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!