Setting the Bar: A look inside the 2009 volleyball season (Part 3)
12/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball, Features
By Matt Fancett, U-M Athletic Media Relations
SELECTION SUNDAY
On Sunday, Nov. 29, teams across the country gathered to see if their name would be called to participate in the NCAA Tournament. The Michigan team and staff arrive at the Rosen house around 2 p.m., where associate head coach Leisa Rosen has made enough chili to feed a small army.
I am one of the last to arrive, tagging along is my eight-year old daughter, Maddie, the biggest Michigan volleyball fan in the third grade. She is greeted by a round of applause from the team. I am greeted by inquiries as to our upcoming fate. Many want to know if I have heard any inside information. Some want to know my prediction on who we will play or if we will host. Others wonder if we are still in line to be seeded. Bower wants to play Nostradamus.
"We are going to host," she declares. "I just have a feeling."
At 3 p.m. the volume is turned up on the ESPN News telecast of the announcement. It doesn't take long for the Stanford Regional to be announced. The room erupts when Michigan pops on the screen as the No. 13 seed. A date with upstart Niagara is revealed and Maddie covers her ears from the sonic boom unleashed by the team.
There is only one problem; we don't know when or more importantly where we are playing. The team's attention focuses toward the staff. None of us know the answer, so Leisa starts working the phones to see if anyone knows.
After a few phone calls and some tense waiting, an e-mail arrives from the NCAA. It is a bracket with host teams highlighted. Michigan is in yellow. The team goes bananas again. A return phone call confirms that we will play host for the second time in school history, but the roof nearly blows off when we find out we will play in Cliff Keen Arena, not Crisler.
THE SECOND SEASON BEGINS
"It is a pretty big advantage to host," head coach Mark Rosen explains in his weekly podcast for MGoBlue.com. "We get all the comforts of home. We get to practice, while other teams are traveling. Most importantly, this year, we get to play at Keen. That is awesome for our team, our fans and especially our seniors."
Michigan faces Niagara in the first round. The Purple Eagles had won just six games the previous season and now this small school from New York was in the dance.
"We certainly can't take them lightly," says Zimmerman. "We respect what they have done and we need to bring our `A' game. That is what the tournament is all about, bringing your best."
The Wolverines do just that. They make quick work of Niagara, including a 25-4 win in set two. Rosen gets a chance to play everyone, something very rare for Michigan this season. Senior Cassie Petoskey gets major playing time, a moment she cherishes.
"It was awesome to get that chance here at Keen," Petoskey says postgame. "Especially in the tournament; it is a special moment. I will always remember it."
Rosen couldn't agree more.
"It was great. If you're around our team you understand how determined Cassie is," he says in the postgame presser. "She doesn't show up in a box score very often, but she's one of the best teammates anyone could ever have. For her to get an opportunity and to excel in that opportunity (to get the final kill) was great. I'm proud of her."
The following night, they face Ohio for a trip to the Sweet 16. The Bobcats take the first two sets in front of a sell-out crowd for the second straight night. Nothing seems to be working for the Wolverines and it appears the journey might end too soon.
Enter the seniors, who along with Rosen, rallied the team during intermission.
"We didn't want our season to be over," said Rood. "We came into the locker room and looked each other in the eye, that's a really important thing for us, making sure we all knew how much we wanted this. We just had to fix some things we weren't doing out there. I had confidence the whole way."
"It sounds cliché, said Rosen. "But coming out of the locker room after game two I honestly felt like we could win the match because that's this team. We have that much confidence in them and they have that confidence in themselves."
The confidence showed as Michigan got back into a rhythm. Paz, Hunt and Rood caught fire as Zimmerman got the team back into an offensive rhythm and the team posted its biggest comeback of the year to advance.
Rosen credits the entire team, but mostly the senior class for providing stability and not allowing the team to panic.
"It's about their determination and their drive," he says. "They handle those moments and find a way to just stay calm and move in the right direction when it's all on the line. That's something that these seniors bring. I've always said you go as far as your seniors take you. It doesn't matter if their numbers aren't the best, it's your seniors that drive the bus, and these guys are driving it. And it came out in the locker room, they didn't want their season to be over and nobody else wanted their season to be over, and there's the result. That's what I'm really proud of."
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'
The reward for is a trip to Palo Alto, Calif., and a date with No. 4 Stanford in the regional semifinals. A program rich in volleyball history, with national championship banners lining Maples Pavilion to prove it, awaits.
Rosen likes the matchup with Stanford. He knows it will be a battle, but it is one he thought his team was ready for.
Rood was stellar, hitting .625 with 10 kills and no errors. Her performance ties for the second-best in tournament history for the Wolverines. The team rips off eight service aces in the match, also the second-best performance in tourney play in team history.
The Wolverines jumped out early in each set. They rally from a tough 23-25 loss in set two, and take the final two sets to upset the Cardinal, becoming just the second team to beat Stanford on its home court in NCAA Regional play, ever. Michigan advances to the Elite Eight for the first time in program history, officially setting a new standard for the program.
The following night brings No. 3 ranked but 12th-seeded Hawai'i, which had dispatched of Illinois the previous night. Hawai'i is very similar to Michigan in the way they play. They are small but fast, with talented outside hitters. Above all, they are scrappy defensively and tough from the service line.
A trip to the Final Four is on the line. The team is one victory away from realizing the goal it set seven months earlier in that hotel lounge in Bouzios, Brazil.
AND SO IT ENDS
It was not meant to be, however, as the Wolverines struggle in most every facet of their game. Neither team plays particularly well, especially early, but Hawai'i plays just slightly better and builds a 2-0 lead.
"We were certainly struggling out there," said Rosen. "It reminded me some of the Ohio match. The team had that same look in the locker room of not wanting the season to come to an end."
Only this time, it did. Hawai'i was too much on this night, defeating Michigan in three sets, ending the year and the careers of U-M's senior class. It is a class that combined for a 98 wins, four straight NCAA Tournament berths, including three Sweet 16 trips and an Elite Eight. They set individual and team records all over the place, making their impact a lasting one.
"Like I said before, I couldn't be prouder of this group," Rosen said after the loss. "We sat in Brazil way back last May and this team talked about wanting to be in the Final Four. That is a lofty goal, but we came one win away from achieving that."
"This team, this senior class, will be forever able to look back and say that they were the group that took this program to the next level," Rosen continued. "It has been building up and up for a few years now, but this is the group that has raised the bar now for everyone who wears the block 'M' after them in this program."
In the locker room, there were tears, but also there was laughter, eventually. Junior Maggie Busch thanked the senior class for "showing us all how to be better volleyball players and better people." A torch was passed from the seniors to the juniors that night with a challenge to lead the 2010 team to even loftier goals.
"It is sad to think it is over," said Bower waiting in the Chicago airport for the final leg of her last flight with the team. "I don't think it will hit me until they start working out again and we (the seniors) aren't a part of it."
As for the legacy of this senior class, for what they have accomplished, Bower was her usual self, straight and to the point.
"We accomplished a lot in four years," she said. "Maggie and Lexi will lead next year; it is engrained in them now. They will be great at it. They better be or they will answer to me!"
