University of Minnesota Athletics
Volleyball 101 Blog
8/26/2009 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Gophersports.com blogged throughout the night, as Minnesota hosted Volleyball 101 to give the fans a preview of the 2009 squad. The Maroon team defeated the Gold team 3-0 by scores of 25-12, 25-19, 25-23.
Individually, Brook Dieter finished with 19 kills and four service aces on the night, while Tabi Love had 19 kills as well. Hailey Cowles had eight kills, while Katherine Harms and Ariana Filho each had seven. Lauren Gibbemeyer and Megan Wilson each finished with six kills.
"I was happy with the overall performance on the night," said Minnesota Head Coach Mike Hebert. "What stuck out most to me is our lack of unforced errors both into the net and out of bounds. We have placed a strong emphasis on that in practice and I am happy it translated into the scrimmage. That is something we have struggled with in the past couple of years, and we have worked hard to correct it in fall practice."
"I also was very pleased to see how well Tabitha Love attacked the ball in our first look at her in this type of situation," said Hebert. "I also thought the setting was very stable tonight. Overall, I thought this was a very successful scrimmage and event."
7:05 pm: The festivities get under way as a name was announced for the $50,000 Perfect Serve competition that will occur later tonight.
7:10 pm: Vivian Langley from Golden Gopher Fund spoke to the crown to outline the Premier Seating that will be used at this year's matches. The home bench will switch sides, the band and student section will switch to the other side of the court and the premier seating will be 24 seats and be by the new side with the team bench. The money raised goes to support scholarships of student-athletes.
Some of the benefits include primary seating location, padded seats with padded backs, reserved parking spot in lot C-58, food and beverage served in the Sports Pavilion Club Room before and during match and coach Hebert will give scouting report on the opponent. There will also be an opportunity to travel with team on road trip.
7:15 pm: Mike Hebert gets on the microphone and turns it over to the players to introduce themselves on the microphone. The Gopher players introduced themselves and numerical order, and gave a couple of musical performances to the crowd (highlighted by Megan Wilson leading the team in a song and Jasmine Dittrich performing a rap).
7:18 pm: Mike Hebert lines up the players in position to go through some of the strategies that go into setting the rotations prior to the match.
7:25 pm: The players and Mike Hebert are demonstrating some of the strategies that go into the matchups that are created during the match, and some of what the players and coaches look for in terms of adjustments during the match.
7:30 pm: Mike Hebert opens it up to the crowd for a question-and-answer session regarding rules and the 2009 team.
7:35 pm: Following the Q&A with the crowd, Mike Hebert went through the set chart for the team with the crowd.
7:40 pm: The players demonstrated some of the different sets on offense for the fans as they lined up in hitting rows.
7:45 pm: Mike Hebert and the players demonstrate some of the strategies of serve location to the crowd.
7:50 pm: The contestant in the perfect serve contest misses the target, which was on the backline, by about 10 feet short to the left.
7:52 pm: The team gets ready for the Maroon and Gold Scrimmage with some warm-up drills.
8:00 pm: Lineups for the Maroon Team include: Taylor Carico, Ariana Filho, Megan Wilson in the front row, Hailey Cowles, Christine Tan (libero) and Brook Dieter in the backrow. Gold Team is Tabitha Love, Brianna Haugen, Mia Tabberson in the front row, Katherine Harms, Jess Menden and Jessica Granquist (libero) in the backrow.
8:02 pm: Maroon jumps out to a 5-0 lead behind a solo block and kill by Lauren Gibbemeyer. Tabitha Love gets the Gold team on the board with a kill.
8:05 pm: The Maroon team takes a 13-4 lead after a backrow kill by Dieter and a kill off a dump by Taylor Carico.
8:09 pm: Maroon takes a 17-9 lead on kill by Dieter after a nice rally, which featured several great defensive plays.
8:10 pm: The first timeout is called with Maroon leading 19-10.
8:15 pm: Maroon wins the first set 25-12 after a ballhandling error on the Gold side of the net.
8:20 pm: Starting for Maroon in the second set is Carico, Cowles, Dieter, Dittrich, Harms and Granquist, while Gold starts with Love, Wilson, Filho, Menden, Tabberson and Tan.
8:21 pm: Maroon starts off strong behind a pair of kills from freshmen middle blocker Jasmine Dittrich.
8:23 pm: Maroon calls the first timeout with a 9-5 lead after an attack error.
8:26 pm: Maroon takes a 14-8 lead after a Katherine Harms kill.
8:28 pm: Gold cuts it to 14-11 after consecutive kills by Filho and Wilson, and a Maroon attack error.
8:30 pm: After four straight Gold points made it 14-12, Dieter answered with back-to-back kills, followed by a Granquist service ace to make it 17-12.
8:31 pm: A timeout is called after Dieter delivers a kill to put Maroon up 19-13.
8:34 pm: Gold cuts the lead to 20-16 on a kill by Love.
8:37 pm: Dieter delivers a kill to give Maroon a 25-18 victory in the second set.
8:40 pm: Gold starts Love, Filho, Wilson in the front row, Tan, Carico and Menden in the backrow, while Maroon starts Cowles, Dittrich, Harms in the front row and Dieter, Tabberson and Granquist in the backrow in the the third set.
8:41 pm: Filho gets the Gold team off to a quick start with a pair of kills, while Harms answers with a kill to tie the set at 2-2.
8:43 pm: Maroon team takes its first lead of the set 6-5 on a kill on an overpass by Gibbemeyer.
8:45 pm: Cowles put the Maroon team up 9-7 on a crafty kill off the block.
8:47 pm: Dittrich and Dieter combine on a block to put Maroon ahead 13-9, but Love responds with a kill to make it 13-10.
8:48 pm: Timeout is called after Brianna Haugen delivers a kill to cut the Maroon lead to 14-11.
8:51 pm: Gibbemeyer and Cowles deliver consecutive kills, followed by a service ace by Dieter to give the Maroon team a 17-12 lead.
8:53 pm: Consecutive kills by Wilson help Gold cut the Maroon lead to 19-16.
8:55 pm: Wilson continues a strong third set with a kill to cut the Maroon lead to 21-18.
8:57 pm: Love cuts the lead to 22-20 on a kill on an overpass.
8:58 pm: Gold rallies to cut the lead to 24-23 on consecutive kills by Love.
8:59 pm: Maroon puts the set away on a kill by Dieter to win the third set 25-23. For the match, Maroon wins 3-0 by scores of 25-12, 25-19, 25-23.
9:00 pm: That completes a successful Volleyball 101 night in front of a crowd of about 500 fans. The team will line up for autographs for the fans. Stay tuned to gophersports.com for quotes on the match.
