Melissa Blessington's background experiences

The Times Sports staff had the opportunity to profile Women's Volleyball coach Melissa Blessington, and here are our results:Experience in playing volleyball:

She started playing volleyball at the age of 10 and played for all four years in college. The first two years, she played at the Southwestern Community College in Iowa.


Her last two years of college, she played for the Grand View College, a four-year school in Des Moines, Iowa.


Experience in coaching for a volleyball team:

She did coach for club volleyball during her last two years of college. After she graduated from Grand View, she went directly into coaching at MATC.


Victories:

The college team she played for at the Southwestern Community College won the regional championship. However, during her last two years at Grand View, her team did not make it that far.

Last year, the team she coached for went into the first regional. She had proudly mentioned that one of the girls on the team (Trisha Maurer) had gotten through all the conferences and all-region and another girl (Brittany Wahlen) had gone through all-state.

Feelings about the current season:

This year, she and her team faced more competition. They had played the first, third, fourth and the fifth teams in the nation. This year, the team was the most structurally sound team she had ever had.


Expectation of the future:

This year, she wants her team to make it to the regional and win the state championship. Her hope for the long run is to get more people involved in the sport. She wants the student body to join in and be aware of the volleyball team and to recruit more student players.

Here is the Women's Volleyball update as of October 9, 2008. The Stormers play in the WJCAA Region 3 Tournament on Wednesday, October 15 at UW-Waukesha. They are tied for first in this region and will play two games each vs. UW-Fond du Lac, UW-Waukesha and UW-Washington. The team with the best overall record that night will advance to the WJCAA State Tournament October 18 at UW-Fond du Lac.