Transcript
With us on Coaches Corner, KWBG, going to talk some Ogden volleyball today. Jenny Winter joins us as the Bulldogs get ready for the IKM quad that'll be coming up tonight. And we'll talk more about that here in just a few. Bulldogs had a chance to get their first match of the season underway, which probably felt good. Number one, Jenny, just to hit it somebody else. I had that feeling you get in the gym and you're hitting at the same people all the time. It's time to hit it somebody else. And you went down to Pleasantville last week, and they got you by three in the three setter. And I guess, Coach, we had a lot of positives that came out of that, but number one, I still think it feels nice to go play some competition. Definitely. It's just nice to just see some different faces on the other side of the net. And so yeah, to go down to Pleasantville and to start off with a great team, great environment, really just kind of sets the stage to put on the table. What did we do well? And where do we need to make some improvements? And so we saw that very early on. I was very happy with our energy level in those three sets and just how we competed. So I think that again, you go in and you come back with a loss, but I do think that there is a lot of positives that came out of that that we saw and we just continue to build off of the things for improvement. Sometimes one of those big positives, Jenny, good or bad, but I still think it's a positive. That's why I said that, but you get to see yourself on film. And sometimes that's huge just to see, how did I actually play when the lights were on for real? That's always beneficial too, I feel like. Yeah, the environment definitely changes, right? You've got the student section that is behind you. You've got the home crowd that is cheering against you. So you see some different aspects of the game that you don't see in a practice type setting and that you really can't replicate. So that was a good experience for our girls and some of them was their first varsity experience. So for them to see that was good as well. So to get that out of the way at the very beginning is really good. And yeah, I just think it set us up for going into this week
with knowing what we need to build upon and what we need to work on. I'm always interested what the kids say after something like that. Road environment, like you said, first varsity for quite a few girls as I'm looking at the list. What did they tell you that next day and the next couple of days afterward? They were happy with their energy. One of the things that we're really working on and trying to focus on is bringing consistent energy to each set and making it so that folks in the crowd or folks looking at us playing wouldn't be able to tell whether our team is winning or is losing. And just to have that consistency. So they thought they had that in that first set. We dropped off a little bit in the second set and then picked it back up in the third set. So just building upon that consistency. I think the girls recognize that there's some areas for improvement in our serve receive which impacts our hitting and how we can attack the ball. Historically, we've served better than what we did. Missing 11 serves is a lot for us. So I think that they were very reflective of the game and what we needed to do in the next couple of practices that came after that just to continue to improve to be ready for today. Jenny, a couple of girls I wanted to talk about this week. I'm gonna start with Ella Anderson. She ended up with 11 assists in that match and also had nine digs as well as being a seven out of eight from the service line. Tell me about her from her freshman year to this year. She had such a burst on the scene. I can't even say moment because it was really burst on the scene season for her last year. How was she kind of progressed from last year to this year? She is, Ella is just a kiddo that just is the definition of a gym rat. That girl is in the gym from the second that the season ends until the second that the season begins. So she just puts in so much extra time to develop her skills. She's always one to ask for extra reps. Can I stay a little bit longer? Her and her parents are in the gym all the time. So I think for her that development is really a testament to the work that she puts in during the off season. She just gets after it and it's 100% rewarded in the season when the stats come out. There's no doubt in my mind that the off season work that she puts in is what we see in the season. So she's just a gym rat. I love having her. She brings different aspects of the game. We want to start to look at her as a hitter on that right side as well using Hallie, Grisley as her other setter. And so we'll experiment a little bit with that to try to get her, that'll be a new role for her. She's used to just setting all the way around. And so we'll see how that develops in the next couple of weeks. But again, she just puts in so much time and I'm just super excited for her to see that, to see that pan out just early on in the season. Well, and the other one I wanted to talk about was Sydney Crane. And Crane ended up with six kills in that match as well. And she had a couple of digs in there, a couple of assists I see as well. And it just kind of feels like, and it was also, by the way, eight out of nine serving. Had a couple of aces. I enjoyed watching her last year because I knew you could see the potential. And now seeing her go from sophomore to junior, it kind of feels, and I know we're only one match in, but it kind of feels like Sydney's ready to take that jump forward. Yes, she's another one. Again, had great summer participation. And I will say, you know, for her at the beginning of the season, the connection between her and Ella was just a little bit off from a setter hitter connection. And those two put in a couple extra, just small short sessions of just working on hitting and timing and worrying why I need the ball. And again, you see those extra sessions, those extra reps playoff. You know, Sid is going to, we talk about, for her, she's always gonna be an undersized middle. You know, she's just not super tall, but she's super springy and she's got the right mindset in the middle where not only are you attacking the ball, but really working on blocking. And she does a great job of closing the block and just working hard on every play. So again, I think she'll have another breakout season two. And from the work that she's putting in. So it should be exciting for her. Jenny, final thing. Give me a couple of things you want from tonight as you guys are coming back from IKM Manning Quad. Give me a couple of things you're hoping to see this evening. Well, you know, it's hard when you're at this stage in the season because there's just not a lot of game film out there to watch with new lineups, you know, and new rotations. So I've watched a little bit of film on all three teams. I think we match up well with all three of them. Ideally, I'd like to come home, you know, with three wins. And I definitely think we can do that. I'd like to see us serve a little bit more consistent, still staying aggressive, but serve a little bit more consistent and not miss as many. And then really clean up our serve receive. That's where we struggled with Pleasantville and I'd like to see some improvements there. But again, it's hard to, you know, Manning I think will be very similar to Pleasantville. They play that fast up tempo speed. They've got some really great outside and right side hitters. So that'll be a tough matchup for us. Again, home crowd, student section, all those things. So that should be a great matchup for us. But really just looking to continue to build on what does Ogden volleyball look like? What are we wanting to do as a team on the court and just take care of what we can control on our side? Jenny, as always, thank you so much for some time. We'll look forward to seeing the results and we'll talk to you again in a couple of weeks. Sounds great. Jenny Winter again, joining us. Ogden volleyball here on coaches corner.
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