GAME DAY!!!

We have had 2 practices under our belt and the team feels good.  We left Oxford on Wednesday after having our best two practices of the year on Tuesday and Wednesday morning and the momentum has continued this week in Berkeley, CA!!  We take the court in 3 hours for warm-ups before we take on a very scrappy UNC team!  Excitement continues around our program!

Traveling to the NCAA Tournament!

With their new travel shoes on, the team was ready to head to California.  The travel party includes the team, all coaches, managers, graduate assistants, strength coach, SWA, Academic Advisor, and athletic trainers  We split into 2 groups, one group traveled to LAX, with a 2 hour layover then onto San Fransisco.  The next group, headed up to Minneapolis, then onto San Fransisco.  The flight to California was 4 hours long, by far the longest flight of the season.  The flight with the team was a tough one.  Everyone's electronics were out of battery and the team was getting restless.  But we made it as did the other flight, where we headed to our charter bus and onto PF Chang's for dinner!  It was a long day of travel that began at 11:15 (CT) out of Oxford, MS and we got into San Fransisco at 7:45 (PT), which would be 9:45 (CT). 

The biggest obstacle over the next 2 days, get used to the time change and prepare for a run in the NCAA tournament!

We are dancing!!!

As the team sat patiently in the Women's Basketball Practice Facility Film Room, ESPNews released the NCAA Division I participants.  In all of our calculations, we were in, but we knew we were on the bubble.  The biggest question, where would we go and who would we play?

They announced the first 2 regionals and our name didn't show up.  Nervousness started to fill the room as the team, coaches, fans, and administrators waited.  Finally, the Seattle regional was announced and the cheers began!  Ole Miss is going dancing for the 3rd time in school history, all under Head Coach Joe Getzin.  This is the 3rd time in 5 years.  Our location, University of California in Berkeley, CA.  Our opponent, University of North Carolina, who placed 2nd in the ACC!!

We leave on Wednesday to head to Berkeley!  The whole team is excited, wish us luck!

Volleyball Makes School History!!!!

Ole Miss Volleyball made school history today by being ranked 31st in the latest NCAA RPI!  The team moved up 15 spots after their sweep of Arkansas and #12 LSU this past weekend!  This is the highest ranking in school history!

The RPI is a mathematical measurement of a team's strength.  The NCAA uses it to choose which teams get the at-large bids into the NCAA tournament in December.  A team with an RPI in the top 40 has a good chance of being in the NCAA Tournament!

Keep it up Rebels!

A great start...

At the 1/2 way point of the SEC season, the volleyball team is enjoying it's journey.  Here is a recap of the season so far:
*Rice Invitational Champions and Magnolia Tournament Champions
*SEC Conference Stats:  #3 Hitting Percentage, #2 Opponent Hitting Percentage, #3 Assists, #3 Kills, #1 Blocks, #3 Service Aces, and #2 Digs!
*SEC Individual Stats:  Regina Thomas:  #1 Hitting %, #5 in Blocks,  Whitney Craven:  #2 in Kills, Amanda Philpot:  #5 in Assists, Ashley Veach:  #3 in Aces, Miranda Kitts:  #4 in Blocks Morgan Springer:  #2 in Digs
*NCAA Rankings in the Nation:  35th in Assists, 32nd in Blocks, 30th in Kills
*NCAA Individuals in Nation:  Regina Thomas:  32nd in Blocks, 9th in Hitting %, Miranda Kitts:  118th in Blocks, Morgan Springer:  55th in Digs
*Best SEC Start since 1980
*Swept #12 LSU
*Undefeated at home
*Tied for 2nd overall in SEC and 1st in the SEC WEST
*Receiving votes in the top 25

Inspirational Teammate

Sophomore Courtney Cunningham

I wanted to take the time to share a story about a very motivational teammate we have at Ole Miss!  Courtney Cunningham, a sophomore MB/RS from Chicago, IL, suffered an ACL tear September 22nd at practice.  Ruby, as the team calls her, was a huge presence in our 6-2, playing RS and putting up a huge block.  Because of her injury, she was not able to travel with us for fear of her injury getting worse.

When an athlete is injured it becomes very easy for that player to get lost in their role on the team.  They are no longer going through the everyday battle of practice and matches, they have a different battle each day of rehab.  This player has to find their new role on the team and will the team accept it!

I can't be any prouder of a player that I have coached.  While we were on our trip to Florida and South Carolina, Ruby would text the team all through the day, whether we were at practice, pre-game meal, in between sets, she was ready to go!  Always with something very inspirational! 

Again, showing her strength as a leader on this team, she had surgery on Wednesday and because her pain medicine made her sick could not come to one of our biggest matches of the year against #12 LSU.  Ruby watched the whole match on TV and you better believe she called our athletic trainer in between sets 2 and 3 and wanted to be put on speakerphone as she yelled and motivated her teammates to "FINISH!!!"  

This is a lesson to any player that gets injured, find your role, find your way to become a leader just like Ruby did.  Our players wrote #10 on all their shoes and write it on their tape jobs, or hands, to always remember our inspirational leader, #10 Courtney Cunningham!  They even finish each practice and match with "Ruby, Ruby!!!"  She is a huge reason for our success this year, even though she can't do anything on the court!

Team Building

The preseason schedule for collegiate volleyball is tough.  The team is here for about 2.5 weeks doing 2-3 practices a day, film sessions, classroom sessions, individuals, weight lifting, and they fit in food and sleep somewhere!  Most college coaches do some team building throughout the preseason to get the team breaking barriers and coming together.  The mistake most coaches make is that team building ends at preseason!

We are very lucky to have great chemistry at Ole Miss!  Something this staff works very hard to keep and the team respects it enough to keep it going.  We learned a huge lesson this year and that is, it is not enough to do team building just during the preseason, we must do it all the time.

The biggest issue with any team is communication.  We are in an era where text messaging and facebook chatting is easier than having lunch with a teammate and talking about nothing.  Athletes don't talk to each other because they feel smaller issues don't want to become bigger issues so they bottle it inside and before you know it, they explode.   Athletes don't take the time with their teammates to really talk with them and get to know them.  What motivates them?  What are their biggest fears on the court?

Our lesson was learned after we played #23 Tennessee.  Our players had stopped talking to each other and let little things evolve into bigger issues and what became of that was a sweep by Tennessee!

We spent 3 hours on the bus to Kentucky figuring this out!  We did a little activity where each person had to talk about their greatest achievement, an obstacle they overcame and an obstacle they are trying to overcome at this moment.  It could be volleyball or off-the-court.  Each player listened and were allowed to ask questions.  Such an easy thing to do and when we got off the bus we broke some barriers with players and each one had a new respect for their teammates.

We encourage teams to continue to work on communication and team building.  Be proactive in the process, don't wait for the loss to try to figure it out!

Funny Time in Gainesville, FL

I thought I would share with  you a fun time we had in the 15 passenger van in Gainesville, FL.  Here is the situation.  We get off of our Rock Star Style Charter flight in Gainesville, FL from Columbia, SC.  We head straight to the hotel to drop off a van and then right to practice.  The girls were a little groggy from the flight and tired in the vans.  Kellie Goss, freshman from VA, didn't have leg room so she put her legs up on the console between the coaches in the front seat.  No big deal, the problem was, she wasn't paying attention to what was happening to her feet.  You can watch the video to see what happens, but basically she gets a water bottle tied to her shoelace and doesn't notice until she gets out of the bus and starts to walk.  The problem is she can't get her shoelace untied and we had about a .25 mile walk to the gym through Florida football traffic.  Plus, she had to pull the laundry bag the whole time.

At the end, you can see our team chasing lizards:)  There are tons in Florida and they were determined to catch one, but the lizards are up 1-0 on this team!  

Video of our Adventures

Regina took the video for a while to show you exactly what it is like to fly Rock Star style.  Here we are leaving Oxford, MS and getting on our plane.  You can see how we were able to drive right up to the plane and take off! 

And of course, you must see the inside of the plane too.  And yes, we got yelled at for having our video on, just in case you don't know, it is an electrical device that must be turned off before landing.  OOPS!!!

Flying Rock Star!!!

Some of the team in Columbia, SC waiting for luggage!

We get two trips a year where we get to fly "Rock Star" is how we like to state it.  Basically, we get our own plane.  We charter a plane that pick us up at the airport in Oxford and takes us right to the city we play in.  This past weekend it happened to be Columbia, SC and Gainesville, FL for matches against USC and Florida. 

The trip started with us taking our 15 passenger vans from the front of Gillom to about 30 feet from the door of our plane.  No security lines, no boarding passes, no checking luggage, we simply walked up to the flight attendant, who checked our ID, gave our bags to the pilots and got on the flight.  And we got to the airport at 7:15AM and our flight departed at 7:30AM.  How awesome is that!

We got to Columbia, SC and we had our 15 passenger van and two mini-vans right there for us.  We just stepped right into them and headed to practice. 

After sweeping USC, we had a good night and woke up the next morning and back to the airport for our next chartered flight to Gainesville, FL.  The result wasn't what we wanted, but lessons were learned.

Chartering is the best option ever!  It is so convenient and fun!  We have officially been spoiled!  Plus, we got snacks and drinks and lots of them.  They even had Gatorade on the plane for us.  The pilots did a great job and got around some really bad weather on the way back with only a little bit of shaking. 

The Numbers Show the Work!

Allegra Wells is ranked 9th in the conference in blocks per set!  As a team we are ranked 22nd in the nation!

We are sitting this week with an 8-3 record overall and 2-0 in the SEC Conference.  As a team, this preseason we learned how to play scrappy defense, work through frustration, be mentally tough, and how to finish matches.  We played all different types of teams to get ready for the SEC and now it is here.

Practices are getting tougher.  The demands are higher, the drills are more intense, and alot of information is getting thrown around.  The team is working extremely hard and going after it.

We talk to the team alot about "talk is cheap" and we need to see it.  This week, the NCAA and SEC numbers are showing the effort our players are putting out.  We rank very high in alot of the SEC categories and it is good to know we are seeing high marks among all of NCAA Division I schools.

In the NCAA, Ole Miss ranks 24th in assists per set, 22nd in blocks per set, 27th in digs per set, and 28th in kills per set!  Very exciting for such a young team!  Plus, individually, Regina Thomas is ranked 18th in the nation in blocks per set and 35th in the nation in hitting percentage.  Morgan Springer is ranked 22nd in digs per set.

For SEC matches only and in the SEC, as a team we are ranked, 1st in opponent hitting percentage, kills per set, and blocks per set.  We are ranked  2nd in assists per set,  aces per set, and digs per set.  Individually, Regina Thomas is ranked 6th in hitting percentage and 3rd in blocks per set.  Miranda Kitts is ranked 1st in blocks per set.  Morgan Springer is ranked 1st in digs per set.  Ashley Veach is ranked 8th in aces per set.  Allegra Wells is ranked 9th in blocks per set, and Whitney Craven is ranked 5th in kills per set and Emily Kvitle is ranked 8th in assists per set, which is good, because we run a 6-2.  That means we have one player in every statistic!  Plus, we have 3 players in blocks per set! 

Our players understand "talk is cheap" and the numbers don't lie!

Our First SEC Weekend!

The Grove!

Wow, what a weekend!  We had our first two SEC matches against Alabama and Mississippi State, football was at home versus Vanderbilt, Alumni Weekend for volleyball was in full effect and of course, we had some great recruits on official visits!  All this happened in 3 short days and all of them, great success for Ole Miss Volleyball.

We recorded a sweep of Alabama, all matches extremely close, but you could see that the preseason paid off for our players.  All of them very calm at the end of matches and the never say die attitude on defense was awesome!  We out-dug Alabama and had 18 team blocks in only 3 sets!  That is pretty impressive!

The next day was football day!  The team had the opportunity to tailgate at the Grove and what a great experience!  It was a little hot at the game however so after the first quarter our team decided to head back to our team room in the air conditioning and watch from there.

The next day we faced our biggest rival, Mississippi State.  We ended up beating them in 4 with another 16 blocks to go along with out-digging them again! 

For her efforts on the weekend, Morgan Springer was named SEC Defensive Player of the Week.  At practice, she mentioned to the team it was a total team effort and how easy it was to play defense behind such a great block this weekend!  A total team effort!

Magnolia Invite Champions

The Rebels captured their second tournament of the year at home by beating Southern Mississippi, University of Louisiana and Samford.  Each team brought different elements to the stage and Ole Miss had to work extremely hard to win.

The first match of the day was against Southern Mississippi.  The highlights basically go like this, we were down 8-1 in the 5th set, which is only played to 15.  We switched sides and came back to get the score to 13-9, still down, and what happens.  The Rebels were never phased and came out with a 16-14 victory!  What a great job!

The next morning we faced a very scrappy University of Louisiana team that would not die.  Again, going to a 5th set and sneaking out another win.  We were only one win away from a Magnolia Invite Championship and we had to get through Samford.

Ole Miss and Samford have some history.  Dex Schroeder, the head coach at Samford, was once the volunteer at Ole Miss and he and Joe Getzin, head volleyball coach, are great friends.  The assistants Kilee and Reggie came and worked Ole Miss Volleyball camp this summer.  Plus, there are some girls on Samford's team who are very close with some of the players on our team.

Our middles stepped up once again and led us to a 3-0 victory over Samford and a Magnolia Invite Championship!  We ended the weekend with a 6-3 overall record and momentum of a 4-match winning streak heading into conference.

For her efforts, Ashley Veach was named All-Tournament.  She did a great job of coming in during each of the 3 matches and serving very well and playing some great defense!  Regina Thomas was also named All-Tournament for the 3rd consecutive weekend and coming out as MVP was Miranda Kitts, who stepped up during the end of each of the matches. 

Vote Joe Getzin!!!

Head Coach, Joe Getzin, is in a contest with Head Soccer Coach, Matt Mott to see who has the best goatee!  To get ready for the contest, Coach Getzin did a public service announcement and we got the first cut:)  I thought it would be fun to share with you.  If you haven't voted yet, we are down to the last week:  www.goforthegoat.com.  Vote Joe Getzin!!!

C-H-I-C-A-G-O!!!!

Team outside Wrigley Field

With Labor Day on Monday, we decided to take advantage of Chicago and stay all day on Sunday and fly home late Sunday night.  We had a whole day planned, but the girls had no idea how fun it was going to be.

Saturday night we went to Courtney Cunningham's (A.K.A. Ruby) house and the food was great!  Her family prepared a whole meal for the whole team and families!  It was great to see where "Ruby" grew up and spend some time with her family.

Allegra and Whit at Wrigley!

At the hotel that night, Joe decided to let the girls know what we were doing on Sunday. "Breakfast is on your own in the morning, we will leave at 11:30AM from the lobby to take the L to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game and then we will head to Michigan Avenue for some shopping."  The girls were so excited, first of all, over 1/2 of our team had never been to Wrigley Field and the ones who weren't as excited to watch the Cubs, the rest were very excited to go SHOPPING!!!!

Wrigley Field was awesome, the girls were getting into the action and although the Cubs aren't having a great year, it was good to see some offensive production out of them.  Plus, the girls just loved the environment.  They made the hot dog man and the popcorn man work really hard as I think as a team we probably ate about 25 hotdogs!  Something about those ballpark hotdogs, they are soooo good!

We headed out to take the train to Michigan Avenue.  It was fun trying to find it with a map, we definitely looked like tourists, as people walked around staring at our shirts, but I think the girls smelled the stores because we got there and they were off!  Forever 21 didn't know what hit them, our girls definitely conquered the store! 

It was a late night heading back to Oxford, but so worth it! 

3 matches in less than 24 hours...

We came into the weekend wanting another tournament championship.  We knew it was going to take some great volleyball combined with mental toughness and limited errors.  The bad news...we didn't get the championship, the good news...we saw signs of a really great team!

We started off with a strong Northwestern team.  We felt as if we matched up pretty well with them, our strengths were their strengths and it was going to be a battle in the MB position and we were excited to see it.  We didn't get the result we wanted, we ended up losing in 4.  We struggled offensively and our defense didn't step up to help out.  Northwestern played a great game and I'm excited to see how they do this season in the Big 10.

Our next match was Saturday morning at 10:00 against Utah.  Utah was struggling in the video we received and had lost the night before to Morehead State.  Our game plan was to shut down their OH's and make their MB's beat us.  Offensively, we wanted to beat their seams in transition, make them pinch in and worry about our MB's and pump the ball to our OH/RS and attack them again.  The first set, everything looked really great.  But just like every great volleyball team, teams make an adjustment and that is exactly what Utah did.  Their MB's came alive, worked hard in transition, and made us change our game plan.  They picked up our defense and we weren't ready for it.  Utah made great adjustments during the match and this is something we need to get better at as our season progresses.  We lost a tough one in 4.

Our 3rd and final match of the day was going to be the toughest.  We were going to face a very scrappy Morehead State team.  For our 2 players from Louisville, it was a huge rivalry, since they played HS volleyball against most of the Morehead team and Whitney Craven's cousin is on Morehead State's team as well.  We knew Morehead would overload zones offensively so we were going to have to play great 1-on-1 defense and have a disciplined block.  Offensively, we felt our tempo offensively was quick enough in transition to beat them.  It was a mentally tough match, with both teams going back and forth, but we were very proud to come away with a 3-set sweep. Our defense matched Morehead's scrappiness and it is exciting to see that continue through the season.

As we had our final meeting after our Morehead State match, we looked at our watch to see 6:00PM, exactly 24 hours since we started warming up for our first match of the tournament on Friday.  Three matches in 24 hours, not the results we wanted, but the finish was great to see! 

For her efforts, Morgan Springer was named All-Tournament.  She passed over 1/2 the court the whole weekend in serve receive and vocally started to take control of the backrow and played her best defense of the season.

We open up at home this coming weekend!  Very excited.  

Finding Consistency...

We have a young team and you can look at our roster to see it.  We have some amazing athletes and people in our program, all still learning what it takes to play at a high level consistently and that is what we saw this week in our preparation for the Northwestern Challenge.

We had practice Monday that includes individuals sessions, each position coming in to get some extra reps.  Then we had our usual Tuesday and Wednesday team practice and took off on Thursday to head to Chicago.  Our girls were a little unfocused all week, not giving the intensity and focus the staff wanted in each drill.  It wasn't a lack of effort, because our girls always work hard, but it just wasn't at the level we wanted.

This week at practice we implemented a new defense, worked out-of-system offense, and worked in our serve receive offense as well.  All these items we saw at our Rice tournament and felt we needed to improve on to beat the teams at Northwestern.

We left on Thursday for Chicago with a little sour taste in our mouth, knowing we needed better intensity on the court at Northwestern.  We are still young and working on that consistency, but we know we will get it before SEC starts!

Being thankful for what we have!

Helping at the homeless shelter was such a humbling experience for Ole Miss.  You can read all about our community service event at www.olemisssports.com, but here is a little inside knowledge of the event. 

During our time, I truly believe our girls did an amazing job.  They went and sat at different tables and asked people about their stories.  You could feel an energy in the air and the occasional "Go Ole Miss" always got the crowd going. 

Whitney Craven, sophomore OH, from Louisville, KY has the biggest heart on the team.  She told us she had to pull herself away a few times because she would just start crying.  She not only felt bad but continued to feel grateful for the things she has in her own life.  She sat with a client, named Daniel, for 45 minutes and they were both laughing the whole time.  It was such a great scene to watch.  She listened intently while a client sang Whitney Houston in the most amazing voice.

Everyone on the team had great stories about connections they made, but overall, I believe our players learned a valuable lesson.  We are so truly blessed to be part of Ole Miss.  We are in a situation where we can get a great education, play volleyball at a high level, and influence others. 

The best feeling was sitting in my van after the trip and listening to Ashley Anderson, Kara Morgan, and Kellie Goss talk about their experience, all so humbled and ready for the next opportunity.  All asking when was our next event and could they do that again.  We have great people in our program and I'm blessed to be a part of it!

Rice Tournament Champions

Thanks to Russ Ross for capturing the excitement of our weekend.

It is amazing how one day can totally change your mood.  The coaching staff sat in the lobby on Friday night after our 5 set loss  to UTSA wondering where did we go wrong, what could we have done, do we switch from our 6-2 to a 5-1, what subs could we have put in.  It was one of those conversations where everyone knew there was no easy answer and hindsight is 20-20, but that's what coaches do, we run through the whole game and figure out what we could have changed to make it better.

One of our goals for the Saturday was to get our SWAG back.  This word means alot to our players and it is the feeling that no one in the gym can stop them and they are all focused and the intangibles are at the highest level.  That was our goal on Saturday, the girls to bring the SWAG and let the coaches bring the X's and O's.

The girls brought their SWAG and much more on Saturday.  Our leaders stepped up and became go-to players and we could see the fire in their eyes.  We went on to sweep Texas Tech in 3, about 12 hours after we were sitting in the lobby discussing the in's and out's of our loss to UTSA.  Then 7 hours later, we were serving the first ball for the championship.  With a win against Rice in 3 or 4, we were tournament champions, with a win in 5, it was going to go to points and set records, a place we didn't want to go.  With a loss, we finished the tournament a very disappointing 1-2.

The girls answered the call and we swept a very tough Rice team.  Rice has a very quick transition attack with their middles and we challenged our middle blockers to find them fast and take away their easy shot and we did just that.  We challenged Allegra Wells to block their best attacker (AVCA All-American) and the first 2 of her swings, Allegra put up a huge block and the tone was set.

Coach Getzin continues to preach to this team, how hard winning is.  He always tells them anyone can lose, but only some teams win.  Morgan Springer told us this really sank in this weekend, she stated the Rice match was one of the hardest matches she ever played in, it was a higher level of focus and determination.  To her, winning was really, really hard, but also very fun!

What a great weekend for the Ole Miss Rebels.  We overcame obstacles, re-evaluated our goals, and watched our go-to players become leaders!  So proud of all 14 of our players for this weekend! 

As Bill and I sat there Saturday night looking at Joe, thinking about our Friday night conversations, we all laughed.  Head coaches always know best, he stayed calm in our adversity of our loss and stuck to his guns of keeping our rotations the same and knowing our team can come back and win.  That's why he is the head coach!

First Weekend!!!

We leave tomorrow night to travel to Houston, TX for our first weekend!  The girls are looking forward to it and so is the staff.  You can follow us through the weekend on Live Stats. Here are the links for everything you need to follow our journey:

Friday, August 27th
4:30PM  v. UTSA

Live Audio

Live Stats

Saturday, August 28th

10:30AM v. Texas Tech

Live Stats

7:30PM v. Rice

Live Stats

PRESEASON COMPLETE!!!

Yesterday marked the end of preseason and the excitement is in the air.  We got through with very minor injuries (Allegra sprained her ankle, Emily got the wind knocked out of her by Allegra's butt, Kellie's toes turned black, then got infected and are now peeling and we have a bet when she will lose her toenail, Craven had an MRI on her knee to discover that it is just a bone bruise) and of course the usual soreness that all athletes have.

The work the players did this summer really paid off and we played more 6 v 6 than ever.  We spent tons of time speeding up our offense, finding middles in transition, putting in our defense and new blocking system and of course, what we feel we need to succeed, tons of ball control and serving.

Because of adding new players, we knew we were going to have to do some off-court mental training and team building as well.  Andrea Getzin came in the first day and did some awesome team building, we did mental training in perfectionism, communication, rules, role playing, buying-in, and making our own Characteristics of a Championship Team.  We also had Iron Chef nights, which the coaching staff blew away, and we had some fun dinners at Kabuki (Japanese hibachi grill) and Yacona Steakhouse (YUM!!!!).  

We believe our players are champions, but talk is cheap and we believe we are set to prove that!

Iron Chef Competition Heats Up!

Emily Kvitle helping Miranda get the perfect taste for her loaded mashed potatoes.

The pumpkin bars decorated as a sand volleyball court.

This year the team has decided to have a little cooking contest.  The team split into 5 groups.  Each group is given a budget of $175.00.  They must cook for the entire team and the coaching staff.  They must prepare an entree and a dessert and provide drinks.  After the meal, each person casts their votes on the following criteria:  presentation, taste of entree, taste of dessert, creativity of dish, and of course, we are given bonus points to the team that cooks the cheapest meal.  Group 1 was Emily, Anderson, and Allegra.  Group 2 was Miranda, Craven, Amanda, and Kara.  Group 3 is Regina, Cunningham, and Goss and they are set to cook tomorrow night.  Group 4 is Morgan, Veach, Brenea, and Kiley and they will cook on the 20th.  The last group is the staff and we will cook on the 21st.  We have had an Hawaiian theme and a Christmas theme so far with entrees consisting of Italian Beef Sandwiches, Beans, Chicken, Smashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole and desserts of Christmas cookies and a Pumpkin Bread with icing!  The food is great and the teams are having fun! 

ALUMNI WEEKEND!!!!

Alumni Weekend is all scheduled and ready!  We are excited to invite our Alumni back to share the beginning of our SEC schedule on September 17-19th.  If you are an alum and have not received an invitation in the mail or through Evite, please contact Shannon Wells, Assistant Volleyball Coach, at sewells@olemiss.edu to get more information. 

Here are the events planned:
Friday, September 17th:
7:00PM Volleyball match versus Alabama (Alums announced between sets 2 and 3)
9:30PM or after match:  Alumni Social Time on the Square  

Saturday, September 18th:
9:00AM  Join UMAA in Starnes for football pre-game *drinks and food provided
9:30AM  Join the volleyball team tailgating in the Grove before football kicks off
11:00AM  Football game versus Vanderbilt

Sunday, September 19th:
10:00AM Brunch at the Inn at Ole Miss *Join the team for their pre-game meal
1:00PM  Volleyball match versus Mississippi State *on CSS, affiliate of ESPN

We look forward to hosting you for a great weekend!

First off day of Preseason!

The team has been working extremely hard, we have had 7 intense sessions of training so far, so they are enjoying their well-deserved day off today.  So far in practice we have covered all of our basic key words for every skill.  Our key words are short phrases we can tell the girls to fix something in their technique.  This allows us to give quick feedback to them.  For example, when we are passing our words our posture, square, block, step, hold.  Our players know what each of these words mean and when we give them a word, they know how to fix their technique to gain better product.

We have also covered all of our offensive sets, serving zones,  out-of-system attacking, our neutral blocking system and our purple and red defense.   It has been alot of information for our newcomers and a great review for our returners.  Overall, the team is doing great.  Yesterday we finished with 2 great sessions during the day, with the teams going after it.  It is really fun to watch 6 v 6!

Today was a short lift, followed by a swim workout and now to mental training.  Our mental training today covers dealing with perfectionism, how it affects each player, and how that affects the team and getting to our goal of winning the SEC West.

To follow us each session, please follow us on our Twitter page:  www.twitter.com/olemissvb.

Instant Positive Response I.P.R.

Our new program we implemented this year is called I.P.R.  It is our mission this year to remain positive at all times.  Volleyball is a game of failures and the team that handles their mistake or failure the best will win the match. Our goal this year is not only to limit our errors, mistakes, and/or failures, but to deal with them the best when they occur.  When we see opponents who are frustrated, we like to jump on the opportunity to keep that player down or possibly make the whole team frustrated.

Each player was given a wristband that says Ole Miss Rebels on them.  Everyone started off with them on their left wrist.  Each time an athlete says something negative or complains, they have to switch their band to the other hand and their day starts over.  If someone else hears you complain, they snap their band, letting you know that they heard the complaint or negativity, and the person who was negative must switch their band.  The goal is to be positive for 15 days straight.  Each time you switch your band, a new 24 hours starts over again.

Along with staying positive, our players have come up with their own Instant Positive Response.  Basically, when the outcome doesn't go our way, instead of pouting and becoming frustrated, each player takes a deep breathe, says their I.P.R. and we move on.  We have had some very interesting I.P.R. and some we can't put on the blog, but examples of I.P.R. would be, Get 'er done!, It's Worth It!, You can do it!, etc...

I.P.R. has worked great so far.  The team is having fun catching each other being negative (which usually leads to a laugh and a "Gotcha!" and the team is being very honest when they become negative as well.  It is amazing how negative we are on ourselves.  The team, coaching staff, managers, athletic trainers, and strength coaches are all in on it!

Who will be the first one to 15 straight days?  You will have to keep checking the blog to find out!

Christmas Day...Ole Miss Style!!!!

It's Christmas time in Oxford, MS!!!  Today the girls got a first glimpse of their new Nike gear!  Follow their adventure into the locker room to check out their new gear.  I'll take blame and didn't charge the batteries to film the whole adventure, but enjoy the beginning of our fun holiday!

Summer Season at Ole Miss

"The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war." 

This is probably the best way to describe the Ole Miss Volleyball team's summer schedule.  Determined to get back on top of the SEC, the ladies made a commitment to stay this summer and put themselves to work to get better on and off the court. 

The NCAA allows athletes to stay at their university during the summer and have workouts with their strength and conditioning coach.  Unfortunately, during this time, the coaching staff is not allowed to have any time to train their athletes, we can't even watch them play.  This means the team is on their own from the end of April to the first day of preseason in early August.  For a team, that is striving to win championships, this time is crucial. 

We are lucky that our team has a great core of leaders that kept the team working hard all summer long.  Jami Clinton, our strength coach, had our players working 5x a week with weights and conditioning.  The girls favorite:  STADIUMS!!!!   You see the picture, now imagine climbing all the steps, I told you it was a favorite!

The summer heat can be pretty demanding in Mississippi so our players not only made the commitment to work every day, they also made the commitment to start the day at 6:30AM.  All summer long, our athletes committed themselves to getting better off-the-court and they started their day at 6:30AM.

On top of work in the weight room, our athletes also committed themselves to open gyms.  Due to NCAA rules we are not allowed to watch the open gyms but we did received great feedback from our players who all said they felt as if they really improved this summer.

The highlight of the summer would have to be senior,  Miranda Kitts, who almost broke a tear, as she touched 10' on the vertec for the first time in her career.  A little hard work will always pay off.

Our girls definitely did a ton of sweating during our peace time, and now it is time to see how much bleeding we do as we face the SEC!  Preseason starts Sunday!  GO REBS!

Shannon Wells added to Ole Miss Volleyball Staff

Shannon Wells has been named an Assistant Volleyball Coach at Ole Miss. She comes to Ole Miss after three seasons as an assistant coach at Winthrop University, two years at Morehead State, and one year at her alma mater, University of Southern Indiana. She is filling the coaching position previously held by Molly Alvey, who left to become the head coach at Houston.

Wells spent one year under Alvey as an Assistant Coach at the University of Southern Indiana we she helped coach the squad to a 15-1 record in 2004 and the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) regular season title. The squad also claimed the Tournament title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division II Tournament. She then went onto Morehead State where she as Assistant Coach alongside former Ole Miss Assistant Coach Kris Grunwald where she helped the squad improve from a 6-26 record to a 21-13 record.

Wells will be fully involved with every aspect of the program with her biggest attribute in the recruiting field.

"I have always wanted to be an assistant at the highest level possible where there was a sense of family and competitiveness and I believe Ole Miss is that place," Wells states. "From the very first time I stepped on campus, I knew this is where I belonged. We have a great young team that has the fight to win and Bill Egbert and Joe Getzin are two amazing people that will not only be great mentors but longtime friends."

"We're very excited to have Shannon Wells join our staff here at Ole Miss," Getzin said. "She's one of the exciting young coaches in our game and will bring a great energy and recruiting experience with her to this staff. She's a complete coach and we can give her a lot of responsibility and fully trust that she will do a great job."

Alvey Resigns - Takes Head Job at University of Houston

I want to thank everyone for all of your support of our volleyball program here at Ole Miss. It has been an unbelievable experience for me and a wonderful place to call home for the past five years. I am sad to leave this team - they are my family here in Oxford. A new adventure is calling me and it is time for me to jump start my career as a head coach. I think the University of Houston is a great place to get started. Keep rooting those Rebels on - the talent level keeps growing here. It will be exciting to see what they bring next fall - amazing athletes and people! Thanks again and Go Rebels!!