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Volleyball team has new identity
 Media Credit: Adam Masloski The Women�s Volleyball team practiced Wednesday afternoon to get ready for their series against Southwest State this weekend. The Huskies are 2-2 under new head coach Patricia Mickow.
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As the SCSU volleyball team gets their wheels rolling into the 2003 season, they will enjoy a couple things that they haven't been blessed with in the last few years: positivity and hope.
Equipped with new head coach Patricia Mickow, all their returning starters, and seniors Kari Turkowski, Cara Bartolic and Jane Backes, the Huskies seem to have everything in place for a monumental season.
Mickow took over for SCSU legend Dianne Glowatzke, who retired at the end of last season after a 26-year career that ended with 527 wins.
After a disappointing 4-21 (1-21 NCC) 2002 season the Huskies were looking forward to a fresh start.
"The team knows that they're better than that," Mickow said. "We have the skill and the work ethic to get this program turned around on to the winning track. We definitely have the skill that it takes to compete. We want to do this right, and we don't want any negativity to carry over from the past. I don't like to make predictions as far as our record, but we are very capable of having a winning season."
Seniors are ready
Seniors Turkowski, Bartolic and Backes will be in the same leadership roles that they were forced into last year's senior-less team.
Turkowski, who will serve her second term as team captain, will draw the most attention from opposing teams. The 5-8 setter received All-NCC First Team last season with a team high 774 sets and 36 aces, while ranking second on the team with 267 kills. The Rocori, Cold Spring graduate also notched 226 digs and had nine triple-triples.
"Kari does an awesome job," Mickow said. "We're hoping to build a team around that ability to take some of the pressure off of her. Kari is a real threat in this league. She scores a lot of points, she has a lot of attempts, and she very well should. If teams look at anything on our floor they look at Kari."
Backes will be the veteran leader of the outside hitters this season for the Huskies. Although she may not be the most dangerous of the outside players, figuring Leah Herrboldt lead the team with 297 kills, the 6-0 senior will definitely be a major threat that posted 221 kills, 191 digs, and 31 blocks.
Bartolic, a 2000 graduate of St. Cloud Cathedral High School, will be the focal point of the Huskies' defense as the team's libero. She notched 122 digs, 22 sets, and nine service aces last season and has possibly improved more than any other Husky in the off-season.
"Cara flat out impressed me from day one in spring ball," Mickow said. "That girl has worked so hard and has done an excellent job. We need her to continue to pass the ball well."
New authority
Mickow will be facing large expectations in her first year at SCSU. The Huskies have not had a losing record since 1998 and seem to finally have the tools to do so this season.
Mickow's hard-nosed disciplined coaching style seems to be just what the Huskies have been craving.
"She's a very disciplined person and she makes us earn our position," Turkowski said. "I like the fact that she's disciplined because in the last three years we haven't had that. She doesn't let us slack off on or off the court and I like that. She's going to make sure we stick together as a team. I really believe that the coaching staff we have now is going to change this program around."
Although Mickow's coaching style and strategies varied from Glowatzke's, the Huskies have responded quicker than expected and posted two wins to start the season as proof.
"They're two different coaching styles and I can't say that one works better than the other," Bartolic said. "(Mickow) does bring some freshness and something new that our team probably needs for our younger players. The excitement she brings to the game is definitely going to help us."
Mickow coached Bemidji State University last season and helped them double their wins from the previous season, as the Beavers finished with a 11-17 record. SCSU hopes that she can do the same type of miracle work this season.
"I'm motivated and I love my job," Mickow said. "I'm going to come to work hard for them every day and they know that they need to come in and work hard for me everyday. They have a coaching staff that believes in them, will push them, and will give them the tools to get the job done."
A total team effort
For the first time in several years the Huskies appear to finally have a complete and well-balanced lineup that contains three seniors, three juniors, four sophomores, and five first-year players. The seven returning starters will be the key for the Huskies. Herrboldt, Megan Hardy, Lindsay Ashburn, and Jamie Schlagel are expected to join the three seniors as starters again this season.
Ashburn and Herrboldt will help carry the load as team leaders and are both very dangerous players that will accompany Backes as outside hitters. Along with being known as a vocal leader on the court, Herrboldt is arguably the best offensive player the Huskies have. The Elk River native led the team with 297 kills and added 288 digs, 20 service aces and 18 blocks last season. Ashburn served as a captain last season while racking up 102 kills, 76 digs, and 27 blocks.
"You're always expecting your outsides to step up and carry the load because they need to be your terminators," Mickow said. "They get all the junk balls. When there's a bad pass we need our outside hitters to go get it."
The Huskies also hope they can continue to get playing time from freshmen Kelly Larkin, RaeAnne Stanley and Deanna Pieper, who all contributed in last weekend's split series. However, it looks as if the lineup will be juggled around a lot this season depending on contributions players make, which will keep spots in reach for other sophomores and freshmen.
"The best part about this whole thing is that we have seventeen student athletes on our roster and competition is very good," Mickow said. "You have to keep that healthy competition among the players and I feel that one of our strengths as a staff is that we are good at defining everyone's role. I have made it very clear to our starters that if they don't maintain your role someone else will. There is enough talent on this team to push every position."
That is something that the Husky Volleyball program hasn't been able to claim for a long time.
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