The
Pac-12 women’s volleyball season gets underway Wednesday night with a visit from
“that team in the East Bay”, as Bobby Knight would put it. To get you up-to-date
on all things Cardinal volleyball, head coach John Dunning took time after
Tuesday’s practice to sit down with The Bootleg. Here’s what the coach had to say:
The
Bootleg: Non-conference
play is over. Overall, how do you feel about your 8-2 record in those non-Pac-12
games?
John
Dunning:
I thought the preseason went really well for us. We were on the road a lot,
played some really good teams. We played three pretty darn good teams on their
court. I didn’t think we rose to the occasion in Hawai’i. I thought Hawai’i did
a good job; I thought we could have played better there. I thought we did play
better at Penn State; that’s just taking on a good team on their home court and
that’s tough. That’s what we wanted to do. Our goal was to know each other, find
out more about each other on the court and have to play some tough teams. I
think we’re happy with where we are in some areas; we know we have some things
we need to get better at.
TB:
The
wrap on the 2011 Cardinal was that they were young. Well, arguably the 2012
Cardinal are even younger with the five freshmen seeing significant time. What were your expectations for your
top-ranked recruiting class coming into the year and how have they
changed?
JD:
I thought last year’s team was a talented team and we had
some players that were juniors and seniors, but the experience level we had on
the court was young because we had gotten the ball to Alix [Klineman] and Gabby
[Ailes] and Cass [Cassidy Lichtman] a lot the year before, and we had new people
in new roles and so in that respect, we were young. This year, age-wise we’re
young, but in terms of experience, I think we’re much, much older. The ten
returning players have been through all that now. They know what they need to
do.
They know what the
expectations and level of play are like. And the freshman coming in- that’s one
of the things that I was drawn to all of them- is that they all played key roles
on whatever team they played on, and they all played on good teams. We felt
there was a good chance they would come into college mature already and in terms
of their court sense, it has proven to be that way. They have handled everything
that has come their way very well so far and they’re growing each
day.
TB:
Let’s
talk about a couple of these freshmen, starting with Jordan Burgess. She has
been very solid as an outside hitter, but perhaps what’s eye-popping to a
non-insider is the rate at which she is digging the ball. What makes her so
effective when she is in the back row?
JD:
For
one, she has been coached by good coaches throughout her career so she has a
good base. She is a really, really fast reactive athlete, and she’s very
competitive. If you add those things all up, she is just ready to
go.
TB:
Inky
Ajanaku is another frosh. Every time Kim Oden and I are on the webcast call, she
always gushes over Inky’s ups. You have a figure on her
vertical?
JD:
*laughs* Yeah, she’s really long. She’s pretty tall, she has really long arms,
big hands. That sorts itself out really well in the game of volleyball. And she
is athletic; she touches pretty high. We’ll measure it later on, but it is up
there pretty high, there’s no doubt. That’s why we got goggles on her right
away, because she gets her face above the net all the
time.
TB:
With
Karissa Cook out, Inky is receiving sets from a freshman setter in Madi Bugg.
How long will it realistically take to get that connection between freshman
setter and her hitters? That’s obviously something that takes time to
develop.
JD:
Part
of our job is to push it, to do things that help allow it or enable it. But
there’s also the time on the court- that you have to have that many repetitions
on the court in different situations against really good players who don’t know
you that well, and that’s when the connection starts to sort itself out. It’s
better in practice every day, it’s better now than it was the first match, and
our hope is that as we continue to grow in experience on the court, that that
connection will grow as the year goes.
TB:
What
is the status of Karissa Cook?
JD:
Karissa
is coming along. She bruised a bone in her knee; that really hurts, and she is
coming back day-to-day. The last two days, she has done more than I thought she
would. It’s absolutely day-to-day with her. She doesn’t need to get back into
practice to get back into the games and get up to game speed, so it may be that
she could play as early as [tonight against Cal].
TB:
Of
course, you still have your two main horses from last year in Rachel Williams
and Carly Wopat. Rachel was out for a few matches with an abdominal injury, but
returned against USF and looked fine. How’s she doing, and for those who haven’t
seen her play, what does she add to the offense?
JD:
Rachel is a very explosive athlete. She has a pretty serious ability to get off
the ground and she is fast and strong as well. She had in the neighborhood of
500 kills for us last year, so she proved that at this level already, she can
terminate. And she played the whole game for us last year in all six rotations.
She did that in pain, and she had something she needed to be fixed from birth in
her shoulder, so we had that corrected. Her shoulder is fine now. Now it’s a
matter of working her way back up into shape in terms of playing the game. It’s
different than just conditioning; you have to play your way back into it a
little bit. She’s getting there each day, and the most she played was last
weekend and we were all really happy with what she did, and I think we’re all
looking forward to tomorrow.
TB:
It
was a trying off-season understandably for Carly Wopat, but it has affected her
play not at all, averaging right around 1.5 blocks per set. She looks fine, but
how has she dealt with the loss of her twin sister Sam, at least around the
team?
JD:
Carly
had a great year last year. She had a knee that was bothering her the whole
year, but just a sign of the kind of competitive, determined person she is, she
just played through it every day, was an All-American, had statistics that were
ridiculous and continued to get better every day. She was one of those people
that was at the center of the heart of the team that wants to win. She helps
other people around her want to win more every day.
Her
family had a tragedy occur with what happened to her sister Sam. She thinks
about her every day, we all think about her every day. We all hope for her
family to continue to have wonderful memories and celebrate Sam, and have the
ability to move forward. That's one of the things that has been in Carly's life;
we've dedicated our season to her sister. Everybody in the program misses Sam
dearly, we think about her every day. We have reminders of her, her initials are
on our uniform and we have a moment of silence for her every game day.
So we
know that she is part of our season and will always be part of our lives, and
we're just all trying to look forward and continue to bring her memory with
us.
TB:
Looking
ahead to the conference season… 20 matches this year, 22 last year, 18 the year
before when it was the Pac-10. How do you like the number 20 for Pac-12
tilts?
JD:
The
number 18 was actually wonderful. That gave us ten preseason [matches], which
really allowed you to go out and test yourself as much as you wanted to in your
four preseason weekends. Our conference added two teams, tried a 22-game season,
which the basis for that was to have it be fair, so everyone plays everyone on
each other’s court. And then you look around and six matches against other teams
around the country is just not enough, for a variety of reasons, including
seeding at the end of the season. So we decided that that wasn’t going to work;
we didn’t want to go less than 20 to start with, so we settled on this, and this
year we play everyone twice except Utah and Colorado. Next year it will be a
different pair we only play once. It’s not as level a playing field as you can
get, but it’s smart for our conference, and so those two things kind of balance
themselves out. And for me, once those things happen, I just try to make the
best happen out of where we are.
TB:
Cal
is up first. The Golden Bears have had your number the past couple of years,
what’s your assessment of the way your team has played in those recent
matches?
JD:
The
last four or five years, I really began to understand what a great rivalry this
is, what it’s based in, how people feel about it. So the fact that we’ve been on
the short end of this rivalry for two years doesn’t make anyone in our program
happy. It’s a credit to the fact that their teams have been very good and that
it’s also a place we can know that a lot of motivation is growing from. We
really look forward to playing them; they’re always well coached and they have a
senior-laden team this year. So the two matches we have with Cal this year and
this one coming up are very important to our team. For one, it’s a real test,
because they’re really good. So we’re all looking forward to it and hoping to
start a new streak, I’d say.
TB:
In
the Pac-12 opener last year, Cal vs. Stanford was a battle of 1 vs. 2 in the
country. This year, Cal is 6-4 and
unranked, having lost twice to USF, a team you swept last Friday. I know libero
extraordinaire Robin Rostratter is out, but what has been the book on Cal in
2012?
JD:
Robin
is very important and she has been out, so there’s no question that would affect
any team. The key thing for them is the change for three years in a row having a
new setter. So they had a setter who was a wonderful player who graduated, they
had a setter who set last year who retired early and now they have a new setter
who transferred in. The three system hitters that they have- the two middles and
the opposite- those are the real in-synch positions with the setter. That
synchronicity has to happen, and with a new player in that setting position each
year, that’s really difficult on those three senior players. So they’re at the
heart of their team, and the more that gets in-synch, the tougher they’ll get. I
kind of think that’s where it’s coming from- a really key player hurt and a new
player coming in trying to get it going with the offense.
TB:
Finally
coach, what is it going to take to stop the losing streak at four to
Cal?
JD:
We’re
on our home court, we look at it like we have an advantage, we love playing
here, and we know that we’re starting a new Pac-12 season. The last couple of
years, we haven’t started off on the right foot, and so we want to step forward
with the right foot this time and be tough when they come to our
court.