Crazy weekend!

Wow, another crazy weekend for the Bears! We ended up escaping with two important wins against Weber and Idaho State...

The Weber match was not terribly pretty. Our girls came out fairly strong, but then kind of fell into a lapse. Weber capitalized on it to take the first set. After that, I think our girls were a little upset and decided it was time to play. We finished the match out in four against a young Weber State team. They were playing almost all freshman and sophomores, so we expect them to improve a lot by the next time we see them at our place.

The Idaho State match was crazy. They have had an excellent pre-season with some very good wins. Both teams came out swinging and it was close most of the first game. Then, Idaho State took advantage of a few of our errors to beat us. Then, in game two, we came out strong to take a 5-1 lead...only to watch Idaho State creep back into the game and tie it at 16. Again, they took care of the ball better than we did to go up two games to none. During break, Coach Benson really challenged the team to step up to the challenge. Idaho State is a very solid team and we fully expect them to be in the conference tournament this year. Our girls came out on fire. This time, we took advantage of their mistakes to take both games three and four. Game five was back and forth until it was 11-11. Then, with the help of some great defense and the offensive play of Ashley, we pulled out the win. The crowd fell silent as Ashley and Natalie blocked the final ball.

One of the best parts of the Weber/Idaho State trip is the food. About five years ago, one of our assistants (Paul Richardson) found a small restaurant called Lee's Mongolia BBQ. We go there every year. Our travel roster included four girls who had never been before so it was quite the adventure. I took a couple of short videos on my phone so I could put them up on the blog.


Next up is Sacramento State here in Butler Hancock Sports Pavilion. We are excited to be home after a couple of weeks on the road. We are hoping to have a great crowd out some come check us out!

Wyoming Weekend

Well, it didn't finish as we would have hoped, but it was still a good weekend. We were up in Wyoming this past weekend. We played two solid programs and came away with wins, but lost to host Wyoming Saturday afternoon.

It started as a nice and convenient bus trip up highway 85. As we got to Laramie we practiced for a little while in their gym. Some of the girls, especially the middle blockers, noticed the additional 2,000+ feet of elevation. After practice we headed over to a local chain restaurant. We were told that it would be a little wait to get us in...45 minutes later (and they seated several mid-sized parties) we left vowing not to return. Instead we headed to McAlisters. They were awesome.

The first two matches went really well. We controlled the match pretty well, only allowing a couple runs of points. We beat Texas-Arlington on Friday afternoon, then beat Portland on Saturday morning. Both of which were good wins for us. Then we came up against Wyoming on Saturday afternoon. They played really well against us and we did not have much of a response. I guess that happens from time to time. That is ok though. They are a solid team that I think is going to surprise some people in their conference.

I have attached a short video from this weekend. This took place in the tunnel leading out to the gym floor. The girls made a little tunnel for the coaches to run through. Luckily, I caught Jenny running through it as they all sang for her. Our girls are so goofy! I love it.

We are headed to Utah and Idaho this weekend. We are playing Weber State on Friday night, and Idaho State on Saturday night. Both teams have some great talent and always play very tough on their home floor. We are looking forward to the trip. I am sure our girls will rise to the challenge!

Still on a roll!

It has been a good week to be a Bear! Since the last time I updated the blog we beat UMKC, South Dakota, Fairfield, and Georgia. We won our home tournament last weekend! It was pretty great to do that in front of our home crowd.

The Georgia match specifically was amazing...even epic. We won game one by a couple of points before falling in a disappointing game two. Game three was crazy. We ended up running out of subs at 24-24. Jill Dawson, one of our defensive and serving specialists subbed in for our middle, Ashley Lichtenberg. Jill scored a crucial point, but then Georgia sided-out. We went back and forth with them for what seemed forever...until we realized that we were out of subs and Jill was going to have to play front row! Jill played outside hitter, and the others around her just filled in wherever we could. Julie played middle for a rotation, as did Bre W. It was nuts! Then, Jill went back to the back row, and we won the match before she got back to the front...38-36. It was intense. We ended up winning game five 15-11. Crazy match.

Last night we played Denver. We have had a really tough time with them the past few years, but this time we took care of our business and beat them in three. For all of our girls, it was the first time we have beat them in the fall, so that was great.

We leave tomorrow for Wyoming. We will be playing Texas-Arlington on Friday, and Portland and Wyoming on Saturday. This is going to be a tough weekend! I think our girls are up to the challenge though. I guess we will have to wait and see. Should be fun though.

Go Bears!

We beat Air Force

On Tuesday night we opened with our first home match of the year. Air Force came up to play us. If you read the article, you will know that we started a little slow. I think there may have been some nerves involved because of having our home crowd there. On one side, there is an unsaid pressure to live up to last year's successes. On the other side, we have a whole new team with a very different personality than last year. I think it is going to take a few matches here and there to work through all the little stuff and for this team to fully define itself.

As the match progressed things got much better. We started finding the flow and attacking them. Much more fun on the bench when the girls step up to the challenge! This may be one of the most competitive group of girls we have ever had... When the competitive edge comes out on the floor, watch out!

Our next round of matches are this weekend. We play UMKC tomorrow afternoon at 2, then South Dakota at 7pm. On Saturday we play Fairfield at 9am (wow...early), then Georgia at 8pm (wow...late). It will be fun because we may actually be able to attend our home football game between the matches!

Go Bears!!