Xavier University Athletics
Volleyball Kicks Off 2008 Preseason Practice
08.10.08 | Volleyball
Aug. 10, 2008
CINCINNATI - The Xavier volleyball team reported to campus on Friday, Aug. 8 in order to move into the dorms, get head shots taken and have team meetings. On Saturday, preseason practice and conditioning started for the team. Over the course of the next two weeks, a different team member will be sharing her experience with us in this 2008 Xavier volleyball preseason diary.
Sunday, Aug. 24 (Day 16)
We did it! Preseason 2008 is officially in the books. Today was our last two-a-day of this season and the last ever double practice for our seniors, Jenn and Megan. As could be expected, we had our fair share of aches and pains along the way, but overall I think it was a very successful two weeks.
Our first practice of the day got a little boost when we were surprised by the arrival of our volunteer coach Ben Rottinghaus. It's always great when Ben can take time out of his busy schedule to work with us, and it was great having an extra set of eyes this morning. A middle himself, he teamed us with coach during split court to give the freshmen some further instruction on their attacking and blocking. After some fundamental work we broke into teams for a series of 6 on 6 games. The first two games were designed to put us into out of system situations, something we really need to work on.
After these games, coach reviewed rotational defense. We play two basic defenses, perimeter and rotational. As the name suggests, the rotational defense simply rotates everyone around the court, toward the opposing attacker. It's nice to have both defenses in place now, as it allows us to make adjustments during the course of a match depending on what we might see from our opponents. After a quick review, we did some more six-on-six drills to begin putting the defense into practice.
At noon, we took a break for lunch. I headed to the training room to ice down and do some rehab on my hip and knees, then back to the locker room for lunch. We'd successfully depleted most of the locker room food supply, so Christy picked us up Subway. Our entertainment during lunch came in the form of the TV show, Ninja Warrior. Today's episode featured one of the harder obstacle courses I've seen on the show, and we all cheered as each would-be ninja attempted to traverse the curtain hang, the bridge of destiny and the dreaded devil's swing. We like to joke that we should be on the show, although I'm not sure how well we would fare after watching today's episode! After some brief relaxation, we geared up for our afternoon practice session.
With the exception of a few warm up drills, practice number two was largely focused on game situations and serve receive. The drills progressed until, finally, we broke in to six-on-six again, and finished practice with two 25-point scrimmages. There were certainly some areas of weakness left in our game, but it was fun to see the improvements we've made in just two short weeks. The freshmen have worked really hard, and we're beginning to see them moving toward the great potential we know they each have. It's great to see this team starting to take on it¹s own personality, and I can't wait until we get a chance to play next weekend!
- Junior Launren Kaminsky
Saturday, Aug. 23 (Day 15)
Morning practice from 9-12 was the teams only commitment on Saturday. The extra time was useful in preparing for the start of school on Monday. With classes just around the corner, we all needed to pick up our books and organize supplies before we are in over our heads.
Today, Coach focused on an important drill to help limit the errors we can control on our side of the net. The drill required twenty points to be scored before making ten errors in each rotation. The team was extremely successful in serve receive and kill efficiency, saving us from running suicides. The end of practice was spent utilizing all of our learned skills in a competitive scrimmage. We are looking stronger every practice, with less than a week before game day.
The seniors are looking forward to our last double-day of volleyball practice tomorrow!!
- Senior Megan Hellmann
Friday, Aug. 22 (Day 14)
Today was a shortened practice day. With a steady stream of incoming Xavier students arriving on campus today, our freshman were required to attend a `Manresa' orientation event. They attended the event with their parents where they had the opportunity to meet the other incoming freshman athletes at Xavier.
This event made it possible to have our morning practice shortened from three hours to only an hour and 15 minutes, and the afternoon session shortened to 2 hours. While practice days have usually been upwards of 6 hours of practice time, our bodies welcomed the 3 hour practice schedule today. After a lifting session early this morning, we kicked off the morning practice with everyone's favorite `cross-court pepper' drill (which was finished in record time, I might add), and then dedicated the rest of the practice time to improving our serve receive and our first ball kill efficiency. These are always my favorite days of practice--breaking down the basic components of the game and trying to perfect them. After practice, Coach enticed us with the promise to shorten the day tomorrow if our morning practice runs smoothly. I am sure we will all get our sleep tonight to help ensure that this becomes a reality!
- Senior Jenn Welsh
Thursday, Aug. 21 (Day 13)
Dear Diary,
Practice started bright and early at nine o'clock this morning. We began practice with hitter chase. This is one of my favorite drills because everyone gets to swing as hard as they want without any block. After that we played queen of the court. It was surprisingly a slow start from being off on our team day yesterday, but as the practice continued our play continued to get better. The next drill we did was split court. During this time both the middles and the outsides get one-on-one time with Coach Deaton and Coach Christy. It is a great time to practice the little adjustments the coaches tell you. After split court we continued practice with the spry drill. This drill allows the middles to work on transitioning quickly from a run-through ball. Next we did the drill called coach recognition. I liked this drill because it helps me work on my blocking. During this time we also went into serve receive and each front row position had to get 15 kills. We finished the morning practice with coach free-balling balls in and us running different offensive plays.
After we ate lunch quickly we attempted to beautify ourselves for our video head shots. These are when they film each individual person on the team to be shown when we enter the game on the jumbotron. After the head shots, we went to our afternoon practice. We started the practice out with none other than cross court pepper. Coach Deaton informed us before we started that if we got 10 across the net on the first try that we would be done with practice for the day. But within seconds that went down the drain. To our surprise, though, we got the 10 pretty quickly and then got to compete. After cross court pepper we then played scramble. This is one of the most chaotic games but it really does teach you court awareness. We then played first ball kill. Soon after we were done we had to change from two courts to one court for playing one 25-point game. The intensity was great and it ended practice very well. Overall it was another great day of practice.
- Freshman Kathryn Traut
Wednesday, Aug. 20 (Day 12)
Today was another early morning. We started off in the weight room with an intense work out at 7 a.m. Today was a little bit different then the work-outs we had done previously. We each received cards with several lifts that targeted each part of our bodies and these cards will now be used on a regular basis each time we work out.
After lifting, instead of heading back into the locker room to get ready for a double day, we had the luxury of returning to our rooms to get a little more sleep in before our team day! Coach Deaton and Coach Christy took our team to The Beach, which is a water park near King's Island. It was a wonderful day of relaxation and fun! Some of us conquered our fears on the tall water slides while others lounged all day in the lazy river. Either way, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and greatly appreciated our day off! To end our fun-filled day we went to Maggiano's Italian restaurant for a team dinner. After we had a nice meal, we headed back to campus to rest up for the busy Thursday ahead. We cannot thank our coaches enough for the wonderful day they planned for us!
- Freshman Michelle Matia
Tuesday, Aug. 19 (Day 11)
This Tuesday morning, bright and early, practice was kicked off with a rousing game of cross-court pepper. Our goal was set to 20 back-and-forth volleys and at first we struggled to reach that number. Then finally, once we all "woke up" and completed the drill the rest of practice went quite smoothly! We did split court again, which personally, I like best because the rest of the middles and I get one-on-one instruction and experience with Coach Deaton and the setters. The speed of the game is quite different then I'm used to! Then after a few drills we got on boxes and concentrated on pressing over and penetrating the net to improve our blocking. The next few drills of the morning were centered on blocking and covering our hitters. Then, out of the blue, Coach tells us we need to exchange the two side by side courts for one single court and that it can be done in 1 minute and 30 seconds. Skeptical at first, we all scrambled to complete the task (to avoid what would happen if we were to go over!). Proving him right (as always!) we went into a serve receive drill. After every position got the right amount of points practice ended. The practice was very intense and we all left the gym hungry for lunch!
Our next session started again with a little bit of cross court pepper which we definitely accomplished with much more precision. After a few intense drills we worked on our individual skills with split court. Next, after working on our different sets and doing better after repetition, we came back together and did a few game-like situation drills. The upperclassmen continue to impress me on how hard they can hit the ball! Then Coach had us flip the court into a single net again and we played a few situational scrimmages. We played well as a team and it was a lot of fun! As a freshman, I really appreciate all the encouragement and support the upperclassmen give us. We get closer and closer to game day after each practice and I am getting so excited!
- Freshman Emily Mayers
Monday, Aug. 18 (Day 10)
Transferring into the volleyball program as a sophomore, I was a little intimidated and did not know what to expect. The first week of two-a-days we focused more on our technique and went back to basics. Entering our second week of two-a-days we are practicing more game-like situations. Our incoming freshman middle blockers are getting the hang of things and are getting another step closer every single practice. The returning players are doing a wonderful job with helping us "newbies" understand all the drills and giving us advice on how to succeed. We, as a team, are getting more competitive and more driven to win.
Today was actually one of our weightlifting days. We had a conditioning weight lifting day which began at seven this morning before our two practices. Holly, the strength coach, provides us with great exercises to get our stamina and bodies strong for this upcoming season. It is not easy but will pay off in the end. After the conditioning was over in the weight room we ended with a "team finisher." Our team finisher after today's work out was a relay. Each player had to push a thirty-five pound plate with a towel a certain distance and back. My team unfortunately lost and we had a wall sit as our punishment. Overall the weight lifting went well and prepared us for our practices.
Our first practice was strong. We worked more on our blocking which was great. We also focused a lot on our front row hitters. Our hitters all know they are competing for positions and they are all stepping up a lot. Everyone can kill the ball and hit awesome shots. During our warm up of our second two-a-day we did my favorite drill. Coach Deaton likes to call it "Swedish Fish." We put six players on each side of the court and each side serves a ball and we play with both balls at the same time. It can get chaotic at times but it helps us without of system plays and communication. Whichever team kills both balls wins the point. It is fun and gets you very warmed up for the rest of our three hour practice.
I am very impressed with the program and how we are progressing during each practice. I think we need to keep working hard in the weight room and in the gym to gear us up for our first tournament against Ohio State University, which just happens to be in my hometown, Columbus, Ohio. Let's keep up the hard work ladies!
- Sophomore Shannon Wells
Saturday, Aug. 16 (Day 8)
Dear Diary,
Today was very different then most of our regular preseason practice days. We were given the opportunity to sleep in!! This is an extremely rare situation that my roommates and I were able to make the most of it by waking up late and leisurely eating breakfast before getting ready for our first practice. Practice was set to begin at one so we headed over to the gym around noon to get ready. We warmed up by playing half court games of two on two. These kinds of warm up drills really bring out our competitive sides and everyone works hard to beat their opponents. Lauren and Kelly won the drill by beating all the other teams of two to five games on the winner's court.
The goal of this practice was to work as a team and focus on our technique. We targeted areas of our game such as serve receive and hitting. We split into two courts where our middles were able to get plenty of repetitions on the ball; meanwhile the outsides and right sides worked on making shots and tooling the block. Immediately following "split court," we worked on serve receive. This is one of the most important parts of our game. We passed and our middle hitters were able to transition off of the pass to hit. These two freshmen are really coming along as hitters. They are connecting with our setters more consistently and working really hard. Our passing is constantly improving as a team but we individually need to work on certain areas of our technique. For instance, I need to work on moving my feet to get my hips around the ball so that I can get the ball to the setter on target. Throughout the practice we continued to work on serve receive in drills where the servers and passers worked on a team to challenge the other sides skills. These drills not only help us on our technique, but they help us to get to know our teammates tendencies as well. We finished up practice by playing a six on six drill called baseball. This game is scored like baseball however it is a game like situation for us. This drill works on putting the ball away and limiting our errors.
At five-thirty we made our way back into the gym for a scrimmage for the officials. All of today the officials participated in a clinic to train them for the season. This scrimmage really excited all of us for the season. We dressed in full uniform and we put ourselves in the mindset of an actual match. We were able to play an entire match to five games that were all very competitive. The teams were evenly matched, and both played very well. After the match was over we were able to look back and see how much our game has improved in the last week. We are running a faster offensive plays and we are implementing stronger back row attacks. Today was a great day but tomorrow we have the entire day off to rest and recuperate.
- Sophomore Chelsea Campbell
Friday, Aug. 15 (Day 7)
We started the day off waking to an early lift with Holly. Now let me tell you that this lift was not like any other. Bike sprints, verti-max, slide board, ABS (with 30 lb vests on), and box hops. It was rough, but just another challenge that brought our team closer. We ended the lift with a team finisher of upper body plate lifts.
Now onto practice... we started the usual way of warming up and challenging ourselves to do the little things that Coach has been enforcing in our heads. We went onto to work to the best of our abilities in drills that made us work, but also "better the ball." We did split court for a while to work on set plays with the middles and for Coach Christy to help our serve receive and attackers. The middles are coming along and working to learn a totally new offense and the pace of Division I volleyball; they are working extremely hard, and it is showing in their efforts when we scrimmage. We ended the morning session with a wash drill of four balls. The intensity was high which we always love and want more of in each drill. We went to lunch and had some Buca Di Beppo leftovers or turkey sandwiches, which were delicious.
After our delightful lunch, we headed back to the gym working to get everything right. We voted for captains at the beginning of the session and had a good afternoon practice with more split court and scrimmaging at the end. Intensity and aggression were shown throughout the whole afternoon practice. Everyone is coming together and becoming a strong team.
We ended the end of the day of course with wonderful food from P.F. Chang's!!!
Wonderful!
- Sophomore Claire Paszkiewicz
Thursday, Aug. 14 (Day 6)
Feeling well rested after a relaxing afternoon off and a good night's sleep, the team returned to the gym ready and willing to work hard this morning. We spent a lot of time working on individual skills and today our main focus was blocking. We stood on boxes and practiced blocking with one hand, two hands, and even blocking two balls at once! While the drill did significantly improve our blocking, it also was cause for many of us to get nosebleeds from getting facials from the hitters! I guess that shows how strong and powerful our hitters have gotten! It was really beneficial to all of us to have the technique broken down, and going back to the basics reminded us of the little things we had been forgetting to do.
After completing our blocking drills, we split up onto two courts. The setters and middles went with Coach Deaton on one court, and the outside hitters and defensive specialists went with [assistant coach] Christy [Utnage] on the other. The freshmen middles are continuing to make great progress, and after today, they are now comfortable running five different sets of our offense. On Christy's court, we worked on serve receive and running our offense with different sets based on where the pass is made. Also, she worked with the hitters by doing drills to improve our ability to reach high on our arm swings. The coaches have been giving us a lot of great positive reinforcement, and it's helping us improve in all aspects of our game.
Wednesday, Aug. 13 (Day 5)
We kicked off today in the weight room with Holly and, of course, she never fails to deliver an intense workout. We did a circuit where we had to lift non-stop for one full minute at each station; the one-minute theme ended up later being carried with us into practice. It was great to see the team come together and push one another throughout the circuit. Sophomore Claire Paszkiewicz managed to find every sand bag and weighted vest in the weight room to pile up on our laps during the wall sit station that came to a total of 105 lbs. The entire team did an awesome job, and I was really impressed by how the freshman stepped up their level of intensity to get through the workout.
With weights over, I grabbed some toast and headed right into the training room to see Michelle (where would we be without her?!?). After getting my feet all taped up, I had an individual with the other outside hitters and [assistant coach] Christy [Utnage] before team practice started. It has been really nice to get to learn from Christy who was also an outside hitter. I know we're all trying to soak up what both Christy and Coach Deaton have to teach us.
Our morning practice of the day was what we like to call our "One Minute Day" of pre-season, which is focused on defense. We had drill after drill that lasted for one minute each to complete. Practice moved at very fast pace but we all did our jobs and got it done. Coach was pleased with how we communicated and our level of play. He was so satisfied that he and Coach Christy decided to give us a much-needed AFTERNOON OFF!
Coach urged us to take the time to relax, which wasn't a problem! I headed back to my room for a nap and then my roommates, Lauren and Hillary, and I took advantage of our kitchen to make our first meal in our apartment. We had Lasagna and a tossed salad with some cake for dessert. After dinner we plopped down on our couches and watched the Olympics for the rest of the night. Needless to say, my body was very happy with the extra rest. Hopefully we can continue to build on what we accomplished today in tomorrow's practices. - Junior Kelly Ruth
Tuesday, Aug. 12 (Day 4)
Day four of preseason is always one of the hardest and most tiring! But after having finally slept in a real bed after three nights of a dorm bed in Kuhlman, I feel much more rested than I have in past years! We didn't have lifting this morning so we fortunately had some more time to eat and take our time getting ready for our morning practice.
The morning practice gave the serve receivers another chance to work on our passing. [Assistant coach] Christy [Utnage] has proven to be an awesome coach and she has really helped our serve receive to become more consistent and confident!! While the passers were busy fine-tuning our technique, Coach Deaton and the setters continued to help the middles get more comfortable with our offense. The morning practice was also our first introduction of the season to a drill called "cross court pepper." This is a drill that is all about controlling the ball in order to get a certain amount of volleys across the net. After a very, very long bout with cross court pepper, we finally got the job done and morning practice was over.
After a quick lunch and a little relaxation in the locker room, we began warm-ups for the afternoon practice. Coach let us have another encounter with cross court pepper this afternoon. It still took a while but we finally met our goal and got to move on with the rest of practice. Next, we spent some more time on serve receive and also out of system hitting, while the middles were on the other court with Coach Deaton and the setters. When the whole team joined up again we got to run different freeball plays and we finished up the afternoon with a drill called "first ball kill" which lets us work on serve receive and game-play situations.
After a soak in the cold whirlpool and a dinner of Jersey Mike's, we are all back in our rooms and resting up for day five!
- Junior Hillary Otte
Monday, Aug. 11 (Day 3)
Day three is coming to a close and I'm happy to report that I'm writing this from the comfort of my very own apartment in the Commons. Kelly, Hillary and I finally made the move from dorm life, to apartment living!Looking back, I can hardly remember this morning. Today was definitely our longest day yet with our first lift, two more practices and move-in for upperclassmen. But let me start at the beginning.
This morning we reported early for our first full lift of the season.The freshmen learned quickly that lifting isn't something to be taken lightly here at Xavier. The team's competitiveness and the energy of our lifting coach, Holly, help to create a uniquely intense atmosphere within the confines of the Xavier weight room. I can still remember how exhausted and overwhelmed I was after my first day in the weight room.They survived though, and I know they'll see results if they continue their hard work.
After weights, we had about 20 minutes to scarf down some more breakfast and get geared up for practice. Eating is something we take pretty seriously on our team, and with six-plus hours of practice every day, we can afford to! During preseason our locker room is fully stocked with everything from protein bars to rice krispie treats. I grabbed a protein bar and some cereal, then headed back out to warm up for our first session of practice.
In the morning practice we continued to focus on fundamentals, but started to put the skills into more live situations. We moved from small ball drills (which are done with a partner) to big ball drills (which are played across a net with three people per side). Outside hitters took some swings off of boxes with [assistant coach] Christy [Utnage] to break down different shots, while middles and setters continued to work on their timing with Coach Deaton. We even played a wash game with full teams at the end, which was a lot of fun!
After morning practice ended, I headed to the training room to do some rehab on my knees and ankle. We're really lucky to have a great training room and excellent trainers. No one likes to have injuries to deal with, but it's nice to know we have great people to take care of us when it does happen. I spend quite a bit of time in the training room and I can't imagine where I would be without our trainer, Michelle.
After getting ice and grabbing some lunch, I walked up to the Commons where my parents were starting to move my things in. It was great to see them and to finally get into my new room. We made some quick decisions on how I would set things up, and then I headed back to the gym for practice number two.
Despite our soreness, the afternoon practice was very productive and pretty fun. We continued to progress, and got more opportunities to put the techniques we'd been working on into practice. We did a lot more live attacking and played some more games of six on six. The focus was on serve receive and while we still have plenty to work on, it's cool to see how the skill work we've been doing is making a difference in live situations.
After practice I iced down again and then headed back to find our apartment almost full. Our parents had been working all day moving things in. It was both tiring and exciting to finish getting moved in. We're lucky to get such nice living arrangements here on campus, and it's great to be living with Hillary and Kelly again!
Well, I'd better get going. My bed is calling my name, and another day of practice awaits. Goodnight!
- Junior Lauren Kaminsky
Sunday, Aug. 10 (Day 2)
Today we continued to focus on the basic fundamentals of volleyball. Coach keeps preaching that "practice does not make perfect", but "perfect practice makes perfect". So with that in mind, we completed a lot of `small ball' drills in order to refine our volleyball techniques that we have had since we were first taught how to play. This was probably our last day for these type of drills.
Our freshmen are quickly learning the same lesson that every incoming freshman new to a Division I program discovers: the pace of the game is so much faster! A lot of new information is being directed their way but they are very coachable and are beginning to come into their own as middle hitters.
Today we also worked on defense, serve receive and hitting on the outside. Being a setter, it was great to see that our outsides are doing an impressive job of keeping up with our remarkably fast offense. Our team is beginning to become more polished, more "gelled" so-to-speak, and so I am excited to see the progress we make during the course of the next couple weeks!
- Senior Jennifer Welsh
Saturday, Aug. 9 (Day 1)
Woohoo! Almost everyone passed the 4x4x4 this morning. It is typical for everyone to feel intense pressure before completing the annual running conditioning test. It was definitely one of the best finishes I have ever seen in Xavier history. The XU volleyball team is officially back in action!! The girls did their job staying in shape during the summer and we are ready to prepare for a successful season.
Following the run, we held a scrimmage for the coaches to observe our level of play after three months of summer relaxation. It is always fun to be back with the team and to welcome new players to the group. Scrimmaging brings out our competitive side!
The final practice of the day focused on getting in rhythm and touching the volleyball. Coach chose to run small-ball drills, so we could start from the basics and work our way up. It was nice to break things down since newcomers were overwhelmed with information, as usual, and the returners can always use a reminder. Coach briefly went over technique and positioning, but I am sure there is a lot more to come!
Day one down, only 15 days of preseason, double days to go!!
- Senior Megan Hellmann
Our second practice of the day was a lot more quick-paced. We did more work by splitting the courts up to work on individual skills, and we later had the opportunity to put together and use the tools we'd learned by having a very competitive scrimmage. We played several full games, and it was a lot of fun to be playing in game situations in such an intense environment. After practice, one of our freshmen completed our required running test, the infamous 4x4, and the rest of the team piled into the icebaths to tend to their sore muscles. After that, we enjoyed a dinner of Buca di Beppo's, and as Day 6 of preseason came to a close, we took one step closer to Game Day of our first match!
- Sophomore Shannon Voors
