Colorado State University Athletics
CSU volleyball opens season with media, booster dinner
8/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Aug. 17, 2011
By Nic Hallisey
Athletic Media Relations
FORT COLLINS, Colo.--Head Coach Tom Hilbert gave volleyball boosters and members of the local media a sneak peak of the 2011 program on Wednesday night at the annual media and booster dinner.
Wednesday's afternoon practice was open to booster members, and upon completion of the drills and training, the event moved to the Moby Arena Hall of Fame room where dinner was served and Hilbert addressed the 90-person audience in attendance.
Players ate and chatted with fans at their tables while Hilbert introduced the team and discussed the upcoming season.
It's been a big week for CSU volleyball, which on Monday was tabbed as the No. 15 team in AVCA's preseason coaches poll, and on Tuesday was selected to win the Mountain West title for a third consecutive year.
Hilbert noted there is a lot of youth to this year's squad, and that several position battles are still up in the air, but that there is plenty of optimism heading into the Head Coach's 15th season in Fort Collins.
Returning for the Rams are a couple key factors from the 2010 CSU team that went 26-5, winning the MW and advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Most notable is the MW Preseason Player of the Year, Megan Plourde. The junior middle blocker ranked second in the nation in blocks in 2010 and was an All-America honorable mention.
Additionally, the Rams bring back their lone senior, Katelyn Steffan, and juniors Izzy Gaulia, the team's libero, and Brieon Paige, a middle blocker. Fans can also expect to see more out of redshirt sophomores Tori Brummett, Samantha Peters and Michelle Smith and redshirt freshmen Kelsey Snider and Marlee Reynolds. The tightest position battle is at setter, between two redshirt freshmen, Deedra Foss and Katie Rutherford.
Kaila Thomas, an incoming freshman who was named to Volleyball magazine's Fab 50 list is joined by a trio of walk-on freshmen, Kaitlind Bestgen, Brittany Bunch and Carlie Foust.
The 2011 season begins next week, with the Rams taking on Arkansas on Aug. 26 in the Arkansas Invitational.
Transcript from Coach Hilbert:
Opening statement: First of all, everybody, thank you for coming. We're very excited about this event every year. It shows the support we have in this town for volleyball. There are still some decisions to be made on this team. We have some great returning veteran players on this team, particularly our returning starters in Brieon Paige, Meg Plourde, Kate Steffan, Dana Cranston. Those kids are, most likely, in the starting lineup.
On position battles: Deedra and Katie are doing a very nice job, and they're in a tight battle right now for setter. Each of them do certain things well. We're trying to develop good tempo in our offense, and they're getting better at that and becoming more consistent at that.
In the opposite spot, there is a battle for that spot as well. Kaila Thomas, Tori Brummett and Kelsey Snider, these three girls, are all taking swings in that opposite spot. Kaila and Tori are also taking swings from the left side, as is Kelsey.
Our middle blockers, Brieon Paige and Meg Plourde, are returning starters. Meg is MW Preseason Player of the Year. We also have Sam Peters and Tori Brummett, who are both also very good. Middle is our deepest spot for us, and I really feel strongly that whoever we put out there on the court is going to be good.
Kate Steffan is our lone senior. She'll be our captain, and we have nicknamed her the President. The other juniors are Congress. But our President and Congress get along better than the ones in Washington do.
Then we have five defensive players. This is exciting, because there's a lot of talent in this group. We have Brittany Bunch, who is from Denver; from Rocky Mountain High School we have Kaitlind Bestgen; from Amarillo, Texas, Carlie Foust. Of course, we also have Izzy Gaulia, who's been with us for three years, and Michelle Smith, who is also in her third season. We have a lot of talent with this group, and a lot of special things can be done here.
On what he likes and doesn't like: I've seen some things I really like. We remain a very good blocking team. We're better defensively than I expected us to be, honestly. It's not just our defensive players, but all of our returners. We're going to need a lot of work in terms of setter-connection and tempo. They're doing a nice job getting the ball to the middles, but there are certain attacks, like our slide attack, that we need to continue to work on. We want our outside attacking to be faster than it's been; we're working on getting that consistent. Serve-receive is sometimes really good, and sometimes not so good. We need to develop some consistency there as well.
On the first week of competition: This year's schedule is going to be extremely difficult, considering the spot in the learning curve we are. We're going to hit the court in about a week. We're on the road in Fayetteville, Ark. Arkansas is a good team, and also in that bunch is Middle Tennessee State, which is probably one of the most difficult teams in the United States to prepare for. You may remember them playing here two years ago. They're an extremely fast team, and one that I've had nightmares about already these past couple weeks. McNeese State is also in that tournament, and they're not too shabby; they do well in the Southland conference every year.
On the Nebraska match: From Fayetteville, Ark., we go to Norman, Okla., for a Monday night match against the Sooners. Then we come home and have a day off, two days of practice and play the Nebraska Cornhuskers at home on Sept. 2. Obviously there's a lot of hype surrounding that match. I'm very excited because they're a great team. They're ranked preseason No. 5 in the nation and they have some Colorado players on their team. We feel like, at home, we have a chance against anybody, including them. They're a big, physical, athletic team, but they have some interesting holes to fill in their roster, too. I expect that to be a good, competitive match, and I expect it to be a well-attended match. We've gotten a lot of interest, a lot of advanced ticket sales and we expect the students to flock in for that match like they did against Duke last year. Not to mention that we've already had a great deal of interest from the Coloradans For Nebraska alumni group. Nebraska tends to travel a lot of people to their away games, and this should be no different. We expect to set another attendance record. We set a conference attendance record with 6,333 fans last year against Duke, and we expect to surpass that.
The next night we play Albany, who was an NCAA tournament team last year. The following weekend we'll host a tournament with Wichita State, who was in the tournament last year, Northern Colorado, who barely missed it and was picked to win the Big Sky, and a team called Nova KBM Maribor, which is a foreign touring team from Slovenia. They also have some Serbian players on their team, and they also have a player from Colorado.
On conference play: The following week we only have one match, at DU, and then we start up conference play. We were picked to win the conference, but I think the conference race is going to be difficult. We played New Mexico in the spring, and they beat us. It was close, but they did beat us. They're a competitive team. San Diego State is going to be very good. TCU is always a challenge for us. UNLV has a new coach and Wyoming has signed some good players. With this conference, you never know. Every game will be a battle, especially on the road. This is a year where this could be a one-team league unless some of these teams get some really big wins in the preseason. We need some big wins in the preseason, or we need to win the MW tournament. They're bringing it back for one year, and that will be played the weekend before Thanksgiving.
It's going to be an exciting season. We have a lot of growing to do, but we hope and expect to be playing our best at the time of the MW tournament. Those will be the most important matches of the year for us.
On who will be the starting setter: I'm going to have an idea of the roles they will play by Monday. I think that it's pretty even. I will tell you that Deedra has some consistency in some of her outside hitting and out-of-system setting, and I think that Katie is very good at certain tempo things, especially with middles and slides. We're going to have to get both of them better in areas they're not great in, and then we're going to use and leverage our strengths.
On using two setters: Yes, it can work. What I want to do is to find their roles. I don't want it to be a deal where they're constantly looking over their shoulder wondering if they're going to get yanked after every mistake, because that's uncomfortable. Katie is 6-2. If Katie is not on the court and we need blocking, she's going to play. If we're in a situation where we need passing, we may need Deedra. There are lots of situations of how and where we can use each of them, and we're fortunate to have two setters that are as talented as they are.
On Megan Plourde: Megan is an extremely consistent player and a low-error player. She is a very smart blocker. Last year she was second in the nation in blocking. I credit that to Megan and I credit that to Jesse (Mahoney). We focus on blocking a lot, and Jesse is a great blocking coach, and has done nice things with her. Megan's consistency is good, and Megan has a switch. She can kind of be cruising along if we're winning, and then all of a sudden we need her and that switch turns on. Anyone who was at the Cal State Fullerton match last year saw that. I'm not saying that in a negative way; she knows when to be good, and she can be very, very good.
I don't think it's fair to say that she can carry the team, because generally middles don't carry a team. But if we're passing well, doing good things, Megan will draw attention and open up things for other players. She's a great player, she's been a great player for two years and she will continue to be one.
On having a different approach with a young team: First of all, this team's not really young, they're just inexperienced. But, yes, I have to be more patient. I have to understand where we are in our growth period. I have to have a longer fuse. Will I? I don't know. But I have to. I need to be patient and understand that we need to be our best in October and November. That means we may have a different lineup then compared to out of the gates. As a coach, you have to be patient. We don't have the same kind of terminal hitting that Danielle Minch brought us, but we don't have to have that. We just need to play the game of volleyball well, and I need to understand that we have a lot of growing to do.
On being ranked No. 15 in the preseason poll: No. 15 in the country . . . Who votes people higher when they lose four starters? I'm proud that we get that attention. But it's a preseason ranking. It means nothing. Talk to me after the first two weeks of competition and there will be a much better picture of how good we are. Right now that's strictly a media thing. It doesn't mean much to me until we go out and prove it.
On substituting more because of increased depth: I've said this before and it didn't come true, but I think we have more depth, more confidence than we've had in a long time, and we can put different combinations out there to do different things. We have a lot of players that can do good things. At times, it'll depend on who's hot.
