Volleyball Voices

(video) UCLA Volleyball "Dishin With Dicey"-This Week Discusses Win Over Oregon, Presents Middle Blocker Mariana Aquino

(video) UCLA Volleyball "Dishin With Dicey"-This Week Dicey Discusses Win Over Oregon, Presents Middle Blocker Mariana Aquino

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LSU Volleyball Preview Part 4: Middle Blockers

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LSU Volleyball Preview Part 4: Middle Blockers
 
BATON ROUGE – LSU volleyball has racked up a 115-38 record to go along with the nation’s 11th best winning percentage and is one of only 20 programs nationally to collect five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances since 2005.
 
Under the direction of reigning SEC and AVCA South Coach of the Year Fran Flory, the Tigers took their championship tradition to the next level in 2009, not only claiming the program’s fifth straight SEC Western Division crown but LSU’s first overall SEC title since 1991.
 
The final piece of a four-part series previewing the upcoming season gives an in-depth look at what LSU fans can expect from the Tiger middle blockers this fall.
 
LSU has to fill voids left in the middle by two-time AVCA All-American and reigning SEC Player of the Year Brittnee Cooper along with Lauren DeGirolamo, another AVCA All-America honoree.
 
The cupboard isn’t completely bare, however, as the Tigers enter the season with a strong group of middle blockers who have varying degrees of experience.
 
Junior Michele Williams leads the way with the tools to be successful in all facets of the game. She powered home 244 kills and tacked on nine double-digit kill performances to rank third on the team. The unanimous pick to the 2008 SEC All-Freshman Team also posted 124 blocks and cranked 30 aces, second-most in both categories. Her 1.15 blocks per set were fifth-highest in the SEC.
 
Senior Tania Schatow appears ready to contribute either in the middle or on the outside after seeing spot duty during her first three seasons. She is a physical blocker that continues to build her game and has recorded 73 stuffs over her 104 sets of action.
 
Freshman Desiree Elliott has racked up multiple All-District and All-State accolades during her prep career at Cypress Woods High School in Texas. She also won a gold medal in addition to a pair of bronze medals at the Junior Olympics.
 
“Michele continued to play at a consistent level for us last year at middle blocker,” Flory said. “Heading into her junior season, I think she’s ready to step her game up another notch and take ownership of this team as an upperclassman. We also expect Tania and Desiree to contribute. Tania had a strong spring and might be one of most improved players on the roster, while Desi is a physical athlete that brings power, speed and explosiveness to our team. Her attributes fit directly into our system.”
 
LSU opens the 2010 season against Pacific, Siena and Texas A&M as part of the Texas A&M Invitational on Friday and Saturday. Season tickets for the defending SEC champions are on-sale now at www.lsutix.net starting at $40 for adults and $25 for youth ages 3-12.
 
For all of the latest information on Tiger volleyball, log on to http://www.lsusports.net/volleyball, follow the program's twitter page at http://twitter.com/lsuvolleyball and check out the team's official blog at http://lsuvolleyball.posterous.com.
 

Freshman Middle Blocker Sam Serley Leads #3 Washington Volleyball Women Win Against Roadrunners

Freshman Middle Blocker Sam Serley Leads #3 Washington Volleyball Women Win Against Roadrunners

UAB plays UALR Friday afternoon in first match of Tiger Invitational

 

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Freshman middle blocker Sam Serley managed a career-high 19 kills Thursday night, and the UAB volleyball team overcame a two-set deficit at Memphis to post a 3-2 (22-25, 16-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-10) victory in its Conference USA opener.

 

Serley, a product of Thompson’s Station, Tenn., hit for a .452 percentage as she helped the Blazers improve to 6-5 overall (1-0 C-USA), while Memphis dropped to 2-9 overall (0-1 C-USA). Fellow Nashville-area product Alison Woods recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 47 assists and 12 digs.

 

UAB will remain in Memphis the next two days to play in the Tiger Invitational. The Blazers return to the court Friday at 4:30 p.m. against UALR and will play twice Saturday, facing New Orleans at 10 a.m. and Samford at 4:30 p.m.

 

In Thursday’s victory, UAB managed to come from behind despite being out-hit, .211 to .165, and out-dug, 84-68.

 

Three Memphis players finished with double-digit kill totals, led by Altrese Hawkins with 14. Tiger setter Christine Bach handed out 51 assists, while Becky Shaffer and Lauren Thompson each reached the 20-dig mark with 27 and 20, respectively.

 

The Blazer middles were the biggest reason for Thursday’s win. In addition to Serley’s performance, fellow middle blocker Michelle Uzoh hit for a .545 percentage, while posting a match-best six blocks in just three sets of work.

 

After taking the fourth set to even the match, UAB never trailed in the decisive fifth frame. The Blazers jumped out to a 7-3 advantage, and, although Memphis cut the lead to one at 7-6, UAB did not surrender its edge. Holding onto a two-point advantage at 12-10, the Blazers earned a match point after an Andrea Lalic kill and a solo block from Uzoh. The pair then combined on one final block to close out the contest.

 

Lalic finished as the second UAB player in double-figure kills with 12, while Savannah Pegg and Jordan McDonald added seven each. Libero Heather Thomas led UAB defensively with 26 digs, falling two short of a career-high.

 

Lalic also added five blocks as UAB out-blocked its ninth opponent in 11 matches this season. The Blazers finished with nine blocks to eight for Memphis.

Happy Birthday volleyball captain Lauren Townsend

A gift from volleyball captain Lauren Townsend born on January 17, 1981 to April 20, 1999

Lauren’s mother and older sisters were volleyball coaches and players respectively and it was natural for Lauren to follow in their footsteps. As her older siblings explain on the Denver foundation website:
“Through volleyball she learned to be a leader, a team player, and a disciplined worker as well as knowledge and skill in the sport itself. She played for three years on the varsity team (lettering two of those) and was named co-captain of the team her senior season as well as being selected 2nd Team All-Conference.

About the Lauren Townsend Memorial Wildlife Fund (as published on the Denver Foundation website)

Lauren Townsend was a gentle spirit who wanted to be the best person she could be, not only to herself and the people she loved, but to all those she encountered as well. She was extremely bright and curious about the world around her. Through sports, she was able to use her qualities of leadership, teamwork, and discipline yet these were only a few of the attributes she possessed. Her smile was infectious and was an outward sign of a beautiful, fun-loving soul.

Lauren was a valedictorian of the class of 1999 at Columbine High School, an honor she received posthumously after her death. Lauren was one of thirteen murdered at Columbine on April 20, 1999. The Fund was established by her family to honor her love for learning and animals.

The Fund awards grants to nonprofit organizations nationwide that focus on animal welfare or wildlife preservation.

To donate to the Lauren Townsend Memorial Wildlife Foundation, click here to go to the donation page. To learn more about Lauren Townsend , click here to read remembrances from her family and friends.

Volleyball Voices interviews UNLV's Lauren Miramontes, MWC's Player of the Week

Lauren Miramontes 10/7/07

UNLV senior middle blocker Lauren Miramontes has been named the Mountain West Conference’s Volleyball Player of the Week for the second time in her career. The honor is the second for a Rebel during the season, as Maria Aladjova was recognized on Sept. 17.

Miramontes, an Upland, Calif., native, helped the Rebels back into a tie for second-place in the league standings with sweeps of Wyoming and Air Force last week. Against Wyoming, she tallied 11 kills in 19 attempts with only one error for a .526 hitting efficiency. Miramontes also had three digs and five total blocks. In the win over Air Force, she turned in a hitting percentage of .684 (13-0-19), which is her career-best in matches where she has 10 or more attempts, while collecting four total blocks and three digs.

For the week, Miramontes averaged 4.00 kills, 1.50 blocks, 1.00 digs and 4.92 points per game, while hitting .605 in six games played. She also had just one hitting error in 38 total attempts.

Miramontes’ first MWC Player of the Week came on Oct. 23, 2005.

On the year, she leads the team in total blocks (62), solo blocks (17) and assisted blocks (45). She is second on the team in kills (231), kills-per-game (4.05) and hitting (.276).

I interviewed Lauren for Las Vegas Sports magazine immediately after the win against the Air Force Academy...

AC: First, where do you get your confidence to play your games and how do you give confidence to your teammates?

LM: That’s a good question. I think that now that I’m a fifth year senior, everything is familiar for me. I can come out here and do what I need to do and know that everyone is looking to me as that leader-the person with the experience, so right now it’s kind of natural for me, but it took a long time to build that confidence up. I know that I need to have that confidence and I need to show it and be able to pass it on to everybody else because we have a lot of young girls coming out on the court.
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AC: What do you do in particular to pass that confidence on to them…talking to them, telling them specific instructions…what do you do?

LM: Anyone will tell you that I’m not the most vocal person on the court…(laughter) but I think a lot of my actions and alot of little things I do helps them, like reassuring players, giving them instruction or reminding them of what they need to do…just little things to kind of calm them down, calm their nerves when the game gets a little tight…in addition to showing them by example.

AC: As a middle blocker-name two things you always try to remember to do when hitting from the middle position.

LM: Two things….no matter what, I have to get up (be up in the air for the middle set) because even if I’m not set the ball-I am holding the other team's middle blocker with me, so someone else getting the ball only has to hit against one blocker…so I think that has been where my focus has been all year…even if I’m getting two blockers up on me because they know already that I’m going to get a lot of balls since I’m one of the older girls getting more sets then that’s fine. If two girls jump with me, then that means our outside hitters only have one person up so I’m helping out.

Also being really loud calling the ball so my setter can hear me. I try to remember to talk and communicate on the court.

AC: Describe a day in the life of a UNLV middle blocker.

LM: Twice a week we get up early to work out. We have workouts at 7:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays. Weightlifting is done in the morning and during season we don’t do a lot of running because we get a lot of conditioning done in practice.

Usually on Thursdays we travel or play, so getting up early, working out is good it gets the body moving. We practice in the early afternoon.

I’m lucky this year I only have online classes so I get to go home, do homework, then I have afternoon practice. This year’s schedule is the result of being a fifth year senior, I’ve already taken a lot of requirements.

AC: So your day is pretty much done by…

LM: ...early evening.

AC: Which new television comedy show best describes your freshman year?

a) Unhitched

b) Miss/Guided

c) Aliens in America

d) Curb Your Enthusiasm

LM: Maybe Miss/Guided…it’s kind of hard to say because my freshman year I actually got hurt early in the year so I was kind of in this crazy world, but, at the same time I knew I was going to medical redshirt because I got hurt so early in the season. My season wasn’t that stressful because I knew I wasn’t going to play. It took pressure off me to be able to develop at my own pace because the coach couldn’t put me on the court since I was hurt. It was a little hard because you feel alienated when you are injured, when you come in and already know you are going to redshirt. You are on your own doing your own workouts, so it feels a little hard to feel like a part of the team because you don’t travel and when they are practicing you are on the sidelines doing ball workouts.

AC: So how long did it take you to feel like you worked your way back into the team environment?

LM: Well in my sophomore year we lost a lot of girls, to graduation and such, so since we pretty much had only two middles I ended up as a starter right away…I didn’t have a choice to take my time I was kind of thrown in there but I liked that. It forced me to get ready and to play hard.

AC: Name the players who have influenced how you play.

LM: Definitely my sister, Robin Miramontes, she just got done playing at Long Beach. She has always been an inspiration to me because she is always involved in so many different things and she’s able to focus on all of them and to do them very well.

My freshman year there was Shayla Ocaso-Clemente, she’s from Puerto Rico and she came in and dominated. She was a middleblocker too, and she took me in as freshman, she was a senior. She was nice and back then there were a lot of older girl-younger girl cliqués which we don’t have now, so that made it kind of hard but she was the middle man making us all friends.

I’ve never really had any favorite players that played on the National team or played professionally…

AC: What does it take to be a team leader or captain?

LM: It’s a two-sided thing. You have to be a friend to your teammates but at the same time know when not to be. When they need that support or encouragement you give it to them, when they need to step it up or put out more effort you need to be the first one to tell them that, before the coach does. To avoid them getting down on themselves if the coach is on them a leader needs to step in before that happens…The big thing this year is that we have a lot of freshmen who have the potential to help us on the court, which we haven’t had in the past. Since all the seniors are captains we are all really good with talking and encouraging them and relaying that they need to come in the way we come in to practice, focused and ready to go because they could go on the court at any time.

AC: Last question so what’re your plans after the season?

LM: It’s up in the air right now I was thinking about going overseas and playing, possibly in January since there’s a tour…but I want to see how my body is. My major is hotel administration so I like the idea of marketing, working in a lot of events especially women’s sports events that attract a lot of kids….

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