen most of the team at least in passing through the testing days so far, but I'm so excited to see everyone in the gym on Monday!

 

 

Here are some other welcome back photos from around campus.  The returning students came at basically the same time as the new "Febs" this year so we could have everyone go through the testing protocols together.  So, this "Welcoming" committee was dual purpose this year--welcoming NEW "Feb" students to MIDD, as well as welcoming back everyone else after an extended break this past winter!

 

 

 

 

Here's the iconic view of Mead Chapel with the Holiday lights on the big tree in the center of campus.  It's so great to see people walking around campus again!

Right below that we have the newly placed fire pits in that same area for students to safely gather outside.  The students all were given a canvas bag filled with various goodies when they returned, including a wool blanket with MIDD scenes on it, and a pair of fun wool mittens--both to help encourage all students to get outside in the cold and socialize safely in the fresh air!

These last two photos are of our dear Panther statue overlooking the Green Mountains and perched above the Football and Lacrosse Stadium near the Golf Course.  Below, we have the outdoor ice rink made to help encourage outdoor recreation and skates were being provided this year as an added incentive to partake.  In the old days, we actually held real games (now, that's really the "old" days!) outside but most years the college just floods this part of campus to help provide another venue to fun outdoor recreation.  This year it just has an added bonus since many indoor social activities are limited due to the pandemic.

We're so excited to have everyone back on campus, and the AC is due to open this weekend, so we'll be able to get in the gym starting on Monday!!  Yeah!!

We've also got a few birthdays coming up, so we'll get some pictures of those for you also!  Happy Winter...and since it's March and daylight savings is coming soon...Spring is on it's way...