Enough was Enough for A-Sun Champ ETSU

There is no question that ETSU volleyball has enjoyed it share of success in the last few years. But there was that last obstacle, a hurdle that brought the Bucs to the point of, "Enough is Enough."

The Bucs have been in the A-Sun Volleyball Championship semifinals in five of the last six years. They played for a title two years ago, falling in five sets to Lipscomb. They have had recorded more than 23 wins in two of the last three seasons, and this year they have nice non-conference wins over Marshall, Charlotte, Akron, and Temple along with 13 wins over A-Sun opponents.

But, particularly in the A-Sun Championship, after a while being so close just doesn't cut it.

The Bucs released some of that frustration in the fifth set against North Florida on Saturday, jumping out to a 6-0 and leading 9-2 before winning the set 15-12.

"There were really calm today, there was a great sense of confidence from everybody," said ETSU head Coach Lindsey Devine. "To get here is a lot of preparation, a lot of hard work, and the girls realized that there are a lot of people who have supported us and counted on us, and we don't want to let anybody down."

"Now that we have gotten to this point, it is a belief that everyday that you look at scouting reports or you bring a recruit in or work hard with the team, everyday is worth it. For me personally it is the culmination of a lot of time, work, but really no more than anyone else in this program has done, from the players, staff, athletic department, trainers, etc. It is everyone wanting the same thing."

In 2010 the Bucs lost to Lipscomb in five sets in the championship final. But this year, Devine says that even when the match stretched again to a fifth set, the look in the eyes of this team was not of one that was going to lose.

"A part of me was thinking, 'Ok, I've been here, and Megan has been here, but no one else has. They have heard about the last final, but they weren't a part of it. When I looked into their faces, I just saw this look of 'we've come so far, we are not going to hand it over.' Regardless of the outcome we were going to battle, and put it all out on the floor."

This has also been a special year for Devine's daughter Megan. She began the season as the A-Sun Preseason Player of the Year, then claimed the honor just a week ago. She has been ranked among the nation's top 50 most of the season in kills and points per set, and tonight along with earning Tournament MVP honors, she helped her team get the monkey off her back.

"This is an unbelievable feeling, just to be back her again and get that win and to be a part of this ETSU team," said Megan Devine. When the match went to a fifth set, Megan's thoughts did not drift to the 2010 loss, but rather reflected a mindset that seemingly has pervaded this team all season.

"I thought the same thing that we've thought all year – we can do this, we just have to put our mind to it. We took it point by point. UNF is playing as a great team, but when we play our game we are unstoppable."

Loeswick's Ospreys Flying High by Staying Grounded

North Florida Head Coach Steve Loeswick is settling in nicely in his first year on the job.

In his first few months on the job at North Florida, Loeswick led the Ospreys to the inaugural A-Sun Sand Volleyball championship and was named A-Sun Coach of the Year.

Fast forward a few more months, and he once again has his North Florida team in position to claim another A-Sun title. On the job not even a year, and he has the potential for two A-Sun championships.

Loeswick is one of three first-year head coaches in the Atlantic Sun Conference. He has enjoyed the most early success of the trio, due in large part of the team that he inherited.

"I knew we had a talented group," he says. "I thought it was going to come down to us being able to put the pieces together and for everyone to stay grounded and be focused on the 'team-first' mentality. It took a while for me to get everyone on board, but once we did the team started playing really well."

Out of the gate the Ospreys were 1-5, but UNF picked up come momentum with a seven-game win streak just prior to the start of the A-Sun season. However, through the first half of the conference season, things turned south and Loeswick and North Florida went 3-6. 

"There was a team meeting about midseason, and we just had a heart-to-heart," Loeswick says. "I asked them to recommit to our philosophies and I told them what I thought it would take for us to be a championship team."

Whatever he listed as his keys to success, the team again bought in and the season began to turn. Since the loss to ETSU on Oct. 13, the Ospreys have won 11 of their last 12 games and are currently on an eight-match win streak.

So what is making the difference?

"We have been more aggressive recently, serving aggressively and getting people out of their system, which helps our defense out," says Loeswick. "I think our passing and our defense are our strong points. I have a lot of seniors who help take care of that, so I am a little scared for next year.

"But this whole season has been a long process, and the goal all season has been to play the best that we can in the next opportunity that we play. I am grateful that we get to play another match."

Apart from the Xs and Os of the game, Loeswick has also set out to change the culture and the outlook of the team by his approach to building relationships with his players, not just coaching them. It is an approach that stuck with him from his days as an assistant to Fran Flory at LSU.

"My personality is to care about the girls, to care about them as people and care about the choices that they make," he says. "I think that once they understood that our staff cares about them, then they gave us all that they had. This group has matured on and off the court more than any other team that I have coached.

"Coach Flory is a down-to-earth, very good person who cares about the kids that come through the program. She understands that sometimes hard decisions are necessary to help someone make good choices, and to become the best person that they can be. I really took to that philosophy and still hold to it today."

The season has certainly not come without challenges, and Loeswick admits that he is still in a bit of a learning curve.

"You can always second-guess yourself at points, like in some matches I didn't quite handle things the way I would have liked or made a different decision in a match here and there.

"The biggest thing that I have had to learn is the amount of off-the-court stuff that head coach has to take care of," says Loeswick. "I have lots of the team in the office at some point every day, and we are usually not talking about volleyball, but talking about school, about making good choices, and trying to help them become better people."

Loeswick has certainly made his group of players a better team, a team that just knocked off the regular season champion and that has a chance to secure another title of its own. Given how successful his approach has been to building and leading his team this season, what will his approach be in the program's first ever indoor championship final?

"We are not going to go out tomorrow and try and win a match," he says. "We are just going to go out and try to play the best that we can. Hopefully we will bring home a championship.

ETSU Senior Kayla Williams Makes Her Point

Five minutes was all that she asked for, but the impact that she made will likely last much longer.

ETSU senior Kayla Williams had a point to make, and ironically she made it with a pencil.

Prior to the Bucs' match with three-time defending A-Sun Champion Lipscomb, Williams petitioned her coach for some time with her teammates to share an object lesson that she believed could provide her team an extra boost.

Williams handed a #2 pencil to every member of the team, coaches included, complete with a particular message for each one of them. She explained to them that their individual pencil represented them as an individual, and then instructed them to break them. How easily they broke, she explained, is how easily each one of them could be broken.

The next object was a bundle of 13 pencils, wrapped in rubber bands. One set of rubber bands was pink and the other normal, but they could serve as a reminder of the message she was about to deliver. She then passed along the bundle of pencils to each teammate, explaining how it represented their team and challenged anyone to break the bundle. No one could do it. 

The team could not be broken. Message delivered.

"A former coach told me about  the idea, and I really liked it," says Williams. "I thought it fit our team really well. It has been a bumpy road to get here,and I felt like it would give us a boost."

The Bucs did seem particularly energized on Friday evening, as they fought from a set down to win the next three and defeat the Bisons on their home floor. It was only the second victory for the Bucs over the Bisons in their last 11 matches, a win that Head Coach Lindsey Devine says was long overdue.

"This team had basically had enough," says Devine. "After the loss in the 2010 championship and our five-set loss that kept us out of last year's championship, we basically committed ourselves to the fact that something had to be done.

"We started planning in January. This team is very driven, not that other teams don't work hard. But there is a fire burning and a will to win in this team that has gotten them to this point."

Devine also has a real appreciation for her senior's initiative.

"She wanted five minutes, and when a captain and senior asks for something like that you give it to her," says Devine. "She is so mature, and such a stable force, especially this year. She gave them something to grasp onto, something meaningful. These kids care so much about what we are about - team, family, hard work. 

"This is the expectation of every coach when they start the season, to be in the finals. This team has possessed the belief all season that we would be here."

Williams was not on the team that lost in the final two years ago, but she was watching in preparation for her transfer from Frank Phillips College to ETSU. She is looking forward to being part of the team that she felt would win a championship.

"I thought if they could see something visually, it would remind them about the message of team," said Williams. "I asked everyone if they thought it was lame, and everyone really liked it. I thnk it helped get us extra motivated.

"I am so excited to be in this situation. We feel like this is our time. We want to prove to ourselves that we can do it and we have taken it one step at a time."

Devine is in step with her senior leader, and knows that her team has taken a big step forward thanks in part to Williams' inspiration.

"The significance of what she did is amazing, because she is so in tune with her team," says Devine. "It is awesome that a captain can see that, and she is so insightful. We have come up a little short a few times, and this team has finally said, 'enough is enough. We can do it.'"

Pridegon and Baran Enjoying Their Team Now More Than Ever

North Florida’s win over Jacksonville on Thursday was hardly one of the better games by a pair of impressive seniors.

For Paige Pridgeon and Nicole Baran, however, the only numbers that mattered were 3-0.

For the last two seasons North Florida has participated in the A-Sun Volleyball championship as the No. 6 seed, and has been eliminated in the first round in both opportunities.

But this year is different. North Florida is one of the hottest teams in the A-Sun, and Pridgeon and Baran are leading the charge.

Pridgeon, a member of the A-Sun All-Conference First Team, entered the championship as the active career leader and fourth overall in career kills in the A-Sun (1,548). This season she became the third player in UNF history to total 1,000 kills & 1,000 digs in career.

She is one of only two players in the A-Sun with over 400 kills this season, and she is fifth in the A-Sun in overall kills per set (3.43) and in A-Sun only matches (3.61). She has recorded double-digit kills in 25 matches this season, including 10-or-more kills in UNF's last 19 matches. In eight of her last nine matches she has tallied a double-double, and sports a total of 17 for the year.

“This year I think we did a really good job of being a team,” said Pridgeon. “Our focus was to stay together all season, being there for each other and being supportive of each other, and we definitely peaked at the right time.”

Peaking is a good choice of words. The Ospreys are in the semifinals for the first time in program history. North Florida has won seven straight, and 10 of their last 11. In fact, they had the best second half of the A-Sun season by any member institution.

It is certain that the message of playing as a team was the point of emphasis this season, a mantra that its leaders bought into completely.

“This is a great step for us, and it is all because we started playing as a team,” said Baran. “We realized that we have to rely on everyone, that everyone is not always going to have a great game. People are going to struggle sometimes, but as long as we play 14 strong, we’ll be fine. We just work hard every day and push each other.”

This season was particularly enjoyable for Baran. She became UNF's all-time career digs leader, is the A-Sun's active leader for career digs (1,851), and ranks third all-time. This season is her second in which she tallied 500+ digs in a single season. Baran set a new single-season digs record at UNF and her 580 digs are the most in the A-Sun. She won Player of the Week honors, was a tournament MVP and she was chosen as the A-Sun Libero of the Year. So in what regard does she hold all of that success?

“The accolades and recognition is nice to have individually, but our main goal is still to win the championship as a team,” says Baran. “It is nice to be recognized, but we could not have done it without our teammates and our coaches.”

Loeswick inherited a solid team, led by two seniors who provide him the leadership and support that he needed as a first-year coach.

“Nicole runs the show in the back row,” said Loeswick. “She gets us where we need to be, because to play well and win we need to be our system. She is very emotional and a very vocal leader. She is the heart and soul of this team.

Paige leads in a different way, more through example. She works hard and is able to make some great pays for us with her athletic ability.”

So the Ospreys are flying into uncharted territory, but not into something that wasn’t expected by Pridgeon, Baran or Loeswick.

“We thought we would have a nice season, but I am excited about their growth as individuals and as a team. We have been in difficult situations and we wanted to see how they would handle that. Knowing how to get through those times are important for us to continue to pay at a high level.”

“Making it this far in the championship is certainly something that I will take away from this season,” said Pridgeon. “It is good to know that we are leaving with this team going in the right direction.

“Obviously we haven’t made it this far since I have been here, and it is a great accomplishment, but none of us could have done it without each other and without our coaches. Being here is what we expected when we began the season. And now we just have to take the next game as it comes.”

So what does this dynamic duo say is of the utmost importance on Friday?

“Stay focused, play as a team.”

For a Quartet of ETSU Volleyballers, Home is Where the Heart Is

For Megan Devine, Jamie Rutledge, Ivey Rice and Meredith Hardy, East Tennessee State University truly is the home team.

Yes, the quartet hails from either ETSU’s home of Johnson City, Tenn., or Kingsport, Tenn., a 30-minute drive from the ETSU campus. But playing collegiate volleyball is not where the relationship that Bucs Head Coach Lindsey Devine explains as “sister-like” began.

Megan and Jamie began their friendship in seventh and eighth grade, playing club volleyball for the Kingsport Volleyball Club. Meredith Hardy soon joined them, and they all attended the same high school.

Ivey Rice was the on the outside looking in, playing with a competitor until the KVC trio convinced to join them.

“They were good,” says Rice. “I actually had fun playing against them in high school, but they seemed to have something that was a lot of fun. They looked like they really had fun playing together. So I gave up my other team to play with them.”

Megan takes credit for being the catalyst that created the relationships that each one values greatly.

“It started with me,” says Devine. “Jamie and I were playing together, then we latched on to Meredith, and then we all convinced Ivey to join us.”

Head Coach Devine appreciates the relationship that her daughter, a junior, and the three sophomores have developed and understands how valuable it is on and off the court.

“It in uncanny how they have a sense for each other on the floor,” says Lindsey Devine. “They know where each other will be, and they know how to motivate each other.

“But what also has come out of them knowing each other so well and caring for each other the way they do is that as a result our team plays as a family. They are leaders, particularly Megan, and they genuinely care for each other. There is a true commitment to team and it has translated into a family environment.”

They all agree that it wasn’t too tough of a sell to join the Bucs. “It was actually comforting to come onto campus and join a team knowing that someone already has your back,” said Jamie Rutledge, who tallied a double-double in the Bucs’ victory over Mercer Thursday night.

“We all know and understand what coach is expecting from us and what she wants from us,” says Megan. And we know that we are there for each other, and that is one of the reasons that we have been successful.

The Johnson City/Kingsport “pipeline” is one that remains active to this day, as each of the players continue to go back to their high schools and their club team, keeping track of what is happening and along with casting an eye on the local talent.

Some of that talent is Ivey Rice’s younger sister, who will be joining the Bucs next season.

“They give a lot back to the club and to their high schools. I think that is largely because of their relationships that they began in the same ways that those younger players are doing so today.”

Winning Culture Being Built in Fort Myers

For six seasons, FGCU’s head coach Bob Butehorn has been building a culture in Fort Myers at the FGCU Soccer Complex.

Since the opening season in 2007 when the Eagles earned eight wins to the 2010 squad which set a program record with 13 victories, Butehorn was laying the foundation for success.

With the Eagles eligible for A-Sun Championship play for the first time last season, Butehorn and his team of nine seniors were prepped for postseason success and came away with the program’s first A-Sun Championship crown and NCAA berth.

This season, there is no comparison in championship squads except for one, “A Culture of Winning.”

“The only comparison to last year’s team is the culture that we have built here, which has carried over to this year. We have a culture here that bonds the guys as friends and they play a way we want them to play and it’s a style we like to play.”

With 12 freshmen and nine sophomores on the squad this season, FGCU worked several fresh new faces into the lineup after the founding seniors departed the program in 2011 after the Eagles first postseason appearance.

One of the holdovers from last year’s squad was senior Jeremy Vollmer, who started every game this season in the midfield after starting in 19, a year ago.

“It’s a completely different feeling this year and it’s hard to compare the two,” Vollmer said. “Last year, we were on top and had a lot of experience going into ETSU as the number one seed, but we were still playing on the road and this year to play in front of our fans was great. This year is a completely different season and we took a completely different route to the championship.”

The 2011 squad entered the A-Sun Championship as the top seed in Johnson City with a 10-5-2 record before earning a 2-1 win vs. Mercer in the semifinals and capping the championship run with a 1-0 victory vs. ETSU on an 89^th minute goal by senior Scott Harrison.

On Sunday, the FGCU – Mercer final took a different tone as the top-two seeds were meeting for the second time in the past eight days as the two teams met on Nov. 3^rd with the Eagles taking a 1-0 win on a Santiago Echeverri goal to claim the regular-season title for FGCU for the third-straight season.

“It was a battle out there and we were willing to take it on,” Vollmer said. “We wanted to keep the ball moving and we were hoping to get an earlier goal, but we will take the win either way.”

With Butehorn and his assistant for six seasons, Alex Aldaz, at the helm of the program FGCU expects more titles in their future as Vollmer simply stated.

“This is where we expect to be every year.”

Defending Champion Eagles Excited to Defend in the Nest

Tonight the FGCU Eagles get to go home to their own beds, wake up to familiar surroundings, go through their normal routine and defend their A-Sun Championship on Sunday in front of a home crowd that hasn’t seen them lose in Ft. Myers since the end of the 2008 season.

The host Eagles earned host duties of the entire 2012 Atlantic Sun Championships last Saturday when it defeated then-first place Mercer, 1-0, to win its third consecutive regularseason title. FGCU was able to bring the conference postseason tournament to Fort Myers by winning its final six games, including five shutouts.

The Eagles are now 10-5-2, including a 7-1-1 mark in the A-Sun. What is even more impressive is that the FGCU Soccer complex is home to a 17-game home win streak against A-Sun opponents that spans back to the end of the 2008 season. That streak also includes 13 shutouts in the Eagles’ home nest.

FGCU is just the second team to win three straight A-Sun regular season crowns since the league moved out of divisions in 1998. Mercer was the last team to accomplish the feat from 2000-02. Over the Green and Blue’s current three-year run, they are 22-2-1 in the A-Sun.

So as the Eagles prepare to defend last year’s title, where are they as a team?

“We still have some immaturity to us,” said FGCU Head Coach Bob Butehorn. “They were the more aggressive, more attacking group. For some reason we had a very passive attitude, and that is certainly something that we need to correct before Sunday.

“Some of that was to due to their competitive spirit. I want to say how amazed I was to watch Lipscomb compete the way they did (down a man in second half). They deserve a better result because we did not play well,They battled hard, and it was a really good game for those guys.”

In the second overtime, with the crowd behind them, Butehorn says that he, the crowd and Lipscomb could sense that the Eagles were getting something going.

“You could sense in the second overtime that we were putting some things together, and it seemed like they were feeling that as well. We are happy to be in the finals and looking forward to facing a good Mercer team.”

The Eagles will face the Bears for the second time in two weeks, in another game that will feature a game of contrasting styles. FGCU likes possession and ball movement, Mercer is a stronger defensive team that doesn’t allow for many scoring opportunities.

“They are a good team, a disciplined team, and their tactics work very well for them. They have some very talented players, including the Defensive Player of the Year. It will be a good game that will be contrasting in styles,” says Butehorn.

In a game that could come down to one or more plays that turn momentum, it certainly be to the Eagles’ advantage that Ol’ MO will come to the FGCU Soccer Complex wearing green and blue. Whether or not he stays true to those colors will be up to the “Dirty Birds” and the rest of the FGCU home crowd.

“It should be exciting on Sunday to play for the championship at home,” says Butehorn. “It was nice to hear them cheer tonight, especially after the winning goal.

There is no question that we feed off the fans. So Sunday afternoon we are hoping for a good group, and hoping to have the support that we expected when we earned the right to host the championship.”