April 14, 2007

University of Dayton head volleyball coach Tim Horsmon reflects upon the Flyers' progress at the midpoint of their Spring season. UD will play in three tournaments in the next three weeks including the 2007 Great Lakes Center NCAA Spring Invitational on Saturday. Dayton begins in pool play against Notre Dame, Virginia and Western Michigan.

What did you plan to accomplish when the Spring season began?

We have been working on improving on all aspects of how we play but attacking and blocking is a focus that we wanted to address the Spring. We are also spending a great deal of time working on our chemistry and developing players who we think need to make plays at the end of big games and matches. Another priority has been to work on developing our middles and put them in a position where we are going to be able to transition into next year as smoothly as possible.

The team enters this Spring season after finishing short of its goal of the A-10 Championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament last season. Has that changed anything in the attitude or work ethic of the players and staff?

No I don't think our attitude has changed this Spring. We are of course disappointed in not finishing the way that we would have hoped. We have a vision to be one of the elite programs in the country and train to that goal each and every day. We need to be more consistent in how we come to into the gym and weight room. Our goal to win our Conference hasn't changed nor will it. We will never be happy unless we are moving our program forward and growing. Now we have to clean some things up and show the maturity needed in a program to take this to the next level. This is an opportunity for to assess where we are in our mission to build the best volleyball program that we can here. There are many things looking back that we have identified as weaknesses that need to be improved for us to move on. We are excited about our Spring to this point and look forward to seeing how our players respond to our training and the things we have been working on the past few months. We have business to take care of this Spring and Summer and I am a firm believer that Championships are won in the off-season and I believe our players know we are going to have put in the time and energy to make the strides that we are capable of making now.

With the loss of one of the best players in school history in Faye Barhorst, how has the team responded to fill the void left by her on the front line?

Faye Barhorst was a great player here at the University of Dayton and I think accomplished the goal that she came here with. Faye wanted to help make the Flyer program nationally recognized and win Championships and she did exactly that. You don't lose Players of the year and All-Americans without taking a hit to some degree. I think players like Faye, Christy Utnage, and Erin Treadway helped take us to another level. That level doesn't drop if you are capitalizing on the success of the program and how these players elevated it. The players around Faye improved because of her level and each year if you are moving forward you have the opportunity to recruit better players. You really begin to have a snowball effect. Success does breed success!

Nobody will replace Faye and the numbers she put up the last two years. We would like ideally to have each player take on a bit of that load without asking only one or two players to fill that void. Our middle have done a nice job this Spring and I think Flyer fans are going to look forward to seeing redshirt freshman Lindsay Fletemier play for the first time.

Last Spring Erin Schroeder used the time to develop herself into the team's starting setter. Are there players that you expect to be working their way into new roles this Spring?

We lose one of the most dominant players this conference has seen but I think that many people have underestimated the players we have returning and the experience they have as a group. We add to a team that had a pretty solid year a healthy Kortney Norris and as I mentioned a 6-6 Lindsay Fletemier will be a force nationally before she is done here. Add to this our most talented incoming group of incoming freshman since my arrival and we have the ingredients for another great season. These freshman coming in are highly regarded and will be competing for time come next Fall.

I am also very excited about the progress that our team is making in the weight room with Mark Thobe and you can see the commitment made there. Our players are really working hard here and you can see the impact it's made in how they are playing volleyball.