Montana State

Riley emphasizing positivity as ‘Cats opens camp

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The second practice of the day on the first day of fall camp rarely elicits smiles from those participating. But as the Montana State volleyball team took to Shroyer Gym on Monday afternoon, smiles sparkled on the faces of almost all the Bobcats.

That’s just how J.J. Riley intended it.

“The style right now, we are really big on being positive,” said Riley, Montana State’s first-year head coach. “We want to create an environment where the athletes feel supported and they feel like they can branch out, push themselves to be the best they can.”

Riley, who became the 10th head coach in Montana State history in January, is currently hobbled with an injury to his right knee. He hurt himself riding his dirt bike during his final vacation before he embarks on his first head coaching challenge. But not even the limp in his injured limb could wipe the smile from his face as his players prepared for their second practice on Monday.

IMG_0088“We have a lot of excitement, a lot of focus,” said Riley, who spent the last two seasons as an assistant at the University of Utah. “The athletes trained really hard in the off-season and that was the greatest thing to see. We are trying to establish our gym identity and culture of what we want to look like. They are setting the bar pretty high right now. We have to increase that bar every day, but so far, so good. Great effort, great focus, great intensity.”

Riley inherits a team that returns 10 letter winners and five starters. The group posted a 7-21 record in Kyle Weindell’s third and final season. The Bobcats seem to be acclimating to Riley’s style quickly after also having a spring to transition.

“We are really loving it so far,” said senior outside hitter Eli Svisco, who will enter her fourth season as a starter. “The coaches are definitely pushing us. Practices are shorter but they are a lot more intense so we are getting more bang for our buck. They are really pushing us in the right direction as far as our mindset goes. A lot of what they concentrate on is mentally preparing us and getting us excited and getting us to set goals. I think that’s something that is super important that was left out previously.”

Svisco and middle blocker Natalee Godfrey are the two most decorated seniors on the roster. As a junior Godfrey led the league in hitting percentage and earned second-team All-Big Sky Conference honors despite battling injuries. Svisco was Montana State’s top offensive option on the outside, finishing a team-best 207 kills. Starting setter Katie Harrington is also a senior and returns after dishing out almost 1,000 assists last winter.

When asked about his seniors, Riley deflected the question simply in an effort to emphasize the fabric of the team he’s trying to strengthen.

“I’m not going to answer that question directly because one of the biggest pushes we are making with this team right now is that everyone in this gym is going to matter,” Riley said. “We need the whole roster pushing and bringing their best in order to push this team forward. We do know we have some experience that has done well that will help us. But the focus is on the group. Every single person needs to buy in and commit so we can achieve the best we can.”

Junior outside hitter Loni Kreun, sophomore middle blockers Jolie Meade and Kiana Black and sophomore defensive specialist Kasey Altman figure to also challenge for time in the rotation.

“Strategy, we want to play hard, we want to play aggressive, we want to be fast in everything we do,” Riley said. “It’s going to take a big commitment on the athletes to manage themselves. Conditioning, nutrition, sleep is all big so they are prepared to push every single day because we want to go hard and fast.”

In Weindell’s first season in 2012, Montana State had a sort of breakthrough. The Bobcats finished 9-11 in league play to make the Big Sky Conference tournament for the first time in more than a decade. MSU’s 15-14 record was its first over .500 since 2005. But unfortunately for MSU, it was an outlier from the norm. MSU won just four league matches in 2013 and just four more last season. Since 2006, Montana State is 64-193 (win percentage of .249), including just 30-125 against Big Sky competition. Take away the 2012 campaign and Montana State has averaged less than three Big Sky wins per year over the last decade.

“The biggest challenge for us is our mindset,” Svisco said. “We’ve had such a hard time the last few years and we need to get out of that slump and start becoming a winning team like we know we can. I think it’s all mental.”

Riley will have three weeks to mold his squad prior to its season-opening match against Tulane at the Sam Houston Classic in Huntsville, Texas on Aug. 28.

 

 

 

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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