First weekend of Spring Volleyball

Spring season is here and we had the opportunity to host a total of 16 teams here on campus last Saturday. They gym was full and alive as people from all over the state (and a couple surrounding states) came to watch some great early-spring volleyball.

We actually split our team into two even teams. Both teams played well all day with only one loss apiece. They ended up playing each other in the play-offs. It was such a different feeling than when we play each other in practice. With the refs and fans, there was so much energy and excitement that we just can't replicate in our day-to-day practices. It was a tight match that ended up going three games. In all, we were very pleased with where we are at this point in the season.

Many people have asked us if we think that this next season is going to be a "rebuilding" year. With losing four seniors that were impact players, I can see how people can think that. The reality...at least in our minds...is that we are going to have another great season in 2010. Yes, we did lose some very key athletes, but we also feel that we have some great athletes coming up and ready to take their turn in the spotlight. We may be a bit younger next year, but all signs point to us making another run to the top! We hope you stay tuned...it is a great time to be a BEAR!

NCAA Round One

These are some highlights of our first ever NCAA DI appearance. We were seeded against the #6 ranked Washington Huskies. We played this match in Fort Collins, which was great because all of our fans could come to watch it. Also, the fans for the CSU Rams (who played right after us) cheered us on. We ended up winning the first game, and stayed close for the last three. It was a great showing for the Bears and the standing ovation at the end of the match showed the crowd's appreciation.

Big Sky Conference Championship Highlights

Here are some of the highlights from the championship match against Portland State. We ended up winning in four, but it never really felt like we weren't in control of the match...

Semi-final Highlights

I haven't put our highlights up from our end-of-the-season run from last year yet... As a staff we were talking about the end of the season and how much fun it was. I decided to watch our highlight film and I got all fired up. Figured you might like to see some of it. I broke it into three segments because it was too big to post at one time. This is the Semi-Final match vs Eastern Washington. We ended up winning it in five games, 15-13. It was a great match! Enjoy some of the highlights.

Mascot Challenge

So...I found this extra footage...it was at the end of the Day of Dance footage (Angela, our volunteer assistant took the footage). At the end of the Day of Dance, they had a Mascot dance-off. Three of our girls volunteered to dress up in the costumes and put on a show for the audience. When I saw this, I almost fell out of my chair. It is days like these that I really love my job....

Day of Dance

On February 27th our team headed out to the Family Fun Plex here in Greeley in order to participate in the Day of Dance. Dance is a great way for people of all ages to get some physical activity in their lives...plus, it is a lot of fun. Here is a short video that shows our team involved in some of the activities.

Conditioning?

Last Friday the girls were getting ready for our normal condtioning... Joe Schaffer (our head strength and conditioning coach) showed up with Taylor (one of our former players) and a football. Our girls amost did flips! They were so excited that #1) they weren't going to have to run staduims, and #2) that there was going to be a game involved. We ended up playing ultimate frisbee, but with the football. Our girls get super competitive in those situations. They were diving around, crashing into each other, and falling all over the place. All the while, the field still had quite a bit of snow on it and was covered in mud. I took a few pictures, but they don't do it justice. It was a really fun time. Just don't tell the girls that they also got a great workout!