Spring Happenings

Spring is a busy time for everyone, it seems, but we did find time to get together for dinner recently.   The Team came out to my house for a fun dinner get together where we had "breakfast for dinner."  Since I have chickens, we had to have fresh scrambled eggs, and also pancakes, bacon, sausage and a large fruit salad.  Of course, Brian brought his usual bag o' goodies, which is ALWAYS a welcome treat!!

It was fun to see everyone again, although, "everyone" was a smaller number right now with our juniors abroad, plus Nicki, who's also studying abroad right now.  And, Julia was missing because she has been very sick, so we had a much smaller group.  (I'm sorry the picture is not in total focus!  Technical difficulties, I guess?!)

The team also recently participated in Girls in Sports Day.  There is actually talk of starting volleyball in the High Schools in the State, which would be great.  VT currently is the only state in the country that doesn't sponsor HS girls volleyball, so it would be a welcome sight for volleyball fans everywhere.   The girls that participated in Girls in Sports Day had a blast with the team, and loved learning about volleyball, so I hope that it works out to start a program here in the town of Middlebury.  We'd love to help out, so we'll see what happens with that. (The pictures are still coming, but will be posted soon...)

Meg Studies "Down Under"

Meg has safely made it to her destination down under--Australia!  She's started a blog so we can all keep up with her adventures.  Thanks Meg, and have a fabulous time!!

Here's the link:  megcanderson.tumblr.com

Team Teaches Volleyball at Local Elementary School

The opportunities to teach volleyball to young kids are few and far between in a state with no High School or Middle School Volleyball Programs.  We've offered a free clinic a couple of times, and participated in Girls in Sports day, but there just isn't a lot of organized volleyball here in Vermont.  However, one local elementary school has offered a volleyball class for the past two years.

The Bridge School is a private, alternative elementary school that allows it's students to choose their "arts" classes.  Each class lasts for two weeks, and can very greatly depending on the interests of the kids, and the availability/expertise of the teachers and local community members.  As an example, the choices for the past two weeks were:  ice skating, stretching and relaxation, or volleyball.  For the past two years one of the favorite choices has been Volleyball!  Another alternative school (grades 7-12) in Burlington comes down to teach volleyball at the Bridge School for one week, and my team has done the other week.

The students in the class range from 1st through 6th grade, so the players are challenged to make it fun and appropriate for a wide range of ages and abilities.  They're all new to volleyball, and it's been great fut to see them learn new skills!  

The kids are having a great time learning about volleyball, practicing the skills, and getting the hang of the teamwork involved in the game of volleyball.  They start out by getting warmed up and moving their bodies, followed by some basic skill work, and then play various types of games that relate in one way or another to the sport of volleyball.  As you can see from the picture, it's quite a bunch.  9 boys and 1 girl make up the class, so the team has had their hands full with little boy energy!!

Olivia has been the point person for this project, but several others have been involved as well. Piper has been a regular, Lizzy even made an appearance after returning from MiddCORE, Maddie and Lauren went for a day, and so did Kathryn.  Thank you all!!  The kids LOVED it!!

Amy and Julia Shine in Holiday Concert

I know these pictures are very dim, but hopefully the sound comes through OK.  What a fun concert by both the Mischords and the D8 before the Holidays!  Julia, as the music director, and Amy as a featured soloist both shone brightly in this very fun, festive and entertaining concert.  I recorded a couple of songs for fun, so enjoy!

The first video is of the entire group, and then one of the sideways videos features Amy, and one Julia.  Enjoy!

I apologize for the orientation and quality (or lack thereof) of the filming.  I recorded it from my phone, which is smart, but apparently not that smart! Then when I went to upload it here, I couldn't find a way to rotate it like you can with pictures.  It's so dark anyway, it's hard to see, but the Holiday spirit was alive and well as Amy donned a Santa hat, and Julia sported some very nice reindeer antlers! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday, and have started off the new year on a good note!  (Pun intended.)  :)  

Team Celebrates Season with Banquet

 Another season come and gone.  It seems to happen faster and faster, but maybe that's my age?!  At this point in the season when we try to find a time for our Banquet, I'm amazed that we ever can all come together for practice at the same time.  Finding a time that "works for everyone" is practically impossible, but somehow we pull it off every year.  The Waybury Inn was the location of our dinner this year, and it was a fabulous evening!  A huge THANK YOU to Piper's parents for organizing our dinner!!  That's a huge help, and much appreciated!!

The official reason for having our Banquet is to celebrate our season, but the "real" reason is to get together again and share food and friendship.  Let's face it, we all love to eat and talk!  It's a very busy time of the year for everyone, but it's nice to get back together as a team to celebrate our successes and efforts from the season. 

Each year the players vote on our Team Awards, and the award winners this year were the following:

Contribution on the Court:  Julia Gibbs--probably one of the most all-around, fundamentally sound players we've ever had--great recognition from her teammates for this award, and very deserving.

Contribution off Court:  Meg Anderson--consistently very positive and hard-working regardless of score, side of the net in practice, whether playing or not in games.  Meg has a wonderful perspective and is always enthusiastic--again, great recognition by her teammates for her special efforts.

MCVB Spirit:  Nicki--two years in a row now, she may "define" the MCVB Spirit!!  Bringing the spirit to practice, the bench, the court, the bus...gotta love the spirit!!

Most Improved:  Kathryn was recognized for really stepping up as the season went on and when called upon to play in games, she shed any hesitations as a freshman and took control of our offense.  She steadied our offense and the court, helping to propel us to the NESCAC Championship--well done!!

Captains for 2013:  Meg, MJ, and Amy--a great combination of talents, on and off the court.  I'm looking forward to working with these three, and am confident in and excited about their leadership abilities!

For our SENIORS, this is truly the end, but just as "commencement" is the term for the graduation ceremony, this is their "beginning" of being an MCVB Alum!  We'll do our best to keep track of them, and hopefully they'll follow us on-line next year from wherever they are!  I want to recognize our four, fabulous seniors for their tremendous careers:

Sarah Studwell played very important roles throughout her career, and had the versatility and athleticism to play many different positions.    She was mainly an outside, both front row and back, but also played as a back-up middle hitter, stepping in during a critical 5th game against Endicott last year (which we won!)  She capped off her career with a fabulous senior season at OH/DS, and especially stepped up during the NESCAC Tournament and was brilliant!  She was digging a ton of very hard hit balls right up to Kathryn, and served up 5 aces in the semifinal against Bowdoin.  Great stuff, Stud!!

Julia Gibbs had a tremendous career, starting with being named the NESCAC Rookie of the Year her freshman year, and being named 2nd Team All-NESCAC each of the next three years.  As we said above, she's one of the most all-around fundamentally sound players I've coached.  Her versatility to step in and become our full-time setter last year, and lead us to the NCAA Regional Final was inspiring.  This year, her cumulative stats were thrown off due to spending half the season setting before switching back to her original position of right side hitter.  It was great to have her back in serve receive, and hitting from both the front row and the back.  She was 2nd on the team in service aces, digs, assists, and reception percentage, and has also been recognized as an Honorable Mention All-American, and All-Region selection during her career!  Wonderful job all-around, Julia!!

Maddie Firestone just kept getting better every year.  From backwards footwork and a powerful arm swing her freshman year to a blocking machine her senior year--I loved every minute of working with Maddie "Rookie" Firestone.  Maddie played a crucial role in our first NESCAC Championship run her sophomore year by stepping in for an injured Whitney Bean in the heart of our Nescac schedule during the regular season.  We went on a tear during that stretch and narrowly missed hosting, but claimed the 2nd seed, and eventual Championship!  Even when she stole Colby's camera tripod (by accident!) she managed to make us all smile with her.  As a starter the past two years, Maddie was a consistent offensive force tying for 2nd on the team in hitting % among the hitters this past year.  She capped off her career as a captain, showing great leadership and maturity--great stuff, Maddie!!

Caitlin Barrett came in as one of our "younger sisters"--she was part of the third set of sisters to play for me.  Caitlin's competitive spirit, work ethic, and ability to dig and pass balls in places we could never tell her to be was amazing to witness.  I'm not sure how many times I said to her, just go where YOU think the ball will be--you have free reign to wander...Her command of the backcourt and leadership on and off the court helped set the tone for the team and was a huge reason for our success.  In addition to absolutely single handedly saving tons of rallies from ending by getting her body under balls that were practically (but not quite) down on the ground, leading her to be named Defensive Player of the Year in NESCAC.  Amazing career, Caitlin!!

As a class, these seniors won 2 NESCAC Championships, had a combined record of 91-28 over their four years, had four 20-win seasons, advanced to the NCAA's three straight years, making it to the Regional Finals once, and the semi-finals twice.  They've been awarded the Team Academic Award by both the NEWVA and the AVCA every year, and all four have been Academic All-NESCAC!  I'm not sure we've ever had such a power-packed senior class, so thank you all for all of your efforts, and for all you've given to the MCVB Program!!

Now, for our captains this year:  First, as a junior Captain, MJ did a fantastic job of leading by example with her competitiveness both in practice and in games.  Her no-nonsense determination set a steady example, and she was a quiet force on the court.  She could change the energy with one show-stopping powerful kill that as a freshman would have elicited a look like, "whaaaat???" which now was a "Lets GO!" inspiration to the team.  Thank you, MJ!

Maddie always had the youthful exuberance that probably led to her nickname of "Rookie!"  She would bound on and off the court as middles exchanges with the libero, immediately energizing the floor and bench respectively.  When she stuffed an opposing middle at key times, her reaction inspired the team with confidence and propelled us on to victory!  She was an approachable leader, a good listener, and a good communicator, adding up to be a fabulous captain.  Thank you, Maddie!

Caitlin was the consummate floor leader.  She was always talking, and communicating on the court, and kept the energy alive just like she kept balls alive in the back court.  She's been our anchor on defense for three solid years now, and provided an extremely solid base of leadership on and off the court, and was a wonderful liaison between the players and the coaching staff.  Thank you, Caitlin!


The other people we wanted to recognize were those not in uniform for us, but still a huge part of our Team:  Rachel, Steve and Max!  Rachel keeps the team all patched up, and healthy, and unfortunately, we tend to spend a lot of time down there.  I keep telling them to hang out with Rachel "socially," not "professionally!"  Thank you, Rachel!  Steve keeps our academic lives in tact, and helps smooth out any issues in that arena that sometimes can be a little sticky, not to mention being a great fan along with his family!  Thank you, Steve!  And, Max keeps us organized in practice, and on the road by keeping score, taking stats, tossing balls--she's a jack-of-all-trades on the team, and is a huge help to me, and a wonderful friend and important Teammate!  Thank you, Max!

In addition to all of this, and in many ways one of the most important awards that can be given out at a school like Middlebury is the Academic All-NESCAC award!  Only sophomores and up are eligible for this award, so of our 11 players that were eligible, 8 received this award, which is amazing, and a tribute to the caliber of student-athlete that we have on our Team.  The following were awarded this nice honor:

Lizzy
Olivia
Nicki
Meg
Caitlin
Julia
Stud
Maddie

Way to go, TEAM!!  Thank you all for sharing the season, and the evening.  Good luck with all your work as the last week of classes comes to an end, and good luck on Finals next week!  As the juniors all head abroad, the sophomores will take over the organization of any off-season activities, and my guess is that the seniors will still want to play when possible!

Many Post Season Awards

There was a lot to be proud of this year, and several people earned some very nice post-season honors for their efforts this season.  These four seniors played a huge role all year in many different ways!  Well-done, guys!!


Caitlin Barrett:
1st Team All-Region AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association), AND NEWVA (New England Women's Volleyball Association);  Honorable Mention All-American by the AVCA;  NEWVA Senior Classic participant; 1st Team All-NESCAC; NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year.


  
Julia Gibbs:
NEWVA (New England Women's Volleyball Association) Senior Classic participant; 2nd Team All-NESCAC.

Megan Jarchow: 
1st Team All-Region AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association), AND NEWVA (New England Women's Volleyball Association);  AVCA Honorable Mention All-American; 1st Team All-NESCAC

Amy Hart:
NCAA Regional All-Tournament Team; 2nd Team All-NESCAC; AVCA All-Region Honorable Mention.








Meg Anderson:  NESCAC All-Sportsmanship Team

MIDD Ends Season in NCAA Regional Semifinals

NCAA's!  It's always great to still be playing in November!  By virtue of winning our Conference, we were awarded the automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament, but we had to wait until Monday when the brackets came out to see where we would be playing, and whom.  Once again, we were put in the NY Regional due to our location and proximity to the North Country host site of Clarkson University.  It was the usual cast of characters with 7 of the same 8 teams that were there last year.  Only SUNY New Paltz was new, replacing Rivier from last season.  We felt good about the bracket pairings in that we would be playing all news teams in our  half of the bracket, and we would only see someone we had faced already this year possibly in the Finals.

We were awarded the #2 seed, while SUNY Cortland had the #1 seed again this year.  Our first match was against the #7 seed Southern Vermont College.  They had a very successful season once again, and won their Conference to earn their way into the NCAA's again.  I thought they would be tough, and they proved to be a very formidable opponent.  In the end, our offense was too much for them, and we emerged as 3-1 victors.  We served well, and despite being a bit "off" on several key skills, we were good enough to pull out the victory.   We knew, however, that we'd need to play better the next day if we wanted to win the next game.

While traveling to Clarkson isn't that bad of a trip for us from Middlebury, our parents really had to work hard to get up there.  We still had a very good faithful following of parents, which was amazing, and they treated us to a buffet dinner after our match Friday night.  Dave and Barbara Gibbs brought Brian and I over to the dinner a little late so we could watch more of the Clarkson/New Paltz game that started at 8pm after our match.  It was a great match, and since we'd play the winner, Brian and I wanted to scout a bit more of that match, and Dave was enjoying watching it so it worked out great.  We put the team (and Lois) on the bus and sent them to the restaurant with the rest of the parents, and then met up with them after we'd watched 3 sets of action.  Clarkson lost the first set and then went on to win the next three, which in hindsight could have been foreshadowing...

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and formulated a plan for the next day.  We didn't play until 6pm on Saturday night, so we had almost all day to try to find something to do.  Now, I love the North Country, but there isn't a whole lot going on up there.  For the most part, the team was happy to sleep in and have time to do homework, so that's what we did all morning.  There was also an Amish buggy parked across the street from our hotel that was selling hand-made baskets of all sizes and shapes, so several of us (me, Lois and some of the moms!) went shopping!  We were all intrigued a bit by the Amish, and even though I grew up in an Amish part of Indiana, I don't see them very often anymore, so it's enjoyable to see that they're still thriving with their way of life in today's hectic world. 

At 2pm we headed out to Potsdam to find some lunch, and a Dunkin Donuts, and then make our way back to the gym.  We parked our bus so we could spread out and leisurely walk through town looking for lunch, we couldn't help but realize the stark contrast to our mode of transportation to the one parked next to us.  The horse wasn't even tied up, and was so docile.  It was amazing.

Once we got to the gym, however, the action was definitely not docile.  We watched as Cortland lost in straight sets to New Paltz for the first upset of the tournament.  Cortland was stunned to say the least, but New Paltz out-played them.  Everyone knows that anything can happen when you get to this point in the season, and to keep playing you have to bring your game every time, and Cortland just didn't have it that day.  It's always a mix of emotions to see a good team lose "prematurely", and to see the "underdog" win the big match.  At the #1v#4, I guess you'd have to describe it that way, even though the teams had split during the regular season. 

We warmed up for our match with Clarkson and looked pretty good to start out.  We won the first set, and our offense looked pretty good, and our serving had forced them into 5 receiving errors, which was good.  We were getting touches on their outside hitters, and despite not passing great, we were able to run our offense enough to take the first set.  In serving tough, however, we also had 8 service errors through the first two sets.  They seemed to get used to our servers, and they started passing our serves pretty well after that first game, whereas we continued to struggle with theirs.  Our receive was just off.  They were serving deep, and nothing we did seemed to help--stepping up to take it with our  hands or moving back--we still seemed to be getting jammed and popping the pass up to the middle of the court, or into or over the net.  We were running Kathryn all over the place, and thus had trouble getting our offense in sync.  They weren't necessarily getting aces, but our passes were not good enough to run our full offensive options.  When we were in system, our offense looked good.  The 2nd and third sets were very close back and forth score-wise until the mid-way point of each game.  In the middle of both sets, Clarkson had a four point run that we just couldn't stop, nor come back from it seemed.  We'd had many games like this during the season, and had fought back to win many of them despite being down a few points late in sets.  However, today the combination of not passing well, added to the fact that our block stopped getting touches on their OH's proved to be a deadly combination for us.  Their two outsides combined for 36 kills to 26 from ours.  Neither team boasted a great hitting % overall, as they were .216 to our .190, but that was below our season average.

Caitlin emerged with a match high 19 digs, and statistically, we were very similar across the board with the exception of kills and assists.  What didn't show up in the stats, however, was overall ball control.  They didn't ace us with their serves that often, but we were not passing 3 balls, or even that many 2 ball options, and that's what hurt us.  Without being able to really attack them, they were able to better keep the pressure on us, and that was key to the game.  I give credit to Clarkson who seemed to execute their game plan a bit better than we did.  Neither team changed up lineups or anything else, and they just out-played us.   They are a very good serving team, and so it wasn't just that our receive didn't show up, but more that we didn't step up our receive to the challenge of their tough serves.

While it's so disappointing in the moment, after the dust settles we all recognize that it was a fabulous season!  We had a lot of great contributions from everyone throughout the season, and once we settled into a lineup that seemed to be gelling mid-way through the season, we really had a fantastic spell of high level volleyball late in the season.  By beating Wellesley and going 5 with Springfield at the Hall of Fame Tournament, I think we built the confidence that we could play with anyone. Then we had our last Conference weekend beating Bowdoin and Tufts at home, and that propelled us into the Conference Tournament on a high note.  Coming from behind to beat Bowdoin in the Semi's and then taking Conn in straight sets to win the Conference Championship was very thrilling.

This was probably the best overall team I've ever coached at MIDD, and I have been fortunate to have coached some great teams.  We had all the pieces, and we had a string of BIG wins, we just didn't get that last one.  Every year we gain confidence and experience, and hopefully our younger players will benefit from this experience, and we hope to be back in the mix again next year.  For now, we'll take some time off, catch up on work for the players, laundry and family time for me, and work and family time for Brian.  Then, after we celebrate our season this year, we'll get started working toward next year.  We had quite a lot of wonderful individual honors as well, but I'll put all of them in a separate blog post very soon.  For our FOUR seniors, however, they have made a lasting impression on both this Team, and this Program,and our banner that hangs in the gym will have TWO years of NESCAC Championships that they were an instrumental part of producing.  THANK YOU, SENIORS!!!  We will certainly miss you all!!