Team Retreat to Ohiopyle: Day 1

By Payton Moore

Payton is a sophomore setter from Battle Creek, Mich. and Lakeview High School. 

As 18 taller-than-average girls piled into four mini vans, I thought of the song “Against All Odds” and how I’m astonished it wasn’t written by one of us. Adversity is our best friend and for the next three days we would fiercly embrace the term.

I virtually kissed all the people I don’t text goodbye a silent tear dripped down my face as 4G turned into a heart-stopping NO SERVICE.

For the next three days, our phones, TV access and former-known lives would be handed over to our three coaches for a team-bonding whitewater rafting experience in southern Pennsylvania.

Upon arriving in the 18-person (or so we think) house, I was reminded of summers spent up north fishing and hiking with my family in northern Michigan. The trees loomed over gravel-sprayed roads with our hanging branches and the river offered up some pretty relaxing views. 

A few of us claimed the best bedrooms. A few of us found the hidden corners and crevices of the new home. Drew discovered a plush plaid robe and refused to take it off for the remainder of the night. Others surrendered to nature and the Adirondack chairs out back. The select few remaining teammates clamored to the “loft” – an attic with six-foot-tall ceilings and eight tiny beds. Cozy, to say the least.

As groceries piled in, Don explained that the 18 of us would be making dinner. Never in my life have I ever seen someone burn boiling water, but we did it. We managed to crisp up pasta noodles while boiling them and make garlic toast too soggy, but we (Steve) made some tasty chicken and (Jenny-opened) bagged salad. Tasty.

Our evening activity was announced as Steve’s Minute to Win it. We divided into groups of three and began our first activity consisting of tennis balls and hula hoop. I immediately got way too excited because if this thing had anything to do with either of the two in their true state, my team would be absolutely winning as I placed second in the state finals for doubles tennis and can out hula-hoop a circus performer. Adversity, my friends, will teach you otherwise.

We were instructed to “hut, hut, hike” the tennis balls through the hoop and I was up first. I felt proud as I stepped away with two successful balls through the hoop as Bridget succeeded 12.

The next activities involved a set of sexy vintage pin-up cards, cotton balls, water balloons and Oreos. I’m pretty sure our team only lost because I couldn’t stop laughing and frequently had to excuse myself from the activities, and because Drew’s attempts at cheating failed her miserably.

For the next few hours we huddled around a campfire and toasted s’mores while discussing a few light topics, and a few heavier ones.

Steve asked us “who is your celebrity crush?” and the responses varied between Clooney, Hemsworth and Levin.

“What’s your biggest fear” followed with snakes, my house burning down, and dying before discovering bigfoot.

On our bucket lists were traveling the world, illustrating children’s books and skydiving. 

But what really made us all think was one final question – “When you look back and talk about our season, what do you want to have said we accomplished?”

Some of us truly grasp what we wanted to say, as this was no easy question. Just one day and I believe we developed a good base as to where we want to be come November.

Photos from Preseason Retreat

After a morning practice on Sunday, our team left for a team-bonding and white water rafting trip at Ohiopyle in Pennsylvania. Here are a few photos from our first day. 

Norberg Looks to Use Experience at European Global Challenge to Springboard Sophomore Season

The Kent State volleyball team will kickoff preseason practice for the 2014 campaign Saturday morning at the M.A.C. Center. Several of the Golden Flashes stuck around campus and took summer courses over the past few months.

Sophomore Drew Norberg was not among those players, however. The 6-0 middle blocker was awarded the opportunity to travel and compete at the European Global Challenge in Pula, Croatia last month. The South Lake Tahoe, Calif. native was one of nine student-athletes selected to represent the Northern California VolleyballAssociation (NCVA).

“I was so excited because I’ve always wanted to go to Europe,” Norberg said. “I got a text from my club coach. He said they were in need of a middle and told them about me.”

While the competition lasted just four days (July 14-17), Norberg and her NCVA teammates were able to take advantage of this opportunity and spent nearly two weeks in Europe.

The team flew to Milan, Italy, where it spent a few days training and sightseeing. Then it was on to Lovere, Italy to spend time in the Alps in addition to more sightseeing and practicing against the Italian Youth National Team. Following the end of competition in Pula, the team spent a few days in Venice, Italy before heading back to the U.S.

“Venice was probably my favorite place that we visited. It was just unbelievable almost with all of the water and everything. It was just so beautiful over there. All of the cultures were different and it was a really good experience.”

On the court, the NCVA team finished 7th out of 12 teams competing in the U22 division of the event. The nine-player roster included just two middles, which provided Norberg with a lot of on-court action to continue improving her game.

“I was pleased with how I played overall and think I improved really well in blocking and serves. I didn’t get that much offensive stuff in, but I definitely got to work on other things that I had wanted to.”

The experience also allowed her a first-hand glimpse at the way the sport is played at the international level.

“The main difference is the tempo over there is a lot slower because they focus more on placing the ball and taking smart shots. They try to outsmart their opponents instead of just trying to beat them and be faster than them.”

When she wasn’t traveling abroad, Norberg spent much of her time back home working out and focusing on preparing for her sophomore season. Despite not seeing much court time throughout the year, Norberg continued working hard and came through with her best performance against Ohio in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament, totaling 4 kills and a .667 attack percentage. She received the team’s Most Improved Award following the season. 

“A lot of girls come in thinking they’re the best. They were the best at their high school, and I had that mentality as well coming into last year. I didn’t realize how much that I had to learn and how much I really needed to just start over. It was hard, but now I understand what the coaches want and how much I still have to learn and to improve on.”

“I played a lot of volleyball, so I’m in good playing shape. Blocking was a big thing for me. I know Coach Gromala wants me become a better blocker and has talked about working on my footwork in my approach and my block. So I worked on that a lot with my coaches back in California.

Kent State made great strides in 2013, doubling both its overall and conference win totals from the previous season, in addition to qualifying for the MAC Tournament for the first time since 2010. A national Top 100 recruiting class joins a team that lost just three players from a season ago, providing great optimism for the program.

“I definitely want to make it to the MAC Tournament again and wins a few matches. I’m looking forward to a really good, positive year and hope to give our seniors something to go out with. I was excited to see everyone when I got into town and can’t wait to get back into it."

Volunteering with Bridge Project to help feed the homeless

By Liz Reikow
Junior, Middle Blocker

Last Thursday, we went to dining services and made some food for the homeless. We were split into groups and put in charge of making different parts of the meal. I helped make apple pie. Since I live off campus now, I do a lot of cooking. We made everything from scratch, though, which was really cool.

Then on Friday, we went to the Y-Bridge in Akron and served the food to the homeless. It was really cool to serve food to them and also to have a chance to talk to them and see what their lives are like, what their interests are and get an idea of what they do everyday.

I’ve served food to the homeless before, but it was about 10 years ago. This was a good experience and it was really fun to do something for a good cause. It provided another team activity and working with my teammates is always fun.

This experience made me more thankful for what I have and having the ability to help others. We have a lot of people come to our games and support our team, so it felt good to give back and support other people.

Lessons learned heading into spring finale

Kent State concludes its spring schedule with the Golden Flashes Spring Tournament on Saturday. Sophomore defensive specialist Alexis Rains and freshman middle blocker Drew Norberg take a look back at the last two weekends of competition and discuss this weekend’s home event.

Alexis Rains

The first weekend we played at Duquesne and it was exiting for me because I live in Pittsburgh. We played against Duquesne, Robert Morris and two Pitt teams. We fell short in all of our matches, but it was really good competition. Duquesne won their conference last year, Pitt finished in the top half of the ACC and RMU is also a good team.

It was definitely a learning weekend for us. I feel like we got better as the day went on. We took what happened during that first weekend and we went to practice the following week with a whole different mentality of wanting to get stuff done. So it was motivation and we definitely got better from the first weekend to the second.

We are really looking forward to playing at home to end the spring. This weekend’s always fun because you’re defending your home court. You have a lot to prove and everyone wants to beat you. There’s going to be a lot of good competition and I’m excited to see what we can do.

Drew Norberg

Just like the first weekend, the Michigan State tournament was a learning experience. Our matches were against IPFW, Grand Valley State, Ferris State and MSU. We stepped it up and won a few matches, which was good. I feel like two areas where we improved a lot from the first weekend were serving and owning the net. We were a lot stronger at the net offensively.

I was really excited to have a chance to compete against other teams. Obviously when you’re playing against the same people everyday in practice, you know what they’re going to do and when they’re going to do it. It’s fun to be competitive in a different way and not know what your opponent is going to do.

Winter Olympics brings back memories of competitive figure skating days

By Jenny Buczek
Junior, Setter

Skating is pretty big out in Illinois. My brother started playing hockey when I was 3 or 4 and so I wanted to get out on the ice too. I kind of wanted to try hockey, but my mother suggested figure skating instead.

So I started skating and went to a trainer in my area. At first I didn’t do so well and placed last in my first 3 competitions.

This Olympic gold medalist, Alexei Ulanov from Russia, started coaching at our ice rink and I noticed he kind of used to watch me skate and stuff. So one day my mom decided to call him up and ask if he would have time to train me. At first he said no, but then he was he asked my mom to describe what I looked like. So she did and he was like “I know who she is, I’ll take her.”

So he started training me 4-5 days a week for only about 40 minutes a day, but he worked me so hard it felt like 2 hours each time. At first, he just tried to build my body up and we didn’t even work on moves. Then went to moves.

He always taught me what he called the “Russian way.” He would always say “These other skaters walk on the ice. You have to skate. You have to be fluid and proud.”

So my first competition after he started training me was a pretty high level one. I went out there, performed really well and got second. Basically from then on, I always got first, second or third.

When I would land a new jump, he would never praise me or show excitement. I remember my mom telling me how he would skate over to her and say, “She just landed this jump. Not many people this age are landing this jump. But I’m not going tell her because I don’t want her to get too excited and to lose it.”

That’s just how he was and he would always tell me to expect great results and to never be surprised by them. He taught me a lot about competition—to have a good work ethic, to always just be proud, to be respectful, to attack everything and not to allow anything overcome you because you are strong enough to get over certain obstacles.  

I was about 8 or 9 when I started training with him. He really developed me and made me very athletic. When I was still in middle school, he moved to Miami to become the director of a rink down there. My skating career kind of ended as a result because there wasn’t anybody that was comparable to him in my area.

I love watching figure skating and have enjoyed watching the Olympics. The Russian pair that won gold in the long program, I basically cried after they finished their performance. Just the pure emotion, the pure adrenaline they had after their clean skate really got to me. 

When I have time, I still skate for fun. The last time I went was right before winter break. I was just doing some spins and can still do most of them. I want to get back into it a little bit more and start doing my jumps again. I don’t want to lose it. I think it’s a really good work out too.

Start of semester marks beginning of off-season training

By Don Gromala
Head Women's Volleyball Coach

As a staff, we’re really excited to have the girls back on campus. It was a good break, although it felt a little long. The girls got back at it this past week with the first day of off-season training on Tuesday. Our main focus for the week was strength and conditioning and open gyms just to get them back in the swing of things. We didn’t want to thrust them back into intense training just yet.

We will begin individual workouts this coming week, and for the next month-and-a-half we’ll really focus on technical things—arm swing, hand positioning, platform angles, etc.—that our girls need to work on. Gradually, we’ll progress into more team stuff as we get closer to our spring season. Spring practice will begin in March and we will be playing in four tournaments in April.

The off-season is huge for any program. You’re always going to be losing some great players and experienced players, so you’re trying to develop some new and different leadership. Girls are going to take on different roles and that’s the exciting part of it as a staff to see what kind of growth your team has during this time.

Part of the reason that so much development takes place in the off-season is that it’s a time that allows us to take a step back from the competition and scouting aspects and focus just on ourselves. We saw some great improvements last off-season physically, which then carried over into our season this past fall. Our training focuses on helping our girls become faster, stronger and more explosive.

I am very proud of the work our girls have done in the classroom since coming here. We had a team GPA of over a 3.2 in the fall, which is on par with where we were a year ago. This is such a great group of girls. They understand that to excel on the court, you have to excel in the classroom as well. We’re definitely look forward to getting back-to-back AVCA Team Academic Awards. That hasn’t happened here in a while and is something we want to get year after year and not just every once in a while. We echo those sentiments on the court. We don’t want to just have a good year. We want to continue building and getting better and better and maintaining at the same time.