University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Spotlight: Katherine Harms
9/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 26, 2011
Junior outside hitter Katherine Harms has played in 32 sets and holds 77 kills this season. A native of Albertville, Minn., Harms held a career-high night of 17 kills against then-No. 4 ranked Texas. Here's a short question and answer session with her.
Q: How was your summer?
A: It was good! I stayed on campus a lot, worked out, spent a lot of time with the team and just getting better at volleyball and getting in shape for the season. It was definitely a good summer.
Q: What did you spend your free time doing this summer and now?
A: Free time? We don't get a lot of that so I don't know. Honestly we just hang out as a team whether it's just going to the beach, going to a movie. There's kind of just not really a time when we're not together as a team.
Q: School's now back in session. Are you happy to be back in the classroom?
A: Surprisingly yes. Summer is a lot of fun having a lot of free time, than we normally do, but it's nice to get back in the swing of things. You know when school starts Big Ten season is going to start and that's always the highlight of the year.
Q: Speaking of the swing on things, in early September you took on No. 4 Texas and you had a career high 17 kills. How were you able to go off that night?
A: A lot of it had to have come from my team. My team was passing really well and Mia was setting really well. The middles were doing their job holding the blockers and the same thing as the outside so everybody was on their game. It enabled to let me have a really good night.
Q: What kind of boost does a back-to-back swim over a top five team do for your team confidence?
A: It definitely gives us a lot of confidence because one win people might be saying it's a fluke. They (Texas) just had an off night, but two wins kind of puts it in our heads. We have the potential to be a great team and it'll give us a little target on our back but what's better than someone coming after you. We still need to keep improving each week, but it definitely showed us that we can contend with teams.
Q: Do you go into every game not feeling like the underdog?
A: The goal is we want to go in playing the best volleyball we can possibly play and however that starts the game for us, that is how it's going to be. Whether we're going in as the lower ranked team or the only ranked team we need to play our best regardless of who we're playing.
Q: What are you most excited for this season?
A: I'm really excited to play at Nebraska and have Nebraska come here. It'll be a new experience. It's also the match in Williams.
Q: What does Nebraska brings to the conference?
A: You know they are a good team and it's going to bring more competition. We have great competition in the Big Ten already but I think Nebraska adds another level. They have a really competitive place to play. Not many people like to play there because they have insane fans. I think it's going to be a nice extra little push for the end of the season.
Q: You've been a part of the team for a while, how are things since the coaching change?
A: I think the team is doing great. The coaches understand us really well and we have a good relationship working with them. We definitely know throughout the team that's it's not a rebuilding year it's a year that we're still going to do just as well as we have in the past.
