In 2014, the Blue Angels volleyball team had some growing pains. The team was one of the youngest in school history with 12 underclasswomen. While the team moved around and tried to find their most cohesive lineup, the youngsters seemed to start picking up the team's philosophy by the season's end.
The season began with a match against Emmaus Bible College. In the opener, Mount Mary University went point for point against Emmaus. As the matches went back and forth, the game was decided by all of four points in the "rubber set." Emmaus walked away with the victory, but Coach Kelsey Peterson knew she had something on game night, "They had so much fire and passion... It gave me chills! Even though we lost tonight, I was so excited by how we performed."
Throughout the season, the Blue Angels were not only battling with injuries, but also with players going through the growing pains of learning new positions. Payton Hintz (Fr./Almond, Wis.) was one of the players to unfortunately deal with both moving around and injury. Hintz played a middle hitter during her high school career, but switched to setter for the Blue Angels this season.
The transition for Hintz seemed to be natural, but the unfortunate side is Hintz was injured midway through the season during the Inferno-Angels Classic. The Injury kept Hintz out for a few weeks, and forced Coach Kelsey to do some more reshuffling.
The first of many moves was to place Bethany Van Hammond (So./Appleton, Wis.) in the libero spot. The move brought a positive impact to the court, as Van Hammond was praised multiple times by the coaching staff for her encouraging of other players, and her intense work ethic that kept her late in the gym working on her craft. Van Hammond was able to finish the season with 34 assists and 124 digs as she took care of the backcourt.
With Van Hammond settling in, a mending Hintz returned to the lineup after a few missed matches. Hintz found her grove right away, and ended the season with a team leading 256 assists and second in digs with 219.
Although there was a lot of restructuring and learning going around her, Sarah Wishau (Sr./Oak Creek, Wis.) still had a terrific year. The senior finished with 159 kills on the season, enough to lead the Blue Angels in the 2014 campaign. Wishau was all over the court this year, going after bad digs, hard spikes, and it resulted in her leading the team with 289 digs on the year.
In 2014, the Blue Angels had to grow up quickly. Most teams had a good balance of youth and experience, and with the age difference, sometimes MMU would be behind in just raw athleticism and strength. However, the team never called it quits, and always was striving for more, Coach Peterson, "We definitely improved the culture of the team; I expected a lot more from this group of girls, and they delivered by being dedicated to practice, conditioning, wanting to learn and seeking out additional help."
The 0-28 mark was not indicative of what the team worked for, and Coach Peterson knew the issues, "we had to work to overcome some immaturity both on and off the court. On the court, the struggle was letting nerves get to the young players especially in tight situations; that is why we often couldn't finish that fourth or fifth set on top."
With the recruiting classes growing, and the maturity of the young team increasing, time will tell if the adjustments will steer the team back onto the winning path. The Blue Angels definitely have the heart and determination to be successful, next season will show to what extent that success will go.
