April 26, 2006

The UD volleyball team completed another grueling spring season that saw the Flyers play in four competitive tournaments in hopes of improving the team heading into the fall schedule. At the end of the spring, UD Head Coach Tim Horsmon sat down to talk about his thoughts on Flyer volleyball.

How did the team finish up at the Great Lakes Invite last weekend? Were you pleased with the performance? What were the highlights?

Our last tournament in Chicago featured the some of the best teams in the country. Overall I felt that we could have played better as a team this past weekend. We were really hoping for a couple of players to step up individually and to play better as a team as well. We weren't disciplined in how we played this weekend making too many mental errors throughout the day. Our goal was to play well enough early to get a chance to play some of the elite teams in the country and to see how we would stack up. However, it should motivate us to improve upon our consistency and especially our defense heading into the fall.

How would you rate the play of the team overall this spring? Was it better than expected?

I think we worked on some things that are really going to make us better. As a team, we were able to get after it this spring. We haven't had this number of returners and starters back since our first year here and that really helps. We treated this more as a Championship season rather than a spring season and I think our competitiveness improved from this. Overall I think it was a good spring and I think as a coaching staff we were really able to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses transitioning into next fall.

Erin Schroeder stepped into the setter's role this spring. How would you rate her play? Is she the leading candidate to take over this fall at setter?

Both setters grew this spring and I think we will be in a good place at the beginning the season with continued hard work from Erin, Lauren Markowski and of course our incoming freshman setter Sara Meineke. I like what Coach Tami Ores has done in working with Erin and Lauren. We are not there yet but I don't foresee us worrying too much about the setter position next season. It also really benefited our setters to see how Nic (Nicole Schott) competed every day and pushed this team. To answer your question about Erin and next Fall, if we started the season today Erin would have an edge in leading our team on August 25th but again we will see what happens this Summer with their games and how hard they work in the weight room. We will also evaluate during our preseason and go from there.

Chauntay Mickens was a pleasant surprise this spring. What was the reason for her success? How will she fit into the mix next season?

Chauntay could be a great asset to our program and I really believe that we benefited from her red shirting this year. Chauntay's value lies in her attacking and blocking but she really needs to work hard this summer. Chauntay needs to be ready for next season and put us in a position where she is going to help us win matches. We really missed Kortney Norris this spring with her surgery but this also afforded us the opportunity to evaluate Chauntay and put a lot of work into her as well. Chauntay must become a blue collar worker and invest herself in to our program and her summer conditioning and play the next three months.

After the spring schedule what would your rate as the strengths of the team heading into the fall?

In returning two All-Conference middles and a libero, we feel really strong in these positions. Robynne Green needs to get stronger this summer and Adrienne Green needs to work on getting quicker and spend countless hours serve receiving but they will work on this. Faye Barhorst will get a great chance to continue to play while training with the A2 team which will give her a great experience!

We were really young in the outside hitter and setter positions this spring. Bethany Akerhielm had a solid spring being thrown into the fire changing positions and playing six rotations. Bethany needs just to play as much as she can and work on her game. In particular Bethany needs to spend time on serve receive and attacking the ball and learning how to score points. Bethany will also benefit from going a foreign tour this summer traveling to Argentina to play for a couple of weeks gaining invaluable experience.

Jamie-Lee Richards needs to work on her consistency attacking the ball. She can be a real force at the net but still makes too many mistakes at times. I really believe Jamie could be an All-Conference left side hitter with a great summer. The more consistent and mentally Jamie gets the better she will be.

Mandy Robbe will also benefit from another summer in the weight room getting stronger and more explosive. Mandy gives us another solid defender and outside hitter who changes our look offensively and defensively. Mandy will continue to get better the more experience she gets playing at this speed.

Overall I think we improved our blocking and serving to a degree. We are not where we need to be on the defensive side of the ball and still not serve receiving the ball well enough to take down the better teams in the Country. Our left side positions are really up in the air and we may have not made the progress that we needed to there. You have to have great left side play to win big. You win with great defense, serve receive and point scorers that make solid decisions and we still need to sure these areas up.

How would you rate the program as a whole right now? Is another Championship in sight?

We have a great group of players in the program right now but we need to take the next step to compete with the teams on the schedule that we have committed to play. We are not there right now, the summer will really be important for our players and program I think. We need to fill a couple of holes and work hard in the next three months to be ready to take another run at the A-10 and take a step forward in the NCAA tournament.