Broadcaster Press 03 August 19, 2014 www.broadcasteronline.com USD volleyball: Coyotes' continue to build toward success By Alan Dale alan.dale@plaintalk.net As the first week of volleyball practice at the University of South Dakota reaches it apex, Coyote first-year head coach Leanne Williamson should give herself a hand. Or better yet, a lot of left hands. It is obvious right off the bat when watching the USD women's team that they are blessed with a number of hitting options that come in the form of southpaws. Yes, the USD women are preparing for the 2014 season with the perfect left-right combination. Hopefully it can lead to a knockout punch good enough to claim the Summit League title and resulting NCAA tournament bid. "The biggest advantage it comes from is that other teams aren't used to playing against that while we are used to practicing against lefties every day," Williamson said. "Some teams we see don't have a left-handed player on their team and don't see it until they play us. Last year that's why we had the success a lot of times." A lot of the team’s future success will probably come from plenty more than just its ability to throw multiple left-handed attack options at the opposition. Defensively the team has shown the ability to get to a number of strongly hit balls and tips alike. Sometimes the Coyotes can make a diving dig in practice that would ‘wow’ a crowd. Yet, at times it is because of having made a great play and others? Not so much. “It depends on which practice session we are talking about,” Williamson said. “If we are talking about (Monday) we were diving a lot because we were out of position. (Tuesday) we made that change and we really talked about so they would understand where they have to be in certain situations. They did a much better of being where they needed to be against certain attackers. “I think our hitters did a good job of moving the ball around and making our defenders have to work for it. We talk about being scrappy, but now we want to be efficient scrappy.” Williamson hopes that by design that her defensive play leads to passes that freshman setter Brittany Jessen doesn’t have to move more than a few strides in order to come up with the ideal two ball for hitters to pounce on. “We want it to come in to the front court well so Brittany can set up an attack for us and not a free ball,” Williamson said. On the serving side of things the team is not unloading with a number of bombs to put the back row on its heels. Williamson said there is a reason for this and not by design. “We put a stipulation on them if they missed their serves it wouldn’t allow them to score points as a team,” Williamson said. “So I think that brought out a little bit of fear in them because they don’t want to make that mistake. We preach to them to serve aggressive all the time regardless if the score is 0-0, 15-15, or 24-24. They need to put the other team in tough situations.” Williamson was happy with the initial days of practice for her first team she has led as a collegiate head coach. “I am happy,” she said. “Days three and four are usually pretty tough. They are tired and sore and have done a lot more Fu Service Full Service evc AVEDA Concepts™ AVEDA Concepts™ o c ts s™ Salon Spa Salon & Spa l volleyball than they had the last three months. They are putting in a lot of hours right now. In the past we have had a lot of fatigue that has affected our game play and not being able to make improvements. “In this day four we have girls wanting to stay after practice to run another drill. They want to keep going. I know they are tired and sore, but they are willing to keep getting better and not use fatigue as an excuse.” Setting chemistry Jessen is feeling pretty good finding the right formula with her other hitters. “Coming early helped a ton just getting connections with the team and the other hitters,” Jessen said. “(The older players) haven’t compared me to previous setters and they have been very patient with getting the system down. In the beginning I spend a lot of time watching film and studying the hitters.” Jessen graduated from high school in January and that allowed her to practice with the team this spring. Senior middle blocker Melissa Firtko is impressed so far with the team’s young setter. “She came early and it First-year University of South Dakota head volleyball coach Leanne Williamson directs her squad during Tuesday's evening practice.. (Alan Dale) would have been heck if she had come now,” Firtko said. “So we got everything in and she’s doing great.” It’s a block party The middle has looked sharp in preseason practices with a number of touches, tips, and stuffs to round out a nice block party that would make Pitbull jealous. “We are all doing good and getting the touches we need to get,” Firtko said. “It will get better as the season goes on. Blocking is huge and is a big part of the game. 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