DAYTON, Ohio –The University of Dayton women’s volleyball team’s spring schedule is right around the corner, and DaytonFlyers.com had a chance to catch up with head coach Kelly Sheffield to talk to him about the success of Flyer volleyball in 2009.
DaytonFlyers.com: Coach, talk about last year’s goals at the beginning of the season. Where did you see this program going after finishing the 2008 season with 21 wins and another NCAA Tournament berth?
Kelly Sheffield: We knew going into the year that we had a chance to be a pretty good team. We graduated a great class the year before, but we were fairly healthy going into this past season and I loved the mentality that the team came into the preseason with.
Our goal is to always win conference championships and to advance deep into the NCAA Tournament, but it also has to be about getting better and maxing out our potential. I don’t think you go into a season thinking about going 30-4. Your focus has to be on improving and staying together as a team. I thought our team did a fantastic job of that over the course of the year, whether we were coming off of a win or trying to bounce back from a loss. As a coach, that’s certainly what you want to see.
DF.com: Your non-conference schedule is consistently one of the most challenging in the country. What advantage does this give you? Do you think that the early competition set the tone for the season?
KS: We’re not going to shy away from playing anybody. Every year our goal is to be one of the best teams in the country. To do that, you’ve got to go out and play elite competition. And to tell you the truth, that’s what our players want. We try and recruit the type of player that loves and thrives on challenges. I love the fact that I work at a school where they encourage us to go and compete against the best, and I love that I’ve got players that embrace challenges.
DF.com: The Flyers posted an impressive 14-0 record at the Frericks Center last season. What sets apart the Frericks Center from most of the facilities you play in on the road?
KS: Man, there is not a place in the country that is like Frericks. First of all, you have hundreds of Red Scare students standing behind the end-lines for the entire match, screaming, faces painted, and some holding up all kinds of props. There’s not a student group anywhere that is more into a match than here at UD. You also have bleachers full of fans hovering over the top of court. And when the band makes their grand entrance into the building, down the stairs, and into the gym, there’s nothing like it anywhere.
When you walk into Frericks, especially during some of the rivalry matches, the energy makes the hair on your arms stand up. I think we also have fans that are very into the match. So many places have fans that sit down and politely clap their hands. The Flyer fans believe they play a part in the outcome of the matches…. and they do! They are smart enough to know when we need a lift and they are passionate enough to help us when we are trying to build momentum.
DF.com: You swept a fair share of your matches, 13 to be exact. However, it seemed like the team played its best volleyball in the five-set matches. With an 8-2 record in the fifth set, what was the key to success for this year’s team?
KS: Yeah, you’re right, 8-2 is pretty impressive and is something that you don’t see very often, especially from a young team. Those two losses still bum me out though. When you get into the fifth set, it’s easy to look back on things from the previous four sets. Players and coaches can look back and wonder why they just let that last set slip away, or, maybe momentum has swung their way and teams can have a tendency to relax.
Regardless, sometimes your energy and focus is spent on things that have already happened – which does you no good going into a game to 15 points and will be over in about 10 minutes. I thought our team, for the most part, did a very good job of concentrating on what needed to be done. I also think it was a team that was confident, didn’t panic, and seemed to really enjoy those moments and not play out of fear. When you have the right mindset, I think sometimes that makes the executing part a little easier.
DF.com: The five-set match that will stick out in many fans’ minds is probably the Atlantic 10 Championship match. Dayton battled back from a 0-2 deficit in the match to knock off Saint Louis, the defending A-10 Champion, on national television. What was it like to play that match at home and to have it televised nationally?
KS: Players work so hard day after day, year after year, in the gym and in the weight room, with the decisions they make on how they are going to prepare during the summer when they are on their own, etc. These players get after it, and that builds a certain toughness and confidence in you. We were two points away from being swept. We weren’t always playing that great, but we were battling hard. Competitors embrace those times when your back is against the wall and you get to look into each other’s eyes and say, “Ok, let’s go out and do something that people here will never forget”. It was an awesome match and I was so proud of the team for how they dug in and stayed together.
DF.com: In 2007 and 2008, the University of Dayton hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship. This season, however, Dayton traveled to Illinois to open the tournament. What were your thoughts on beginning the tournament on the road?
KS: I don’t think there were any thoughts on where we were playing other than the logistics. We knew that we were opening the tournament against one of the hottest teams in the country and that if we played well, that we were most likely to go up against another very good team.
I thought we came out like gangbusters in that opening match and then our opponent really took their game to another level, which forced us to be even sharper. Although I don’t think we played great, I loved how we responded. Against Illinois, we were very good for about half of that match. Unfortunately for us, we were playing against a team that on that night required us to play better, longer.
DF.com: The AVCA named Lindsay Fletemier an All-American at the end of the season. How much of an effect does she have on the game? Do you think that her experience playing with the US A2 team helped when she returned last fall?
KS: Lindsay has made herself into one of the most dominate players in the game. She is a totally different player, in almost every way, than she was a year ago. Her skills have gotten a lot better and we saw a player that dealt with frustration a lot better this year. We also saw a player whose confidence got higher and higher with each and every match. Every opposing team’s game plan begins with Lindsay. A year ago I think that frustrated her. This year I think we saw a player that absolutely loved it.
How much did her experience with the A2 team help her? I think probably quite a bit. She came back to campus so passionate and excited about the upcoming year that she had me fired up and ready to go right then! Her energy and enthusiasm makes me want to be a better coach.
DF.com: Talk about recruiting. The past few years Dayton has been able to attract and bring in some great recruits who have really helped take the program to another level.
KS: There’s no question that we are getting a lot of elite players that are taking a very close look at Dayton. The quality of education is absolutely top-notch and the advantages that students get from being in a private school setting with smaller class sizes, is something that is important to a lot of people. You hear the word community a lot around UD, and I think that family environment is certainly attractive to a lot of recruits as well. Those are things that have been at the UD core for a long time.
What I think people are seeing now is a level of play and a commitment from the University to be great in volleyball, something that really inspires some recruits. There are a lot of recruits that are committing to schools because of a name, conference or facilities. I see a lot of similarities in the type of people that are committing to the Dayton Volleyball program right now. They are people whose education is extremely important to them, and who are also very passionate about the game of volleyball.
This team stays on campus together during the summer to play and work out together. If you don’t have a deep love for the game, that is something that is not going to be attractive to a player while they are making their decision. We also seem to get a lot of players that have come from winning backgrounds. That is certainly something that we look for in a player. I think it’s hard when you are used to winning all of the time, to go to a program that is losing almost as much as they are winning. With our success over the years, I think we are getting more and more players from “winning” backgrounds.
I think one of the fun things that we are talking a lot about to recruits, is that they can have it all here at Dayton. There’s not a single thing that a student-athlete needs to “settle” for here. When you have that all laid out, there are certain types of people that want all of that. It just so happens that those are the types of people that I want to coach as well.
DF.com: This coming fall you will return all of your starters, while also bringing in some very talented players. Additionally, Dayton joined great company with Penn State, Texas and Washington as NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship Regional Sites. What are your goals for this coming season?
KS: Let’s put it this way, we want to win all of our home matches.
Last week, UD was named a regional host site by the NCAA for the 2010 Women’s Volleyball Championship. They join Penn State and Texas who finished as National Champions and National Runner-Up respectively last season, in addition to the Pac 10’s Washington Huskies as regional hosts for the tournament next season.
Dayton returns all of its starters next season, including All-American middle blocker Lindsay Fletemier and the Atlantic 10 Championship’s Most Valuable Player Amanda Cowdrey. They begin their spring schedule on March 20 in a scrimmage against the Michigan Wolverines in Grand Rapids, Mich.
