Posted August 13, 2009

The UW-Platteville volleyball team reports for Coach Deb Schulman's 22nd season on Tuesday, Aug. 18. Coach Schulman, who became the 23rd coach in NCAA III history to win 500 matches during the 2008 season, discusses the preseason camp with Sports Information Director Paul Erickson.

Before we start on this year, we have to look back at last year. I know 16-18 is not necessarily what you or the team wanted. What kind of lessons did you take from the season?

""Not to take things for granted. They realized they had to go out and earn the wins; they just don't come because of a prior season's success. Hopefully this year they come in and want to take the bull by the horns and get after things, whether it be practice or competition. Hopefully they realize it takes a lot of hard work and perseverance to get the Ws and have a successful journey. Last year, they had a good experience, but I think their lack of performance dampened what could have been."

You return two all-conference players (Lisa Bell and Melissa Hillebrand) and a nationally ranked setter (Ali Sikic) among others. What does that experience mean to the team?

"We have a good core returning, with two starting seniors and juniors. This year we'll have more on-the-court experience and depth.  Hopefully with the valuable court time, Ali experienced as a freshman our offense should be much stronger this year. We also had some players join us in the spring who are older, and who will bring in more experience. I feel we'll have more maturity, and our team chemistry and leadership should be better in that regard."

You also bring in a lot of freshmen, who are very highly regarded.

"We're very excited about the freshmen. We have an idea of what they can do and what they might be able to do, but you truly don't know until you get them in the gym and work with them and see how they fit in with the returners. We are really looking forward to working with this group."

What are your goals for the training camp?

"The big thing, again with the amount of new players we have to get acclimated to the system, is developing a good team rapport early. I'd also like to get more out of our offense earlier than we have. Our coaching staff has talked about doing some drill work with our offensive scheme a little earlier in the pre-season than in the past. Sometimes we teach certain skills and are in such a hurry to get everything in and then go on to something else.  This year we want to stay with it longer than we have in the past. We don't want to be in a hurry to add in the other things. We want to get a strong foundation, and hopefully that will lead to better things down the road."

Finally, how excited are you to be playing in the renovated Williams Fieldhouse?

"We're very excited because it looks so nice. We can't wait to see the parents, the spectators, and even the opposing teams come in and see the looks on everyone's faces. We're looking forward to playing here because it is such an impressive facility."