University of Minnesota Athletics
VB: Mike Hebert Quotes from Media Day
8/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Minnesota Head Coach Mike Hebert Quotes from Media Day:
“Our practices have shown so far that we have the most talent we have ever had here at Minnesota in terms of depth and numbers. We return some key players from our Final Four team last year, and we welcome in what I think is the best recruiting class our program has ever had in the sport of volleyball. The skill-base is high, and their volleyball IQ is very high. We are now practicing at a point that we probably did not reach until midseason last year. So well a lot of people might expect us to falter this year after losing key seniors, as far as I am concerned we can continue to play at the level we did last year.”
“That also depends on a number of intangibles, but we have the two intangible gurus on the court and those are Paula Gentil and Marci Peniata. Both of those players understand the game very well, and are coaches on the floor. We should be a team that continues the signature style of play we had the last few years, which is great defense. If you have to build a team you want to build it around defense, and we have certainly done that. The incoming players understand that, they have taken the defensive challenge seriously. We are already playing very good defense in practice.”
“We have a big hole on the left-side with the losses of Erin Martin, Trisha Bratford and Amanda Hokenson from last year’s roster. We don’t have any proven players at that position, but we have several candidates. Right now Marci Peniata, who has been a defensive specialist for us the last two years, looks like she is one of our best left-side hitters. She will get a hard look at that position. Kyla Roehrig, the incoming freshman from Nebraska, will get a look at that position. Meghan Cumpston will also get a shot at it. We have other options out there as well. We will not be short on left-side hitter options this year.”
“Our middle attack, looks to be improved. What we are missing, is the player who is going to play opposite Kelly Bowman in the rotation. Kelly was our setter/ hitter last year in the 6-2 offense. She is going to remain at that position. She will either play in a 6-2 this year with Rachel Hartmann as the other setter/hitter, or she is going to be setting a 5-1 meaning we will need to find a hitter to play opposite her in the rotation. Jessica Byrnes would be a candidate for that, as well as Kelly Schmidt one of our newcomers. It is kind of fun for me to talk about depth here. This is the most depth that any of our teams have had since I have been here at Minnesota.”
“We are looking good in practice right now. I think of course everyone is in the preseason portion of their practice regiment, and it is still hard to gauge a lot things. We are always going to be talking like this in preseason and in few weeks we will have to start playing the matches for real. However, so far I like what I see very much.”
(On middle blocker situation): “Right now Meredith Nelson is on the top of the list as far as our middle blockers go. Jessy Jones and Jessica Byrnes, who is having a great camp, are sort of tied right now for that other middle blocker spot. The fourth middle at this point is Kelly Schmidt, who will play both in the middle and on the outside, probably the right- side.”
(About the freshman class): “So far the freshmen have exceeded expectations. In a few cases by far, and in some cases by a little bit. We had high expectations of them coming in. Kyla Roehrig is just going to be a fabulous player. She has the size to be a great player, but she also has great instincts and is a very low error player who does not make many mistakes. That is encouraging to see. I think one of the biggest surprises is Kelly Schmidt and how advanced she is as a player as far as skill base and volleyball IQ. She understands the game very well and sees the court well as a blocker. All the freshmen are doing a good job to this point in camp. We can throw people in there and look away and know they will still be going at it hard and playing with energy and know how. As you can see I am pretty happy with the freshmen so far.”
(On newcomers adjusting to Paula Gentil’s style of play): “So far the learning curve has been very brief and successful. We told Paula in January, after season was over, that her biggest challenge will be to coach and teach younger players, instead of intimidating them. Paula can be intimidating to play with, because of her confidence and her healthy obsession with wanting things done her way. Sometimes younger players can be thrown off by that, but this year so far she has been a great teacher and has embraced the younger players. We have done our six-on-six works Paula has been wonderful in terms of teaching people how to respond to her movements and what she does.”
(On Big Ten): “Penn State will probably be the favorite to win the title. We will be either two or three in my judgement. Either us or Wisconsin will be voted second in the preseason poll I am guessing. I think a lot of people see Ohio State and Michigan or Illinois in 4-5-6 spots. However, Purdue has gotten a lot better. This will probably be the continuation of the even competitive play in the conference. We saw it last year, and I think it will continue. No one will have a poor team. The team that finishes last in this conference will still be a pretty good team. Every night will be a tough match in conference play.”
(On preference of either 6-2 formation of a 5-1): “I have no preference to which system we play this year. We will pick the system that seems to fit personnel the best. What this means in this case is Rachel Hartmann has established herself as a phenomenal setter. She is really a superstar in the making in that position. What we don’t know is can she attack that ball with the same proficiency as Lindsey Taatjes did last year. Without that, the 6-2 does not make much sense. You need an offensive threat on the right side in all six rotations. If Rachel can’t do that we might veer away, at least momentarily, from the 6-2. Other thing is we have plenty of big people to put on the right side if we want to play a 5 -1 or a modified 6-2. It could be we put someone like Roehrig on the right side and Hartmann comes in for her in the backrow. For Kyla and Bowman stays in at the other position. There are several ways we can go, and it will be determined by next two weeks of practice.”
