UW Badger Volleyball 2009
My wife and I are season ticket holders, and I’ve been wanting to blog about the team, but I wanted get a better feel for the team.
There is a lot of new players this year, but I was surprised to see them missing Dykstra and Kingsporn. Nikki Klingsporn, for whatever reason, is now playing for Marquette. I don’t buy she transferred to a new school simply because she likes Marquette’s new coach. My guess is she transferred because she more or less lost her job to last year’s freshman, Janelle Gabrielson.
They have some really good young talent, and a lot of them are playing now. Kirby Toon and Alexis Mitchell have been getting a lot of starts, but they’re both very green. Kirby looks like she’s going to be a really good hitter, but she’s a little short and looks a little lost on the court. Alexis looks like more of a blocker, but at 6’1″, she’s also a little short.
One of the problems I see with this team is they don’t have any dominating blockers. Ohlander is the only one that has some significant height at 6’6″. She’s an excellent blocker and a decent enough hitter.
Brittney Dolgner has been the face of this team the last few years, and I guess I don’t quite understand why. There’s no doubt, she is an incredible hitter, but she is a major liability in the back row, and I don’t understand why they don’t rotate her out. Teams are serving right at her, and for the most part, it’s working. It’s not that she can’t receive, it’s that she can’t move her feet. It’s like she’s standing in mud.
My favorite player is easily Allison Wack. She’s arguably the best hitter on the the team, and most importantly, she rarely makes mistakes. She should be the face of this team. My only complaint is that Allison has an absolute killer jump serve, which she no longer does. Actually, nobody on the team jump serves anymore, which I’m guessing is a coaching decision.
Janelle Gabrielson is another one of my favorite players. She’s just a great all-around player. She’s a really good setter, a solid blocker, tough at the net, and is probably one of the better hitters on the team. If it were up to me, they’d be running more of a 6-2 so they could take advantage of Janelle’s hitting ability, and Jessa Benson’s setting ability. Jessa, at 6’2″, would also bring some height to the lineup. Waite played her a lot Friday night against Illinois, and only good things happened when she was in the lineup.
One player I like is Kelsey Maloney. She held a clipboard last season, so it’s been exciting to see her slowly getting into the lineup this year. She brings some height to the front row, and so far, she seems pretty mistake-free. I want to see more from this girl!
One last player I want to mention is Kelli Kasha. Kim Kuzma has been a great back-row defender, but she’s a senior, so who’s going to take over for her? As of right, my best guess would be Kelli Kasha. She had an incredible save in the back row last night against Northwestern.
Go Badgers!
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