AVCA Convention... and Misty May!

Hello-
I hope you are enjoying the weather (and we are getting snow again! Seems like the only time I post is when it's snowing!)...

Wanted to give you a quick update-

I went to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Convention in Kansas City, Missouri which happens every year in conjunction with the NCAA DI National Championship. And guess who I ran into!? Misty May, the 2-time Beach Olympic Gold Medalist!! We are pictured here (Becky Cox, MLC, Chelsey Albrecht, PC, and Heidi Smith, NC) with her... Not going to tell you who was too afraid to ask her for a photo... but it wasn't me!!

There are a ton of clinics and sessions for learning- just about every topic you can think of- on-court stuff, off-court, etc. It is very, very informative! I went to a couple of skill sessions, (utilizing your middle attackers, international style of setting, competitive games, etc.) and a bunch of classroom as well (how to help your team at crunch time (even though we were 5-0 in 5 set matches, it seemed like we lost a BUNCH of leads late in sets this fall!), a recruiting session, a session to talk about utilizing your strengths, etc.). There was some very good information there that certainly stimulates a lot of thought!

Anyway, Heather is looking for her keys and can't find them... so I better get going to help her-

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Cougar Volleyball!

Coach B

Christmas Dinner...

Hello-
Here is a picture of the team when they came over for a meal Tuesday night- my wonderful wife Natalie did all the cooking and it was fantastic! Meatballs, cheesy hash browns, fruit, vegetables, fresh bread and, to my disgust, strawberry dessert, special K bars and cream puff dessert (so much for healthy options)!
Only one more day of classes and the 2010 school year is in the books. Finals start Monday before the students head home for the Holiday Break!

Have a great week-

Coach B

PS~ I hope you enjoyed Coach Pennie's Christmas card- she thinks it is hilarious!

Heading into finals

As we are heading into finals week I wanted to send out our 2nd annual Holiday card.
Click here and enjoy!!
hp

More snow... and Volleyball Banquet!

Hello-
Seems like I'm posting every time it snows lately! Only 2 weeks left of classes then finals and we are half done with the 2010-11 school year already!

Finished up meeting with all our players, talking about what each person can work on in the off-season and what we need to do a better job of as a coaching staff. We received lots of constructive criticism and gave quite a bit out to the team as well!

We had another recruit on campus yesterday- very, very excited about the possibility of her coming to UMM to be a Cougar and what she could bring to the team! We are in a push to have prospective students visit and apply before December 15th... We want them to visit before then because if they don't, then we would wait until after January 18th when the students are back from break. And we want them to send in their application by December 15th and apply for the competitive scholarship to meet the deadline.

Last, but certainly not least, we wanted to announce the date for our First Annual Volleyball Banquet- Sunday, January 30th at 1:00 pm at Bello Cucina restaurant here in Morris! Tickets for adults are $25 and tickets for children under 12 are $15. Should be a fun afternoon to celebrate and look back on our season- hope you can all make it!! (More information to follow...)

Have a great week and Go Cougars!

Coach B

Icy Update...

Hello-
It's a good thing you weren't behind my house Sunday morning... as I ran outside to throw the garbage out I was welcomed by the thin layer of ice on my deck... And before I knew it I was flat on my back (but I didn't spill any garbage or break the bag!)!

On another note, last week Ridgewater College won the NJCAA National Championship and we were one of only a handful of teams to defeat them (our JV team beat them in late September and handed them their first loss at the NDSCS Tourney)!

Finishing up with individual meetings this week and working on our 2010 season recap/recruiting video this week!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Coach B

Update...

One of my favorite photos from the year...

Hello Everyone-
The hustle and bustle of the season is now behind us- I will admit it... I miss getting in the gym every day and working with the young women on the team! They have an intensity and a desire to learn that is very fulfilling and exciting to be around!

Heather and I went to the MN State Volleyball Tournament last week. Lots of fun going there and watching high level volleyball. (Although I think that Heather just enjoys sitting there and talking to old friends, not ACTUALLY watching the matches sometimes!). There are a lot of talented volleyball players in the state of Minnesota...

This Friday we are planning to go to the South Dakota State Tournament. A much different format from the MN state tourney- 3 different sites for the different classes with big breaks in between sessions. Heather just got done yelling at me about the format. I guess I will have them change it now!

We are also in the process of doing end of the season individual meetings with all our volleyball players. We had the team do a survey, asking a bunch of questions about their teammates, where they rank each other, with regards to workouts, skills, etc., and, gulp, a coaching staff evaluation. Lots of good feedback there, both positive and negative. It is safe to say we ALL have things we can do better!!

Gotta run now- have a great week and keep checking in!

Coach B

PS~ Hope to post once a week for the next couple of weeks... then monthly again until the spring. Hope you enjoyed our blogs this year!

What he didn't mention......

I would also like to say congratulations to Megan, Jordan, Natalie, Steph and Kaylie. Well deserved.

What coach didn't mention that he too was honored by the UMAC by being named Coach of the Year......which I quickly reminded him SHOULD BE Coaching STAFF of the year.

All joking aside, coach B did a great job over this past year recruiting, film watching, putting in the time planning, and incorporating good practices and game strategies. I know I give him grief for my LONG "to do" lists, but I also know what time, effort and sleepless nights that go into the head position that all takes place behind the scenes and he deserves this honor.

Well, we are not going to rest on our laurels too long......we are heading to the state tournament this weekend and then to SD next weekend and then the JO season starts.......(see what I mean???? It just never stops!).

Later,
Coach P

Olerud, Theis, Clark, Schmiesing, Thomas All-Conference!

Hello-
Wanted to give a special congratulations to Jordan Olerud and Megan Theis on being named First Team All-Conference, and to Kaylie Clark, Steph Schmiesing and Natalie Thomas on being named Honorable Mention All-Conference! Congrats to those five and all their teammates for their hard work this year! Click here to read the release from UMM and from the UMAC-

Go Cougars!

Coach B

Thomas' Blog...

Hey Cougar Nation,

Natalie here… I wish I was bringing brighter news to everyone but the 2010 cougar season is officially over. I can say with certainty, none of us thought we would end our season how we did Wednesday night. The feeling in the gym on Monday and Tuesday was awesome. We were still playing in November something that was new to the program last year.

Waking up Wednesday morning to a text from a Jordan Olerud “we’re going to win tonight. I got that feeling!” I personally had butterflies all the way to Northwestern. The feeling on the bus we awesome and one quite different from the other road trips. We were all up dancing and singing and a few were studying for a dreaded biology test on Thursday. We had 5 minutes to run into the mall stretch our legs look around and what do you know, we run in to Kaylie’s mom. But where was Kaylie you ask? She was back on the bus because it was too cold outside for her!

After arriving at the gym, the loose feeling that we had on the bus slowly shifted to business time as we were putting on our knee pads and shoes in the locker room. As we begin to warm up with no music (something we Cougars hate!) we were relaxed and warming up well. Moving into the match the first set was very successful. We played great as a team and had a few scramble plays and we had taken the first set! We all thought, "great, 2 more!"

But at the start of the second set there was a huge momentum swing and it felt like the momentum for us was gone. The second and third sets were not our prettiest, and boy, starting the fourth set 7-1 wasn’t much better. We rallied back and all of a sudden looking at the score board it was 23-14. I gulped and looked back at Jordan and we both had the cheesy grin on our faces (both fighting off tears) and we lost that point and it was almost over. It was 24-14 and was quite embarrassing we could all agree and that fight we always had finally erupted (better late then never) and we had spark but it just wasn’t enough. Three plays (we got lucky on a couple as the refs missed a few touch calls off Allie and I blocking), but ended the game on a net call-- In essence, a fitting end to the match that night...

The water works just came flooding down my teammate’s faces and my own. After shaking hands and getting into our circle we all knew it was going to be a tough ride home. We looked each other in the eyes and thankfully Michele came in with “baby I like” and it did put a smile on a few faces. The bus ride was long and not fun. Coach did let us go to a couple different places to eat and he was a little more lenient with how much we each could spend – which was nice.

Overall the Cougar 2010 season was a great success. A special thanks to the two seniors Jordan Olerud and Megan Theis who greatly helped the program over the last two years. Also thank you to Coach B, Coach HP and Coach Stott for putting in all the hours of coaching, driving, yelling, laughing, crying, and anything else you’ve done for the program this past year.

In the words of Shannon Stinchfield, “Volleyball camp is over. College starts now.”

- Natalie Thomas

2010 Cougar Volleyball Season Comes to an End...

Hello-
It's over- It is amazing how we spend all this time and energy, sweat and hard work and just like that the season is over. Wednesday night we lost to Northwestern in the first round of the playoffs and finished the season 20-12. While we have a lot to be proud of, the finality of it is still a bit harsh and painful. I really don't think anyone on the team thought we'd be done yet... not after playing so well for most of October and finding a way to be successful and win all those matches!

Last night, in case you weren't there, we started out playing well the first two sets and were tied at one set apiece... then it got ugly. We struggled in just about every facet of the game (we hit negative, gave up a bunch of aces, missed serves, etc.) and dropped the last two sets that weren't even that close-

More to follow in the next week or so- I am very, very proud of how much we improved from the beginning of the season to the end. It was amazing to watch all the different players step up for us at different points of the season...

Go COUGARS!

Coach B

Off to Play Offs!

Just a quick shout out before we head to Northwestern for our play off game.

Congrats to Natalie Thomas for being selected Setter of the Week by the UMAC!!! Well deserved!
She seems to make the plays even when she has to deal with situations like this... (click here to watch the play of the week).

OK, So Megan actually ends up being the hero in this one, but Natalie had to punch it in the net!!

Congrats Natalie and we hope to get another match in on Saturday!!!!

Coach P

Wednesday's match to be webcast...

Hello-
Sounds like our match Wednesday will be webcast (just in case you can't make it to the match!). You should be able to click here for the match...

Have a great day!

Go Cougars!

Coach B

Regular Season is Over...On to the Playoffs!

Hello-
What a year so far! We finished up the regular season with 2 more wins yesterday to close out the regular season 20-11 overall and 11-3 in conference play. The 20 wins are the most since 2003 and are only the 5th time since 1970 that the Cougars have amassed 20 or more wins!

We swept Bethany Lutheran, never allowing more then 20 points in a set before disposing of Dakota Wesleyan in a hard fought 4-set win. All the scores were close and it was fun to see a couple of old Junior College teammates going at it- Jordan Olerud's Ridgewater teammate Carina Fesenmaier played for Dakota Wesleyan, and Megan Theis' old NDSCS teammate, Sarah Stahlke was also on the Dakota Wesleyan team, but did not play due to an injury.

So, now it's on to Northwestern and the first round of the UMAC tourney! The winners Wednesday will play Saturday and that winner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA DI National Championship Tournament!

Go Cougars- more to follow later this week!

Going to carve some pumpkins now with my boys--
Coach B

Big, Big Win last night...

Hello-
Whew... Another one!! After being down 2 sets to 0... and down 23-19, the Cougars fought back to win the 3rd set, scoring 6 straight... We fought back after being down 4 points in the 4th to win and force game 5- where we proceeded to dig our selves an 8-1 hole. But no worries- we went on a 14-3 run to win it 15-11 and secure the #3 seed in the UMAC tourney! Off to the gym for some more volleyball today- more to follow-

Go Cougs!

Coach B

PS~ You can read about it here-

Cougs Win on the Road

Final road trip of the regular season!!!! We came out on top over Presentation College and we are on our way home. We are now 3 wins away from our first 20 win season since 2003! Totally doable!!

I hope to see the stands packed for our last home matches.....we are celebrating the seniors on Saturday, so bring your Kleenex!

See ya there,
Coach P

WOW!

(I think the picture says it all! Last point of our win vs. Coe.)


Hello-
What a weekend!! It started on Friday night as we hosted Northwestern and Coe in a tri-match... For three years we've played them tough, sometimes getting swept in close sets, sometimes taking a set, and even forcing them to 5 sets two years ago... but haven't beat them since 2004. We started out playing well and before we knew it we won the first two sets 25-22! Up 2-0 I was very interested to see how we'd play... and we responded well! After falling behind 2-1, we pulled ahead by 3 and never relinquished the lead, finishing them off in a nail-biter, 25-23 on a kill by Stephanie Schmiesing and sweeping them! (Pics here...)

While we enjoyed the win, Northwestern defeated Coe in 3... We weren't quite so lucky. We dropped the opening set, 23-25, then beat Coe handily in sets 2 and 3. In the 4th set, we were behind the whole way and after pulling close at 18-19, we lost 19-25. Then the 5th set... after falling behind, 1-5, we almost caught back up. But couldn't quite--- at 11-13, I was getting a little worried!! But two kills by senior Megan Theis and we were tied at 13! Natalie Thomas, serving her 2nd ball, hit the top of the net, where the ball hung there for a second... before falling on their side for an ace (love that new 'let' serve rule!)! Then, up 14-13, Thomas rocketed another serve, that their passer shanked under the net and the Cougars stormed the floor for a come from behind win!

Wow-- exhausting! Then, on Saturday, Crown came to town, after defeating Presentation the night before and winning their first UMAC match in 3+ years... and they played well again! We squeeked out a first set win, 25-23, the 2nd set was a little better, and the 3rd set we cruised to our sweep...

So, we are sitting at 16-11 overall, and 8-3 in UMAC play. One more win or one loss by Bethany Lutheran and we are guaranteed a spot in the UMAC tourney. IF the current seedings hold, we would be the 3 seed and travel to Northwestern to play next Wednesday, November 3.

More to follow later this week-- Go Cougars!

Coach B

Finally.....A Home Stand!

Other then our trip to Aberdeen next Tuesday, we get to play out the rest of the season at home! We are pretty excited about that, no long bus trips, no eating out for every meal, don't have to get up when Coach B feels like waking us up.......

We get to celebrate being home by hosting our Dig Pink match along with Family Weekend this coming Saturday. Our match is against Crown College at 11am where we will honor the memory of loved ones we have lost to and survivors of breast cancer. We will also be selling items and having a silent auction to raise funds that will be donated to the SideOut Foundation for breast cancer research and education. For more information about the SideOut Foundation and/or to make a donation please click HERE. We have set a lofty goal of raising $1500 and we are going to need some help.

We will then celebrate our families with a pot luck dinner following the match. We are looking forward to having some homecooked food and hearing stories of the players childhood days.....if any parents want to bring some pictures of the current players in their "awkward" years we would love to have some conversation pieces!!

Our final regular season matches will be on October 30. That is the day that we will participate in one of our most emotional traditions, in my opinion, when we honor our Seniors. Megan Theis and Jordan Olerud will be nearing the end of their Cougar era and that is the day that we will shower them with gifts and try to find nice things to say about them. In case you don't know me that well, I sometimes have to disguise my sadness with sarcasm. I will definitely miss having these guys around, but I don't want to think about that right now.......

Ok, so that's what's going on in Cougarland for the next couple weeks.
Hope to see you in the stands as we make a push toward the UMAC Tournament and beyond!!

Coach P

1-1 Road Trip...

Hello-
Wow, the tale of two teams today! We started out well, winning the first set going away... then were up in the 2nd set before losing a decent lead in set 2. Set 3 was a battle back and forth before the Cougars gave way to the LumberJills and lost the set, 24-26. Set 4 didn't start out any better as we were down 0-5 before we called a timeout... I had lots of thoughts running through my mind at that point... and most of them weren't really positive. We talked about taking it one point at a time, really celebrating when we won a point, the bench started getting really into it and before we knew it we were tied up (I think at 12-12)! Then we took over from there and beat them pretty bad the rest of the way, winning the 4th set pretty easily. After giving up the first point in the 5th set, we went on a 9 or 10 point run before winning the set and match 15-6.
I really think the women on the bench made the difference in the match, providing energy, feedback and positive vibes to the players on the court. It was very cool to be a part of!

Now we are almost to Hinckley on the way back and a couple of days off before we close out our season with 6 of our last 7 matches at home!

Have a great weekend and more to follow next week!

Sincerely,
Coach B

To Coach Pennie...

Hello all-
Good morning!! I love waking up early in the morning (with 4 kids you don't have much of an option). And I will tell you this... Coach Pennie... is a peach in the morning!!

Have a great day!

Coach B

PS~ I thought it might be a good idea to feed the team breakfast (which closes in 15 minutes) before we go play... Coach Pennie obviously doesn't believe in fuel for the women on the team!

Lost a Tough One Last Night

We played a great match last night against College of St Scholastica.......we took the second set from them (which is the first one they have lost in conf!). Our blocking frustrated their hitters and our defense kept the ball in play more times then they were used to and our serving kept them out of system.....the only thing we missed was the win.

Now we have a couple hours until we take on the Lumberjills of Northland College......

The only reason I am writing a blog this early in the morning is to prove to Chad that I was up! I would totally be sleeping right now (since we are not leaving the hotel until 10:45!) Who gets up at 9am on a Saturday if they don't have to!!

Later,
Coach P

NEED YOUR VOTE!!

Hello all-
Well, we are officially in the running for the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Play of the Week!! Click here to vote for your favorite play (hoping it's ours!).
Please tell all your friends/family to help us out as well!!

Enjoy!

Coach B

Lot's of Fun Stuff to Report!

Congratulations to Jordan for being named UMAC defensive player of the week! This is the 2nd week in a row that we have had UMM athletes recognized for their outstanding play. This would be a good trend to keep going!!

Not only are our individual efforts being saluted....as a team we are ranked 24th in the Nation in DIII for assists per set. That is kinda cool, too!!

And for your entertainment, we have yet another Outstanding Play of the Week. In action against Martin Luther on Saturday Michelle Hanson pancaked a netted serve reception, Megan Theis got the ball out to Alycia Heisler who kept the ball in play.....that is until Martin Luther TRIED to attack it back to us where Heisler and Theis combined for a HUGE ROOF!

Enjoy the replay!

Coach P

Dig Pink Event Information!

Hello all-
Wanted to give you a heads up about our UMM Dig Pink Match coming up October 23, at 11:00 am against Crown College.

In an effort to raise money and support breast cancer research as well as increasing awareness, we've teamed up with the Side-Out Foundation in the hopes of raising $1,500 to support the cause! Click here to make a donation, read about the Side-Out Foundation and Dig Pink and help us reach our goal!!

We will also be selling pink bracelets ($2) and Cougar Volleyball pink t's ($10) with all proceeds going to the Side-Out Foundation. Their are also plans to have a silent auction with some team items/photos to bid on Saturday, October 23. (Any checks for this stuff are to be made out to "Sideout Foundation."

Go Cougars!!

Coach B

Clark's Blog...

Hello all-- Here are Kaylie Clark's thoughts on the season to this point-

Enjoy!

Coach B

As most of you may know, Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. This challenging situation was led by Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger along with his co-captain and his other flight crew. My inspiration for this blog: Sully, his crew, and the situation. He wrote a book after the incident called “Highest Duty...my search for what really matters.” If you ever get a chance you should take time to read this book! In his book he says the reason why all 155 people (including the crew) on the plane survived was because of: PREPARATION COMMUNICATION EXECUTION and COOPERATION. One thing to stress is that many people attributed the successful landing to Captain Sullenberger’s Glider Plane experience, this is an incorrect assumption. Captain Sullenberger’s landing in the Hudson River was successful because he was a HIGHLY EXPERIENCED pilot who had thousands of flight hours, was an Air Force Academy Graduate, and had flown many, many different types of aircrafts throughout the years. He had practiced, practiced, practiced, studied, studied, studied, and paid close attention to DETAIL.

How does this relate to volleyball and the 2010 Cougar team? The four bolded words above are what I have brought to the table. We have continued to PREPARE for our opponents…watching game film, looking at scouting reports… COMMUNICATING with one another, whether it be about a problem we need to fix on the court or knowing what our teammates need…EXECUTING our game plans, finding holes in the defense of our opponents or there weak spots…and COOPERATING with each teammate, whether it be about a set that needs to be closer a pass that needs to be off the net or moving the defense. The Cougar volleyball team continues to rise every week; we have so much talent and the ability to pursue any dream we have.

I gave each individual a boarding pass on Friday with a set of wings pinned on. On the front of their boarding pass is their last name and everything a boarding pass contains…with the destination NCAA tournament, departing from the University of Minnesota, Morris. On the back of the boarding pass has this comment:

“Your flight to NCAA tournament is now boarding. You have earned your WING. It is now your job to lead this team to success. I know you understand what it takes. Remember this motto: If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”

They also received a Halloween ribbon and a sack of goodies… on each locker there is a poster that says “cool under cabin pressure. PREPARATION. Pass it On.”, with a photo of flight 1549 in the Hudson River.

We are currently 5-2 in conference play and plan on striving for even more. I ask that you continue to support the Cougar Volleyball Team of 2010 not because we ask you, but because you are a part of our flight crew also…without your support, encouragement, and belief that we can have a SPECTACULAR season we could not have made it to where we are now! Thank you!!

GO COUGARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Kaylie Clark

Cool Clip...

Hello-
Just got this figured- thanks to help from our SID office--- click here to see the great play the other day from our Waldorf match-- ENJOY!

Coach B

Another BIG win!

We did it!! It took 5 sets, but we earned the victory over Martin Luther College giving us sole possession of 3rd in the UMAC. The exciting 5th set started with us getting up 10-6. MLC battled back to tie it up 12-12 when we took it to them and finished off the set 15-12!

We are really playing well right now. Today we had a season high blocking effort, our passing is spot on, we are serving aggressively and making less errors, our defense is making some amazing plays and our offense is finding ways to earn points. Man this is fun!

Thanks to all the fans that have been following us all over. We really appreciate your support, especially on the road. It gets a little tough to play on the long road trips sometimes and it always comforting to see some "good guys" in the stands.

That's it for me.....I am sure coach B will be blogging before long.......he's a little excited himself!!

Later,
Coach P

Cougars Win!

Hello-

Match 1 of what will be 4 straight road matches for the Cougars ended with a 3-0 sweep over Bethany Lutheran! We played what I thought was one of our better matches of the season, as all our hitters were positive, we passed the ball pretty well and, I believe, were ahead of them or tied the entire match. We did an excellent job of limiting their runs and did a nice job of playing TEAM Volleyball!

Going to bed... more tomorrow as we battle Martin Luther for the No. 3 spot in the conference standings after our first round through the conference schedule--

I'll leave you with another photo of us trying to all jump in the air on top of Mt. Kearsarge in N.H.

Enjoy!!

Coach B

2 Wins tonight and Theis and Thomas win Player of Week Awards!

Hello all-
Another nice night to be a Cougar fan! We started the night with a win in 4 sets over North Dakota State College of Science in a JV match to win the season series vs. NDSCS 2-1. The women playing JV have now won 7 of their last 8 matches (only loss in there was to Jamestown... who we finish the season with at their place!).

Then we took on Presentation in a UMAC match- we played very, very well and swept them 3-0, never allowing more than 11 points in any set. We did a nice job on defense and limiting our errors to get back to .500 on the season with a 10-10 record and upped our UMAC record to 3-2. Now we have a big, big road weekend coming up.

Special congratulations to Megan Theis and Natalie Thomas on being named UMAC Defensive and Offensive Players of the Week!

Go Cougars!

Coach B

Weekend update and this week!

Hello-
What a beautiful day in Morris today! The weather was absolutely perfect here! Had a great scrimmage in practice today-- played a game to 15 points, split up the team even... or I thought it would be even. Stopped it after the score was 5-5 to talk about unforced errors (missing serves, hitting errors, etc.) and how many we had (7 in case you were wondering!). Then we started playing again... and it finished 26-24! A couple of long rallies- high energy and some very, very nice plays. And, in case you were wondering, only had 6 unforced errors in the last 30 points played!

Tomorrow we have NDSCS coming to town for a rematch from 2 weeks ago when we beat them in 5 sets- the match will be webcast on the Cougar Sports Network, but there will not be any audio. Then we will play Presentation in a varsity match at 7:00 pm that will also be webcast!

Have a great night and enjoy the photo below from Lake Minnetonka!

GO COUGARS!

Coach B

PS~ The game archive link is also up on the Cougar Sports Network if you want to check out any of our previously aired matches!

Last Night...

Hello-
Northwestern won their 32nd straight conference regular season match last night, beating us in straight sets... but we did some things really well- we were very scrappy on defense and tried some new things there. We had some very nice blocks, getting stuff blocks and also getting some touches that made it easier for our defenders to dig balls. We are working on playing an entire match well, from the first point to the last. When we do that on a consistent basis--- look out UMAC!

Then we faced Waldorf, a team that last year beat us in 4-- we proceeded to sweep them, after an exciting first set that saw us win, 27-25. In that set we made our best "hustle" play of the year, as the first ball over was shanked about 20' behind the court and 20' back to the right. From there Hanson ran all the way over in a full sprint to backpass it back towards the court, about 10' off the net, but still 15' off to the right... from there Thomas and Clark ran after it before one of them (I think Clark...) swung her right hand at the ball, running away from the net to get it back over and keep the play alive- which we ended up winning on a hitting error by them. We won the 2nd and 3rd sets fairly easily to earn a split on the night.

After volleyball, we went to the Humphrey's house and had another excellent dinner, pasta, breadsticks, salad, s'mores, brownies and hot chocolate!

Here are some photos-- thanks to the Humphrey's and the Stinchfield's!

Go Cougars!

Coach B

PS- Just a heads up-- last year, after losing to Northwestern we were 3-7 overall and finished the season winning 12 of our last 20 matches!

On the Road Again

We are on our first UMAC road trip of the year. We get to start off with the always tough Northwestern Eagles tonight. We always push them to their limit and this year I have a feeling that we will come out on top! We have all the right pieces and I think we will put it together tonight for a big upset!!

Tomorrow we will have a day of leisure hanging out with the Humphrey's on their yacht.....ok, Allie says it's not a yacht but it is a big boat that belongs to their Grandparents. We will then go to Crown Crown College to take on the Storm.

Ideally we will be heading back to Morris late Friday night with a 3-1 UMAC record, allot of fun, team bonding memories, and a sunburn.

We'll check in with you later.....gotta go get some sunscreen!

coach P

1-1 in the UMAC...

Hello-
Well, we started the weekend off with a nice win over Northland. We played pretty well the 2nd and 3rd set, after winning the first set in extra time. So we started out the UMAC season with a win! Then we played a very talented Concordia-Moorhead team late Friday night and played very, very well in sets 2-4, winning the 2nd set in a 25-23 nail biter before falling in 4 to the #25 ranked team in NCAA Division III.
Saturday morning started with a 2-set sweep by our JV squad over the #1 ranked team in the National Junior College Athletic Association DIII rankings- Ridgewater College, who, I might add, was also 16-0! Then we defeated Bismarck State and Williston State (minus a couple of players that came back for our St. Scholastica match) both 2-0. We fell to the Jamestown JV in 3 sets (winning the 2nd set) to finish 2nd of 8 schools, a very, very good showing!
St. Scholastica was tough and they have 2 outsides that played amazing! With 34 kills and only 5 hitting errors, they carried the team to a 3 set victory over us, but not before we played them tough in the first and third sets, even pushing them to a 27-27 tie before losing the 3rd set and the match.
We've got a couple of things we are planning to work on for this coming week but it doesn't get any easier as we face Northwestern, the 3-time defending UMAC regular season champions on the road this Thursday.

Gotta run now-- thanks for all your support and Go Cougars!

Coach B

PS- check out these great photos on the Cougar website--

Mandy & Ashlyn's Blog...

Hey it is Mandy and Ashlyn and we were the inspirators last week!

To inspire our team we gave each player and coaches a personalized balloon with a little treat attached to it.

Here is what has been going on this past week! There was a JV match Tuesday against NDSCS where we played very well and won in five sets (avenging an earlier loss to them at the Ridgewater tournament). We are looking forward to our busy weekend! There are two varsity matches on Friday against Northland College and Concordia College. Then the JV team heads back to NDSCS on Saturday where we will be playing in a tournament. Also, on Saturday the varsity team hosts St. Scholastica in a big conference match that afternoon.

This week in practice we have been focusing on high intensity play with urgency! As a team we are pushing ourselves with the help of our coaches to be a better team and reach our goals. Not only have we been working hard on the court but also in the weight room with the help of our training coach, Jarvis.

We are looking forward to improving our play in both our JV and varsity matches! That's what is happening in Cougarville and we hope to see you in the stands cheering us on at our upcoming matches.

Mandy and Ashlyn

Nice Win at NDSCS!

Hello-
As we get closer to our UMAC opener we had another nice win last night up in Wahpeton, ND as we beat the North Dakota State College of Science team in a JV match, 3-2. Read about it here-

Hope to see you at the gym Friday and/or Saturday!

Coach B

Helping out... and Congrats Megan Theis!

Hello-
Special Congratulations to senior Megan Theis for making the St. Ben's All-Tournament team for her play this past weekend!

Also, our assistant football coach, Raven Battle, had a kitchen fire last week that made the house uninhabitable. On Sunday, the team helped the Battle family move out all of their belongings, wash the soot and ash off of everything and then loaded it up to send it to their new house. The team was there for almost 2.5 hours and helped, along with the football team,
get it all done in the afternoon.

Last, our oldest sons, Tyler and Riley go to St. Mary's School in Morris and the school does fundraisers for the 6th grade field trip to Wolf Ridge (Northern Minnesota), one of them being a dunk tank. And guess who got suckered into it... on a 55 degree day... Then, to make matters worse, one of women working notified Natalie Thomas-- who proceeded to bring Michele Hanson and Megan Theis along with her... You can see the result below. I ended up with the last laugh (notice the lady to the left helping me out!).

Go Cougars as we have the JV team traveling to Wahpeton, ND tonight for a match against NDSCS!

Coach B

St. Ben's Weekend...

Hello-
Just got back from the weekend at St. Ben's--- didn't quite go as planned. We struggled to really find our rhythm on the weekend and, despite playing some really good sets we did not win a match. We blocked the ball really well on the weekend but still made too many unforced errors and lacked aggressiveness at times. It was fun watching and playing some high level volleyball though and at times we played very, very well. We need to work on our consistency for entire sets/matches but the good news is we have a week of practice and the day off tomorrow!

Special thanks to my Mom, Barb, for bringing ranch wraps, fruit and vegetables yesterday and for Julie Theis (Megan's Mom) for bringing food today!!! Much appreciated!

Have a great weekend- Go Cougars!

Coach B

Practice today...

Hello,
Well, I was a little disappointed in our practice effort today so we decided to change things up a bit at the end... split the team up evenly and the played a game- freeballs coming in to the winning team, first to 25 points (win by 2) wins. Losers... all have to carry video camera, bags, med kits, laundry, etc. this weekend. Well, that certainly upped the ante a bit!! The intensity, focus and effort significantly increased! There was fist pumping, some yelling, back slapping, great defensive play, good blocking and big swings. Much, much better.

Getting excited to see how this weekend goes as we will play some very, very good teams!!

Go Cougars!!

Coach B

Cougars Win!

Hello-
Fun night in St. Paul- We had a 5-set thriller and a win over Macalester! And we had a JV team playing Northwestern to the tune of a 4-set win. Go Cougars!!

The Macalester match saw the Cougars jump out to a set 1 win before... struggling in the second set (we were down 10 almost the whole set!). But a set 3 win and a good start in the 4th set had us thinking we'd be out of there in 4. But a nice run by Macalester erased a 3 point lead for UMM late, forcing our first 5-set match of the season. We were never behind in the 5th set as we jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, winning 15-9.

At Northwestern, the Cougars fell down early in all 4 sets... but were able to come back and win sets 1 and 2 before dropping the 3rd set. But the Cougars rebounded nicely to win the 4th and final set 25-22.

Then, it was on to a fabulous dinner at the Stinchfields in St. Paul, beef and chicken tacos, fruit, Gatorade and cookies! Now we are on the bus... and on our way home after sitting in traffic on the interstate for a while (Who is on the road at 10:45 pm!?). It's going to be a late night... hopefully we will be home and in bed before 1:30 am. Good thing we only have one more of these weekday away matches.

Signing off-- go Cougars!

Coach B

PS~ Special thanks also to the Knotts for a wonderful meal of casseroles, sloppy joes, baked corn, broccoli salad and fruit on Saturday after the Ridgewater Tourney for our JV team that day!

Back Home and on a Roll

Hello!
I know alot of you made it to the matches on Friday night, but just in case you missed it, the photo here pretty much expresses our feelings for the entire night! As you can see we were all into the game!! Thank you photographer Stinchfield!!


We are not going to rest on our laurels though. Coach ran them through a tough practice tonight and will need to stay on top or our game tomorrow night. One group will play a varsity match at Macalaster while another with play a JV match at Northwestern.

Then we will have two more practices before we meet who will probably be some of the toughest competition we have played to date at the St. Ben's tournament on Friday and Saturday. If you are going to be in the St. Cloud area, we could use your support!

Have a great night!

Coach p

Couple more photos...

Hello-
Well, the Stacy P. High School Tourney is over-- went very well. The group we sent to the Ridgewater Tournament Saturday to play there... sounds like they didn't do so well, losing all 3 matches played.

Finally have some more photos from our New England Trip... enjoy!

Coach B

A shot from the airplane... almost everyone is in it (might be a Humphrey missing... sorry!).


Our attempt at a jump in the air shot from the top of beautiful Mt. Kearsarge, Warner, NH.-- The scenery was wayyyyyy better then their jumping ability!
And... the good shot of the team in New England!

Nice Wins Tonight!

Hello Cougar Nation-
Two (plus a JV Win!) more nice wins tonight... started out with a win over North Central in straight sets where we hit over .400 in the match! We played very well (except for missing too many serves, but the coach told the team not to worry about missed serves and serve aggressive and jump serve!) and won our 4th match in a row.

Then, we had our home opening JV match where we played a very intense match against Jamestown JV... winning in straight sets by scores of 25-23 in each set. It was a great match, very high level of play and lots of fun as we had to come back from behind in 2 of the 3 sets.

After that, Mt. Marty became our next victim, as we defeated them in 3 sets as well, hitting over .380 in that match (too many missed serves again...) and played good clean volleyball. We had only 5 hitting errors in the 2nd and 3rd sets combined. Played pretty solid defense and didn't have many communication errors!

Tomorrow we have a large group going to Ridgewater to play in their Junior College Tourney and a smaller group staying here to work the Stacy P. High School Volleyball Tournament... Go Cougs!

Coach B

Pictures and Twitter...

Hello-
Here is a link to some photos from our Valley City match- and you can now follow us on Twitter! Click here for more information about that.

Have a great day and Go Cougars!

Coach B

Megan and Jordan's Post...

This... Should be Interesting... the (mostly) unedited blog from Megan and Jordan-

Coach B

PS~ Michele and I let them win-- thought it would be good for their morale


This is Megan and Jordan coming to you live from Jordan’s small but cozy apartment in Morris, Minnesota. The start of our senior season has been very eventful with the trip to Boston. The trip started off with the team walking the freedom trail, where we got to witness a grueling fight on the sidewalk. Megan began creeping closer as I ran for cover looking for coach.

Throughout the trip we got to see a lot of historical sites along with beautiful landscapes. The team also got to explore Hampton Beach and the boardwalk with a nice showing of fireworks as well (this being where Brita biffed it crossing the street). Each night we had the privilege to stay at some pretty classy hotels, where for the first time EVER Megan and I got to stay in the same room together (twice may I add)! Coach had to come to the rescue for Megan and myself the second night, the spider the size of a… p u m p k i n was waiting for us on the wall. Megan’s and my favorite parts of the trip were of course the beach, and being undefeated in Polish Golf, not to mention any losers or anything (cough coach cough). We are considering going pro. Overall the trip was a great experience for us, we got to play a ton of volleyball, explore New England, and survive the driving skills of coach!

We were welcomed back to Minnesota with 45 degree weather and rain; when earlier that day we were on beach… getting burnt (Michele). And for those of you who were wondering, NO we did not find Rajon Rando or Kevin Garnett.

The start of this week was slow being we just got back from Boston. JV swept Trinity Bible on Wednesday night, while the rest of the team had practice involving coach trying to multitask by walking and talking, and then eventually falling over a hitting box and landing flat on the floor (it was a good laugh)! Today was a good practice we focused on defense and aggressive serving. Hopefully many of you will notice new faces jump serving tomorrow night!

Speaking of tomorrow, we host NCU, Mt. Marty, and Jamestown. We begin our play at 4:30 against NCU, JV plays Jamestown at 6:00, and the last match of the night is at 7:30 against Mt. Marty. Come support the Cougars tomorrow night for a lot of volleyball action! Go COUGS!!!

Tally ho!

Megan and Jordan

P.S. Did anyone get any strange phone calls when we were in Boston?? Raspy voices, accents, talk about spiders… nope?? Okay! Have a great day!

Tri-Match and JV Home Opener!

Hello-
Quick update-- we are hosting a tri-match tomorrow, both of our varsity matches should be broadcast on the Cougar Sports Network and and we are hoping to set up the camera on the JV match (to be played between our two varsity matches on the far court) so you could watch that match (there will not be any audio or score updates) as well.

Have a great night!!

Coach B

Congrats to Jordan and JV opens with a win!

Hello-
Special congratulations to Jordan Olerud for making the All-Tournament Team at Springfield College over the weekend! And we opened our JV schedule with a win last night at Trinity Bible College in Ellendale, ND, sweeping them 25-14, 25-14, 25-9!

Nice job to all and see you Friday night!

Coach B

We're Back!

And a little tired...
Just landed in Minnesota a little over an hour ago and are almost to the 94-494 split! Special thanks to the Stinchfields for helping us get the vans back and forth and for saving us money with parking!
The trip, from my perspective, was fantastic! The team contined to play better each match on the volleyball court- they were very well behaved off of it and we got to see some great sights and bond with each other! Today was fun-- went to Salem, MA, and the Salem Witch Museum where we learned more about the Witch Hunt of 1692... scary stuff! Then it was off to the beach and a beautiful sunny day of 75 degrees! Most of the team loved that, although we did have some complainers-- probably the only complaining the whole trip-- that didn't want to be at the BEACH!!
From there it was a quick lunch at Panera Bread and off to the airport where both our flights went smooth!

That's it for now-- keep in touch for updates this week and good luck to the team as we have a slew of JV matches this week as well as a varsity tri-match on Friday night!

Coach B

New England Pictures...

Here are a couple of shots from a covered bridge in Warner NH today... everyone is in the top one (good luck identifying them!).

Enjoy!

Coach B

New England- Part 3... Two more wins!

Hello All-
Nice way to end our New England Volleyball... sweeping matches against Colby-Sawyer (my former team!) and Plymouth State! Both solid New England teams with 20+ wins every year and teams that are regularly ECAC or NCAA tournament teams!

Going to walk around Hampton Beach now and then watch some fireworks!!

More later...

Planning to add a photo but the kids only added a shortcut on my desktop not the image!!

Later-- Fireworks just started!

Coach B

New England Part II...

Hello all-- a post from some of the volleyball players in my van today-- the charge was led by Kaylie Clark with help from Megan Theis, Jordan Olerud and Emily Irey-- among others.

Enjoy-
Coach B



As we’ve traveled through Boston, Massachusetts, Springfield, Massachusetts, passed through Vermont, and climbed a mountain in New Hampshire, we’re now on day 3 of our “New England” trip. It’s been quite the experience! The Cougars have enjoyed shopping and site seeing in downtown Boston, climbing Mount Kearsarge, and of course, playing volleyball! And let’s not forget that some things just never go as planned. Yet, coach’s “funny” stories about his life in New Hampshire…well let’s just say are “unique”. Our travel from Morris to Boston involved a two and a half hour drive to Minneapolis, an hour flight to Milwaukee, Wisconsin…running to our gate to catch the next flight for Boston, and finally a safe landing in Boston, Massachusetts the home of the “Red Sox”...but not as good as those good ol’ Minnesota Twins! It seems as if these east coasters have quite the accent (welcome to BOUUSTOUNNN). Now, as for the hotels, Travelodge’s, are the way to go…but seriously it was definitely no five star hotel…it made our Super 8 look like a palace! Of course our chauffeurs (aka Coach Braegelmann and Anita) are better than any other travel guide around, especially on the round-about at 12:30 in the morning. As for volleyball, on Friday we lost to Springfield College and Daemon College, however, they were all close matches, and we have continued to improve. Today, (Saturday, September 04, 2010) we beat Rivier in 4 sets, and have two more matches on Sunday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. We are headed to an Italian restaurant to wrap up the evening and have a fresh start for tomorrow. Keep cheering the Cougars on and we hope to have safe travels for the rest of our “New England” trip!! GO COUGARS!

New England...

Hello all-
Sorry, but this is going to be short- a little tired! Flight yesterday went great, but then had some trouble renting a van... got that resolved after a long delay and then grabbed some snacks from a gas station before turning in to a ... not so great hotel (that's what we get for trying to save some money!). Everybody survived though and we got up this morning ready to see Boston! After some time walking the Freedom Trail and Boston Common and seeing Faneuil Hall we split up into groups for a bit and had lunch at Quincy Market. Then it was off to Springfield to play two matches.

Springfield had some very, very tall volleyball players. As well as we played and as much energy as we had, we couldn't pull out a set and lost 3-0. After a short break, it was back at them against Daeman College, an NAIA school from New York. A first set blowout was followed by a 2nd set win where we had 21 kills! We didn't get much help from Daeman as they had only 3 errors in the set (hitting, setting, serving, passing, ballhandling, etc. They played with very, very few errors and we lost a small lead the 3rd set and dropped that one before losing the last set 20-25.

Off to bed now-- more to follow. Full from eating at the 99!

Coach B

Home Opener...

Hello-
It was a fun and frustrating match tonight in the PE Center... we came out and played very well the first two sets, limiting Valley City to big runs, but couldn't do the same in the last two, dropping the match in 4 sets. For the most part, our offense did well off our 3 setters. Our defense played pretty scrappy. Our passing was solid the first two sets but struggled in the 3rd and 4th sets.
The stands were packed- but a match that we could have/should have won. Great news is we played awesome on defense had a bunch of nice digs, long rallies and need to work on getting better over our next matches in New England!

Have a great night and keep in touch as we head out to New England--

Go Cougars!

Coach B

UMM Receives High Rankings in U.S. News and Forbes!

Hello-
Just found out that the University of Minnesota, Morris was once again ranked high in the yearly fall rankings of colleges and universities! Click here to read about it- Go Cougars!

Coach B

One more practice...

Hello-
Only one more practice before our 2010 season opener! The team looked very fresh after taking the weekend off from practice- we jumped well, moved quick and practiced with energy in anticipation of our match Wednesday night! We are still implementing some new things on offense and defense and working to figure out exactly what we are going to look like Wednesday (it is nice having options but that can make it tough on the coaching staff!).

Getting ready for our trip to New England as well! Double-checked a bunch of the travel details and I checked the weather- should be pretty nice most of our time there- high of about 75 with not much rain and low of about 55. Getting excited to head back!

It is thundering and lightning here now and it is getting past my bedtime so more to follow soon!

Coach B

The Day After

We had our Maroon and Gold scrimmage last night. Thank you to all that came to watch! There were probably more fans there last night then we had at matches two years ago! I hope we made it worth the trip. The team played well (although we do have lot's of things to work on) and they will definitely be entertaining to watch this season.

Above is the team picture we shot this morning.....nice huh?

We are doing a classroom session now (Coach B is letting me get side tracked a little) watching film from last night and talking about goal setting for the season. I have a feeling we will be setting goals a little higher then the past.

Well I better start paying attention!

Hope to see a large fan following at our first home match next Wednesday vs Valley City State University.

Maroon-Gold Scrimmage-

Hello,
Just finished Day 2 of school and had a solid practice today. We are starting to see what our lineup would look like for our upcoming season opener next Wednesday and I'm very excited! We worked some team defensive drills today and then did a bunch of 6-on-6 stuff in preparation for our Maroon-Gold Scrimmage tomorrow. You are all welcome to join us-- PE Center at 7:00 pm- We hope to see you there!

Coach B

UMAC Chat-

Hello-
Just in case you forgot and/or are sitting at your desk doing nothing... the UMAC chat starts in minutes!

http://umacathletics.com/sports/2010/8/18/WVBALL_0818104135.aspx

Coach B

Returners vs. Rookies Scrimmage, Part I

Hello-
Classes start tomorrow here at UMM and our season continues to get closer! Coach Pennie and I thought it would be fun to see our returning players take on the freshmen in practice in a 2 out of 3 match yesterday... let's just say it was a little bit intense! The rookies jumped out to an early lead in the first set and won 15-9! I was thinking, "uh oh, what did we do here!?" And after the rookies jumped out to an early lead in set 2 it was looking like a sweep. But the returners bounced back from an 11-8 deficit to win 15-13, forcing a 3rd set. Once again the rookies pulled ahead 9-6 only to cool off and the returners ended up winning 15-12. It was a lot of fun and I've already heard talk from both sides wanting a rematch!!

Last night after our afternoon practice we went to Natalie Thomas' house for supper that her family prepared for us-- it was delicious!! We are starting to get spoiled! Now this morning the freshmen have advisor meetings and a little more time to buy books, parking permits, etc. before we practice this afternoon and evening. Then classes start tomorrow.

Have a great day and Go Cougars!

Coach B

And our first 2011 Recruit Committed!

Hello-
Forgot to mention that I got a phone call from one of our 2011 recruits last night... she said that after looking at a bunch of schools (and attending our Junior Cougar Visit Day in May), she wanted to let me know that she plans to come to UMM in the fall of 2011 to play volleyball! Very, very excited to have her on board! Go Cougars!

Coach B

PS- More pics... sorry, but I'm not as good at putting the pictures up as Heather!

Day 4...

So... guess I'm numbering the days wrong! Yesterday was Practice Day 2- Day 3 overall, so I'll go back to that. Today we had a team practice this morning... we were definitely a little sluggish compared to the first 2 days of practice. This afternoon we had a pool workout followed by small group workouts by position. Tonight we just finished up a team dinner at our house that my wonderful wife Natalie cooked! Grilled chicken breast, two cole slaw salads, fruit, corn on the cob, bread, cheese and crackers, fresh vegetables from the garden, cheesey potatoes and 3! desserts (so much for "healthy food!")- strawberry dessert, chocolate revel bars and cookie bars.

Off to bed now- enjoy the pictures!

Coach B

Day 2...

Hello-
It has been a lot of fun coaching this team the last 2 days! Four practices down so far and the intensity is very high in the gym. The communication is great, lots of learning going on and very, very competitive play! We have spent a lot of time working on defense and serve receive, knowing that those will be two keys to our success this fall and also trying to save their shoulders from taking too many swings (I'm sure they are itching to start working on setting-hitting drills more often... but they'll have to be patient).
We did some vertical jump testing today and an agility test- we'll do a couple more tests Sunday. Tomorrow morning will be another team practice, then we'll hit the pool to mix it up in the afternoon followed by some small group work by position- then dinner at our house (don't worry... I'm not cooking- Natalie will be taking care of that!). We will take Sunday morning off before the Welcome/Convocation for the incoming freshman and then testing, followed by a night practice.

Also wanted to give you a heads up on a fun event coming up... Our conference, the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference will be having an online chat with all the coaches next Thursday, August 26- click here to join and watch and feel free to throw a question at us!

Have a great weekend- we'll be in the gym working and enjoying the air conditioning!


Coach B

First Practice

Thanks for acknowledging my long hours Coach B!! I just want to help the team get better....even if it is sending the incorrect document to the chancellor at 11:20 pm.

Anyway, the first practice is in the books and we did hit the ground running!
Got some pics for ya.....some are kind of blurry, sorry!

Day 1...

Hello-
Lot happening today! Like Heather said, all 20 players showed up today! We did compliance forms, met families, had dinner at Pizza Ranch, then met with the team and handed out gear! We'll be ready to go and hit the ground running tomorrow morning!

More to follow this week- heading home soon (while Coach Pennie is slaving away in her office!).

Go Cougars!

Coach B

All 20 are here and Accounted For

All 20 players have checked in for the season and they are sure tired of filling out paperwork!!

They are all looking forward to dining at the Pizza Ranch this evening! Unfortunately after that they have to say good bye to family and friends that helped them make the move to campus. But on the bright side, they get to attend a meeting run by Coach B shortly thereafter, so the have something to look forward to!!

Practice is at 9:00am sharp tomorrow.....I will let you know how good we will be after that!

Take a look at some of the photos I took today under the Flicker link to the right......aren't they all so photogenic!!

hp