Gophers first scrimmage

[snickers]

Was fun to finally see the new team, as the Golddiggers hosted a team scrimmage and dinner with the team. I think coach gave us an indication of the starting lineup:

Rohrig (OH1)
Gibbemeyer (M1)
Hartmann (S)
Dieter (OH2)
Jones (M2)
Vatterodt (OPP)

Tan (libero)

DS -- will be a battle between Fallon and Roysland. They both looked great. Cowles could step in, but Roysland was pretty impressive.

Most interesting was Vatterodt at OPP. She did a great job. Hit well and played strong D.

The two super frosh are fitting right in. This will be fun.

[JHAM]

I thought the same snickers, Katie V. sets and blocks well as an OPP too so good choice. Haggerty could challenge Vatterodt for OPP once her shoulder gets better. I too was impressed by Roysland as the first DS off the bench because she can also attack out of the backrow. Will be a fun season!

[spikerthemovie]

I know I'm a little suspect on this, since I have been a fan of hers on the basketball team for four years, but I was blown away by Kelly Roysland. Of all the women on the court, she looked like she was working hardest to prove herself worthy of playing time. And she is worthy -- yesterday, anyway, no one was serving or passing more effectively than she was, plus she's a great communicator on the court. I think we should get ready for lots of stories about this unusually dedicated sport-shifter.

[snickers]

spikethemovie said:

I know I'm a little suspect on this, since I have been a fan of hers on the basketball team for four years, but I was blow away by Kelly Roysland. Of all the women on the court, she looked like she was working hardest to prove herself worthy of playing time. And she is worthy -- yesterday, anyway, no one was serving or passing more effectively than she was, plus she's a great communicator on the court. I think we should get ready for lots of stories about this unusually dedicated sport-shifter.

I agree. Was a big surprise. If she can be consistent like yesterday, she might be playing a lot.

[ohiovalley]

When Haggerty committed to the Gophers, I thought she was going to be an impact player which is why she opted for Minnesota over Washington, Illinois, and some others. And will the 6'3 Schmidt ever find a spot in the line-up for Minnesota? I thought she was a tremendous prospect coming out of club ball. Did she red-shirt one of her first two seasons? Seems like Minnesota is collecting defensive specialists. I remember all the hype over Chin's transfer from Arizona and the signing of Fallon. From the reports above, it does not sound like either one will be a regular. I look for the Gophers to be better than many expected with all this talent.

[snickers]

I believe Hagerty had surgery this spring on her shoulder. She didn't seem to be favoring it and she was hitting well. I think she has a good chance of playing a lot and making an impact before her career is over. Schmidt did not redshirt. Bottom line for both of these players is that there is a lot of competition and the Gophers have a very deep team. I think Fallon will see much more court time than she has over the past two years. Lots of competition/talent at DS/L, plus we have another great one committed for '08.

[ladeda]

I've been a closet sota fan for many years weather they like it or not.

[Revellowski]

Well, it's taken quite a bit of time for me to get my report up here from the Gophers practice. There was a little storm here in St. Paul and my power has been out since Friday evening. It just turned on (Sunday at 6pm, that's not inconvenient at all) and unfortunately there was a bit of clean up to do with the refrigerators and deep freeze. Not fun.

When I walked in the gym at 3:30pm on Friday Hebert was working with Dieter, Gibbemeyer and Phillips. They were hitting 2 balls out of the middle, doing some work on arm swings and paying special attention to how and where they were landing after they hit the ball. Funny to watch because they were all over thinking what they were doing resulting in many interesting facial expressions. The setters were over on the other court together with Scott doing some transition and attacking drills. All the other girls showed up shortly afterwards and they all started some other drills and peppering to warm up.

After watching many drills they finally got down to the fun stuff. Scrimmaging. The teams were divided up it seemed by class at first. All the freshmen were on one side with Katie V. and the obvious advantage of Christine Tan as Libero. I thought they were going to get killed when looking across the net they were up against Roehrig, Jones, Fallon, Schmidt, Roysland, Hartmann and Hagerty. Nope, not gonna happen, the young ones won! 30-28, but led by as many at 6 or 7 at the half way point of that game. Talented little bunch you might say. The veterans did have a nice comeback at the end of that game to give the newbies a scare. Kyla ended up with 5 kills and 2 blocks and Jones had 4 kills, 4 blocks.

Game 2 was the same teams I believe and the veterans won that one 30-22. They pulled it together with some better passing and transition game. The highlight of game two, however, was the one handed block that Dieter got on Kyla. They are only allowing Brook to block with one hand since her other one is still banged up a bit and sure enough Brook blocked her straight down with authority with one hand. It was awesome, but not as awesome as her celebration afterwards. We are going to have fun with this ones zaniness, she's hilarious.

Game 3 Hebert line the girls up and I think it looked like who we're going to see starting the season.

Hartmann-S
Roehrig-OH1
Gibbemeyer-M1
Vatterrodt-RS
Jones-M2
Dieter-OH2
Tan-Libero
DS-Any of the following: Roysland, Fallon, Cowles, Wilber, Chin-they really all played pretty well.

I also want to say that Caitlin Schneider is an excellent little setter. She played very well. Obviously the connection in the middle is always tough early but Hartmann had all the same problems and I really think they are pretty even. Much more even than I would have considered. Rachel has the deception and experience down which puts her ahead but I'm glad to see a worthy backup!

At the dinner afterwards Mike announced that the team captains were going to be Kyla and Rachel, although he also brought up the seniors since they would be providing additional leadership as well. Jesse Jones and Kelly Roysland both spoke after the captains did to share their observations and goals for '07. It was enjoyable to hear from all 4 of these ladies. Jesse has been nicknamed "Cher" since she now has long dark brown tresses. Mike came up with that one. I'm sure she'll make him pay for it somehow.

These observations are a bit all over the place so I apologize. I had too much time to lose all the things I really wanted to add to this. Overall this team is going to have a lot of fun on the court learning who they are. They will be much better than everyone thinks (once again), and we, as fans are going to really enjoy watching some exciting volleyball.

We all know how good Hartmann, Jones, Tan and Roehrig are, but I was really impressed with Katie Vatterrodt on the RS and Dieter and Gibbemeyer are impact freshmen that will probably start from day one. Schmidt was very improved and did some nice things but I don't think it's her time yet. Potentially using her on the right side to quicken up the offense is something the coaches should consider but I'm thinking she may not see much of the middle until Jones is gone.

Wish I could go to the Notre Dame match. Put the hurt on 'em Gophers and start us out strong.

[Deleted]

You forgot to mention that Mike asked for the VTalkers to ID themselves. Only Ugopher and JT fell for it (and neither has been heard from since), but it was still sneaky.

[Wolfgang]

I heard the girls really don't like gophers much. In fact, I was hard-pressed to find ANY Minnesotan who loved gophers.

[JT]

ruffda said:

You forgot to mention that Mike asked for the VTalkers to ID themselves. Only Ugopher and JT fell for it (and neither has been heard from since), but it was still sneaky.

Yeah... I've been dodging hit squads ever since Friday night. No one... I mean no one suspected that I was JT before I outed myself.


In actuality, we lost power (3:30AM Saturday) and still don't have it back.

[spikerthemovie]

revellowski said:

Well, it's taken quite a bit of time for me to get my report up here from the Gophers practice. There was a little storm here in St. Paul and my power has been out since Friday evening. It just turned on (Sunday at 6pm, that's not inconvenient at all) and unfortunately there was a bit of clean up to do with the refrigerators and deep freeze. Not fun.

When I walked in the gym at 3:30pm on Friday Hebert was working with Dieter, Gibbemeyer and Phillips. They were hitting 2 balls out of the middle, doing some work on arm swings and paying special attention to how and where they were landing after they hit the ball. Funny to watch because they were all over thinking what they were doing resulting in many interesting facial expressions. The setters were over on the other court together with Scott doing some transition and attacking drills. All the other girls showed up shortly afterwards and they all started some other drills and peppering to warm up.

After watching many drills they finally got down to the fun stuff. Scrimmaging. The teams were divided up it seemed by class at first. All the freshmen were on one side with Katie V. and the obvious advantage of Christine Tan as Libero. I thought they were going to get killed when looking across the net they were up against Roehrig, Jones, Fallon, Schmidt, Roysland, Hartmann and Hagerty. Nope, not gonna happen, the young ones won! 30-28, but led by as many at 6 or 7 at the half way point of that game. Talented little bunch you might say. The veterans did have a nice comeback at the end of that game to give the newbies a scare. Kyla ended up with 5 kills and 2 blocks and Jones had 4 kills, 4 blocks.

Game 2 was the same teams I believe and the veterans won that one 30-22. They pulled it together with some better passing and transition game. The highlight of game two, however, was the one handed block that Dieter got on Kyla. They are only allowing Brook to block with one hand since her other one is still banged up a bit and sure enough Brook blocked her straight down with authority with one hand. It was awesome, but not as awesome as her celebration afterwards. We are going to have fun with this ones zaniness, she's hilarious.

Game 3 Hebert line the girls up and I think it looked like who we're going to see starting the season.

Hartmann-S
Roehrig-OH1
Gibbemeyer-M1
Vatterrodt-RS
Jones-M2
Dieter-OH2
Tan-Libero
DS-Any of the following: Roysland, Fallon, Cowles, Wilber, Chin-they really all played pretty well.

I also want to say that Caitlin Schneider is an excellent little setter. She played very well. Obviously the connection in the middle is always tough early but Hartmann had all the same problems and I really think they are pretty even. Much more even than I would have considered. Rachel has the deception and experience down which puts her ahead but I'm glad to see a worthy backup!

At the dinner afterwards Mike announced that the team captains were going to be Kyla and Rachel, although he also brought up the seniors since they would be providing additional leadership as well. Jesse Jones and Kelly Roysland both spoke after the captains did to share their observations and goals for '07. It was enjoyable to hear from all 4 of these ladies. Jesse has been nicknamed "Cher" since she now has long dark brown tresses. Mike came up with that one. I'm sure she'll make him pay for it somehow.

These observations are a bit all over the place so I apologize. I had too much time to lose all the things I really wanted to add to this. Overall this team is going to have a lot of fun on the court learning who they are. They will be much better than everyone thinks (once again), and we, as fans are going to really enjoy watching some exciting volleyball.

We all know how good Hartmann, Jones, Tan and Roehrig are, but I was really impressed with Katie Vatterrodt on the RS and Dieter and Gibbemeyer are impact freshmen that will probably start from day one. Schmidt was very improved and did some nice things but I don't think it's her time yet. Potentially using her on the right side to quicken up the offense is something the coaches should consider but I'm thinking she may not see much of the middle until Jones is gone.

Wish I could go to the Notre Dame match. Put the hurt on 'em Gophers and start us out strong.

Not that it matters much, but the teams were shaken up for that second game -- so it was not quite the same line-up. In any case, it was a great preview of fun to come.

[Deleted]

I think the main change for game 2 was Cowles switched with Roysland? Did Tan switch, too?

I don't remember.

[Gorf]

I was hoping to show up for the scrimmage / dinner thing but my back (amongst other things) were bothering me very much.

JT, you may collect my rubles for the event whenever we run into each other sometime later this month - perhaps at the alumni match.

[Wolfgang]

Traffic in and around Minneapolis must be a mess because of the bridge collapse.