Volleyball: Top 10 moments No. 1

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Well, we finally got through this. Quick countdown:
10 and 9. The three conference sweeps; 8 and 7. A 6-2 start and certain freshmen going above and beyond; 6 & 5. Jennifer Lundquist and Sarah Horton’s presence for MSU; 4. Taylar Barney steps up; 3. Macy Page tops her career in solid fashion; and 2. The win at UM.
And now we get to the No. 1 moment. Kyle Weindel told me to not make him a part of it when I started this, and I smiled and said “We’ll see.” But it’s hard not to include him after what he accomplished in 1 year. And so we present the No. 1 moment of the Montana State 2012 volleyball season…

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1. Kyle Weindel’s immediate impact on the program
He was put in charge of the program on Feb. 9, handpicked by the athletic department and a committee with a few outgoing players on it. Two weeks later, everyone was excited as Weindel began setting his plans in motion. Then the season began, and everything we’ve touched on transpired. And more. Two All-Big Sky Conference honorees. Nearly as many wins as the 2011 & 2012 seasons combined, and the most Big Sky wins since 2005. Etc. Without Weindel, who knows what unfolds for MSU? There’s not much more to say about it, except that the future looks bright for the program.

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Volleyball: Top 10 moments No. 2

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Let’s finish this thing. Look at past, now move to future.

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No. 2 MSU beats Montana in Missoula to finally clinch Big Sky Conference Championships berth
Intriguingly enough, Missoula seems to be the place Montana State loves to make history. In 2009, MSU won its first Big Sky Conference match in 45 straight tries on its rivals court. Three years later, the Bobcats earned their first Big Sky tournament spot since 2005 by beating Montana at Montana on the last day of the regular season (for Kyle Weindel’s club).
Four other chances eluded Wiendel’s team in between a Nov. 2 five-set win in Ogden, Utah (14-9, 8-7) and the Montana match on Nov. 19 (15-13, 9-11). The one which hurt the most was a 3-1 loss at home to Southern Utah as MSU beat the Thunderbirds 3-1 in Cedar City earlier in the season.
The Bobcats found salvation (?) at the last possible moment, in the last place one looks for lost things, and revenge at the same time 34 days (maybe 35) after the Griz did this. In the do-or-stay home four-setter, former Bobcats outside hitter Sarah Horton ended an extra-point final stanza with an ace. That last set was a come-from-behind win as well, adding more drama – drama’s not the right word, maybe suspense – to the proceedings. The key seemed to be a .424 attack percentage. Horton, who lead MSU with 21 kills, converted four of her eight attack attempts in the frame while Macy Page was successful on three of her five attempts. She ended with 15 kills as Page, Taylar Barney and Jennifer Lundquist became the first senior class to reach the Big Sky tournament since Meggie Malyurek, Kim Stonehouse and Megan Zanto.

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Volleyblog: The schedule comes out

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FAST FACTS: A look back at 2012
Montana State University
15-14, 9-11. 176 RPI
First Big Sky tournament appearance since 2005
6-3 non-conference, 3 sweeps (2 Ws, 1 L). 3 5-setters (2-1)
9-11 conference, 6 sweeps (2-4). 8 5-setters (5-3)

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So the goal in Year 2 of the Weindel regime “was to increase the level of competition outside of conference play. As the team evolves from year to year the goal is to constantly challenge them to play better and better teams.” The Bobcats will face four teams with greater RPIs than they had in 2012 (176th in the nation), including three teams who were in the top 100 (OK, top 101. Bloody IUPUI was 101st). That is a good thing, especially because MSU needed whatever it could get from the Big Sky Conference teams for its RPI. The Bobcats played two teams in the top 55 in RPI (Santa Clara 47, Ohio 52), but only one other non-conference team, Akron, was ranked higher than MSU by the end of the year.
The RPI high marks dip slightly, with Wyoming in the top 100 and Morehead State cracking the top 80, but there is just one team below an RPI of 300 on MSU’s schedule in 2013. Plus the Bobcats can’t help that Wyoming scheduled two patsies with a combined total of nine victories. As usual, I’ve looked into a cracked crsytal ball, and this is what is showed me…
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Jan Stenerud gets honored

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The entire thing was amazing, from an hour I spent with Jan Stenerud at a coffee shop on Wednesday to Thursday’s hour-long ceremony. Stenerud is still smart as a whip, as are his ex-teammates, and the jokes they cracked before, during and after the ceremony had many of us chuckling. We’ve got extra images …

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… and the full audio from the ceremony speeches, plus some of the audio from Jan and I hanging out on Wednesday. Also some transcribed stuff from Thursday, pre-ceremony interviews and ceremony stuff.

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Paige Crawford wins the Big Sky individual golf title

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The audio & some transcribed quotes from Paige Crawford earning the Big Sky Championships medalist honors at the Big Sky Championships Tuesday.

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Brittany Basye
“We got some good scores today. Real good scores.”
On Paige
“I think Paige just kind of found her rhythm, and this course sets up real well for her game. Once you fire at a couple pins and knock a couple putts in, it’s pretty easy to keep that rolling. It’s a total confidence factor.”
“Obviously helps” “those girls can play that golf course in their sleep.”
“We finally got four people firing on all cylinders, and that’s really good. I’m extremely proud of the team. It was fun to watch all of them play well.”

Paige Crawford
“I’m so happy; I’m just so excited and grateful for this. This is what I’ve dreamed of, and I’ve grown over the years in college. I’ve gotten better and, just everything clicked this weekend. I figured out what I needed to do.”
“Sort of. You have pretty high expectations cause you’ve been everywhere on the course. It’s kind of comforting because you’ve played it so much and you know the course really well.”
6th place at Cowgirl Invitational the week before gave her mental confidence, had high hopes “I knew I was getting there, I knew it was all going to come together. That helped.”
“The funny thing is I was trying to not put a lot of pressure on myself. I really learned from that experience how, when you’re in the lead, how to keep it going and stay steady.”
“I love my parents, I’m very close with them. They’ve supported me this entire journey, since I was seven. I was just so happy that they were there and I could share this with them.”
“I was so happy with my tea, especially the two seniors. This was our lowest round since I’ve been here … I know this is just the beginning for Bobcat golf.”

Tennis’ final homestand

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Just in time for the Montana State women’s team to face Northern Arizona at 3 p.m. MST, we’ll take a short look back at how they got back into the Big Sky Championships. It’s detailed in the story, but here’s some extras from Sunday’s home win – both the women and also the men, who earned their highest seed since 2006.

What’s left? The audio, first from the final homestand against Idaho State University, then from the men’s home win against Montana, the Bobcats first since 2006.

Idaho State audio
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Light at end of tunnel when ISU beat Sac “We looked at our schedule and thought, ‘We can get a regular season title here.’ I challenged them a few weeks ago. ‘We have four home matches to go. If we can get those’ … and we took it one match at a time.”
Markus Schleuter
“We got confidence, and everybody played better from there. Tennis is such a mental sport, so it was really important for us. We just kept rolling.”
Going into tournament
“The thing is, for sure we want to go to the finals. Its at Sac’s home court, outside, sea level. Big difference.”
No. 1 guy from Sac is out, UM too.
Prithiv Sivasubramaniam
“It means a lot to me and for the team. When we started practicing last fall, our main goal was to make it to the tournament.”
“We have a good chance of doing well in the tournament, as well as make it to nationals, if possible. That is possible for us.”
Charlotta Hjalmarsson
“It feels very good to go back to the tournament. We’ve had a pretty rough season, so it’s nice to finish with a win. Plus, everyone played better than they did last week.”
“We’ve been talking about it in practice all week. We had to keep our energy up, we had to do very good today to keep our energy up going into the tournament.”

Montana audio
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The Bobcat becomes reborn

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The new logo is here, new designs for courts and fields are being plotted out and the re-designing/re-imagining of the Bobcat brand is still being shaped as Under Armour will debut the new uniforms around mid-July, we’re told. The intrigue lies in how receptive people are now – it’s honestly mixed, from BobcatNation.com to a straw poll of fans/boosters at the ceremony – and how receptive they become once school (or rather, football) starts up in August. One vendor moved some merchandise on Wednesday, and Universal Athletics and others are confident people will start slowly but pick up their shopping pace by fall and eventually purchase items with the new logo.
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Volleyball: the class of 2017 is complete

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The Bobcats have officially wrapped up their first freshman class under Kyle Weindel, and what strikes me is how his connections as a recruiter led him to an MSU lineup that will “certainly be bigger than we ever have been.” There is just one player shorter than 5-11, and only because Dana Vestman is a libero. There is familiarity amongst the core of signees, with four from California, and half the class is outside hitters, which makes sense considering MSU lost three once 2012 closed down, with one to graduation, one to academic ineligibility and one to transfer.
Most of the class comes from the Golden State, and three come from the Northwest region – Kalispell, Rapid City (S.D.) and Spokane. I also think this might be the first time in a long time anyone from east of the Mississippi has signed to play volleyball for MSU.
He does have one native daughter, and Cassie Kreuger will walk on to the team. That’s good in a sense that Weindel’s not completely alienating Montana, but the head coach also noted he has aspirations grander than just plucking the best of the best from the Treasure State.
I was a bit curious that he was able to convince two Californians to walk on, but maybe he thinks attrition and natural selection will take its course and weed out current players – or maybe they just buy into his ideas and he is a really good recruiter. Especially when he mentioned Thieler decommitted from a school which offered her a scholarship to walk on in Bozeman. Weindel’s exact quote: “I knew she could be very successful, and we were lucky enough to steal her and get her to walk-on here.”

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“It is a lot in volleyball terms. We lost some major point scorers from the team this last year … so I knew I needed to fill a lot of spots.”
Biggest thing used to sell MSU
“Literally, I sold them all on one thing. Well, I guess two things: their ability to come in and contribute right away and the ability to do something that really has never been done at Montana State. That’s win a conference title.”
Christine was different because she’s coming from Florida, but he had a good relationship with her as a continual recruiter and that helped seal it. Culture shock for her?
“There will be a little bit of a culture shock. I know for her 18th birthday, Mom and Dad went to the North face Outlet in Orlando and bought just about everything that you can imagine. But they’re a ski family, so they’re not unfamiliar with winter and they have seen snow.”
Overhaul
“They really do have the ability to contribute. Maybe not necessarily in starting roles, but they will be expected to contribute at some point during the year. Not to sell the returners short, because they are expected to contribute as well.
“The first week of pre-season in August is going to be very competitive. We’ll do a lot of drills to essentially evaluate … to potentially put the best seven or eight on the floor that we can.”
No in-state girls he felt got away, but adds “a grain of slat” because he was looking for positions “I’m certainly a little biased, but I think we got the right kid for the position we needed.”
Loni, Dana, Alex all played together – help that they could play together
“It was an easier sell because they have all been good friends for so long. It was an easier sell to get them all in to buy what we’re doing. Dana helped get Loni, and Alex kind of helped get Dana and Loni. That certainly made it a little easier for us.”
Youth movement
“We’ll certainly be bigger than we ever have been. I like a bigger, faster style anyway. I think if you combine that with the athletes we have, we’re going to be big.”
More defensive ion terms of blocking, hard hitters, attack ball with pace
“When we recruit as coaches, we really just try to fill slots, fill roles.”

2013 Montana State Freshmen Class
*Kennadie Clute OH 6-1 Spokane, WA/Mt. Spokane HS
#Cassie Krueger OH 6-0 Kalispell, MT/Flathead HS
Loni Kreun OH 6-0 Davis, CA/St. Francis HS
Christie Markowski MB 6-4 Orlando, FL/Lake Highland Prep
*Alexandra Rader OH 6-0 Shingle Springs, CA/Ponderosa HS
*Anna Sykora S 5-11 Rapid City, SD/Stevens HS
#Danae Theiler OH 6-1 Newbury Park, CA/Thousand Oaks HS
#Dana Vestman L 5-5 Elk Grove, CA/St. Francis HS

* – November signee
# – walk on, not on scholarship

Men’s basketball: Terrell Brown commits

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Here’s what went into the paper, and here’s the interviews:
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If you want more, here’s his OJC bio page and stats are laid out as best I could: 26 G 19 GS 135 FGM 303 FGA 44.6 FG% 90 2M 185 2A 48.6 2% 45 3M 118 3A 38.1 3% 79 FTM 92 FTA 85.9 FT% 19 RBDO 53 RBDD 72 RBDTot 51 AST 47 TO 15 STL 3 BLK 394 PTS

What I like: He has a 3-year window, which means the fanbase will get to know him on a level they haven’t been able to with the recent junior college guys. He fits a near immediate-need at shooting guard/undersized wing in the quicker, smaller Big Sky Conference. He has a real relationship with Shawn Dirden (Reed wouldn’t confirm it and Brown answered but shied away from saying it – Brown left USD because Dirden left, I suspect.) and that will go far during his development at MSU.

What I don’t like (at first blush): He mentioned he and Boots didn’t see eye-to-eye on his contribution level, and you can read many things into that. If that was a key sticking point, having Dirden here will help alleviate that but Brad Huse has, as we’ve seen in the past, a penchant to play around with rotations, lineups, minutes, etc., even if a player becomes one Huse has an affinity for.

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“They’ve been following me the whole year, and I just felt comfortable when I went on my visit. I’ve never had a head coach of a program really have me as their guy, and Montana State pretty much showed me that love. They really need somebody at that position and they really want me, too. That’s pretty much what went into my decision.”
History with Dirden
“We had a pretty decent relationship in high school and the one year I was at South Dakota. I spent a lot of time with him, skill development and stuff. We grew during that year – that contributed a lot, actually.”
Left USD
“It wasn’t the right fit during that time. Coach (Dave) Boots felt like he couldn’t give me an opportunity when I wanted it, right away, so it was time for me to move somewhere I could get a chance to play.”
3 year career at MSU
“That’s huge. I feel like three years, I can build a relationship with the community. Put my mark on the program in three years. Two years goes by pretty fast, as you can see. I have a chance to do what I want to do athletically and academically. Three years is a long time.”

Houston Reed
“Shawn went to work for Brad, and stayed in contact through the course of the season. Everything came into fruition where they needed a guard and Terrell obviously had an opportunity to go there. It seemed like a match.”
“I know I had conversations with Shawn about Terrell when they both departed (USD).”
“I think it’s a good fit. They were looking for somebody of Terrell’s skill set and it just seemed like, as things came down towards the end, it was a fit for both of them.”
“He can score in a variety of ways. He’s got a pull-up game to him, a left-handed kid who can shoot well. When he’s on the bounce on his left hand and pulls up, I don’t think he misses a whole lot of those.”
“His work ethic is unmatched; a very high-character kid that will have an impact on the program in other ways than bouncing the basketball.”
“Terrell has an opportunity to come in there and impact the team, and that’s why they recruited him.”

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