bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the match last week against Hawai'i?
Mike Jordan: Hawai'i was difficult. They're a fantastic team. I think it's the best floor defense team I've seen ever. I thought maybe last year's was the best and they're better this year. They're a better blocking team than they were a year ago. Getting kills was pretty difficult and we're a team that can hit the ball pretty well.

It was frustrating because we didn't block anything, we didn't hit anything and they hit for way too high a percentage. Also frustrating in that we were battling for a while, it was 16-18, they get a little bit of a run and we kind of hang our head. This team is a team that needs to learn to battle back and play from behind. Hopefully we'll figure that out pretty soon. But Hawai'i is in a different level right now. They're definitely as good as last year I think and a legitimate Final Four caliber team.

bc.net: On Sunday you took on Arizona and one of the big differences between the match against Hawai'i and the match against Arizona is that you had 10 total team blocks against Arizona after zero blocks against Hawai'i. What changed from Wednesday night to Sunday night?
MJ: Well, we're making incremental changes. There was definitely a need, and we recognized that, to make some improvements and some adjustments there. We started to do that. I think we'll get better at as the season progresses. We played better floor defense too and extended some rallies which was good. Arizona's got a lot of weapons, they're tough to handle at times but we were right there. If it weren't for one or two breaks going our way, we could have gone up 2-0 in that match. I thought it was a huge improvement from our performance on Wednesday against Hawai'i.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on Kayleigh Giddens' play last weekend.
Mike Jordan: Kayleigh played well obviously. She's really attacking the ball well at a high level and overmatched Louisiana Tech physically. We're happy she's playing so well and hopefully she'll continue to put up those kind of numbers against everybody.

bc.net: Your thoughts on the match against Hawai'i on Wednesday night?
MJ: They're a tremendous team and they're ranked 5th for a reason. They've got a lot of weapons and ball control is probably their strength as it always is. Year in and year out they're one of the best digging teams in the country if not the best and they can frustrate you. We'll go bomb a ball and it'll come back and we'll go bomb another ball and it'll come back and we try and do too much and make an attack error. That's kind of been the M.O. for our matches with them. When we've beaten them we've been a very good blocking team that's frustrated them. We've blocked enough balls to kind of get in their head and force them into taking more risks and making them make some attack errors.

It's going to be one of those matches where we're going to have to win some long rallies and right now digging is not the strong suit of our team but we've got the offensive weapons to compete for sure and hopefully the home crowd will be worth a couple of points.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net:: Your thoughts on the alumni weekend?
Mike Jordan:: It was a blast. So much fun to see so many players from the past and their families. It takes you down memory lane. It's a really neat deal to see Annika Donaldson-Williams and her kids and her husband who I'd known a little bit, it was really nice because we haven't had a chance to see her too often. She was a junior when I took over, it's been quite a while since she finished playing. It's been a decade. It was great to see them come back and enjoy playing and seeing the team and interacting with them and touring the facilities. I like the look in their eye knowing that they had a hand in building what we have now.

bc.net: How did some of the new players do in the match against the alumni?
MJ: Freshmen and sophomores that haven't played much or at all tend to be a little nervous. We saw a little bit of that early but once they loosened up they played pretty well. I was really impressed with Rocio Gutierrez. She did a good job on the left and passed great serve receive which we were hoping for out of whoever plays that spot. She played real well.

The transfer middle, Michelle Kuester, her shoulder is getting stronger and she gets a little bit better every day. She didn't play all spring and played sparingly in the fall because of the arm. Her progress, we've got to bring her along slowly but we think we're going to see a player that can help us.

Desiree Scott is such a phenomenal athlete but she's got a lot to learn still but she's competing hard. The two of them are going to see some time at that other middle spot.

Shelby Tamura and Ellen Miks did a good job at libero and defensive specialist. They passed the ball pretty well, made some good defensive plays, gave us good energy. Ellen in particular served the ball real well which is great because we weren't satisfied with her serve last year, we thought it was too easy. We worked at it and she's made really good strides there. All in all I like what I saw from the new players and the youngsters. As long as our veteran players play well I think we've got a shot at being pretty good.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: The win in the Colorado State match was the end of your season, I'm sure you didn't think that would be your final match, but you have to be proud of the way your team played with your season on the line.
Mike Jordan: Yeah, I think the win should have extended our season for sure. But I'm happy that we finally broke through against a really good team and got a win. That was the one thing we hadn't done this year. We beat all the mediocre teams and the not so great teams but we hadn't been able to knock off somebody really good. That certainly felt good.

bc.net: Your thoughts on the season overall. You finished with 20 wins, your nine losses, you didn't have any bad losses as you mentioned throughout the season, and seven of the nine losses came against five teams that went to the NCAA Tournament and three of those teams are in the Sweet 16.
MJ: Yeah, certainly our non-conference strength of schedule was very good. It was tough going for a couple of reasons, one we were young and two we had injury issues we had to deal with. Lilly Wolfe and Kelli Goodan were hurt to start the year. Kayleigh Giddens, our best outside hitter, sprains an ankle just as we're starting to play the really good teams, against Illinois in the third point of the match, and so we had to play, Illinois, Wisconsin and Notre Dame and just couldn't get a win without her in the lineup. That's not to say we would have won even if she were in the lineup but I sure what have liked our chances a lot better.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net will be conducting regular interviews with 12th year Aggie head volleyball coach Mike Jordan as the Aggies look to defend their regular season WAC co-championship and advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. This week we talked with Coach Jordan about last weekend's trip to San Jose and Hawai'i, their first nationally televised match and midseason report card.

bleedCrimson.net: You split your two conference matches last week, you started out hot against San Jose State and then they came back in the last two sets and made it interesting.
Mike Jordan: San Jose, they've been struggling with a young team and with injuries. We jumped on them pretty well in the first couple of games. In game three we showed signs of letdown and made a lot of unforced errors. I thought San Jose picked up their level of play and started to get some confidence. Typically matches like that they don't have anything to lose. Once they got their confidence rolling they played hard and did some good things and kept pressure on us and made it interesting for a little while. But you know, winning on the road is never that easy and it's never a given so you've got to play well enough to get it done. Fortunately we got it together. Our middles were fantastic offensively and carried us because our lefts really didn't play very well at all.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net will be conducting weekly interviews with 12th year Aggie head volleyball coach Mike Jordan as the Aggies look to defend their regular season WAC co-championship and advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. This week we talked with Coach Jordan about last weekend's trip to the Notre Dame Invitational, the return match against I-10 rival UTEP and the start of conference play against Utah State.

bleedCrimson.net: What were you able to take away from the Notre Dame tournament last weekend?
Mike Jordan: Both Wisconsin and Notre Dame have really good teams. I think Notre Dame in particular is a fantastic ball control team. They just make very few errors. We've been a little bit error prone and the injuries haven't helped us settle in on a lineup. We've been in and out of the 5-1 and 6-2.

But it's great to play that level of competition. It forces you to raise the bar and understand how important it is to play error free, be more aggressive at the service line. I think the the thing that's disappointing is that we're not healthy. Some of the games were competitive up until 18 all and then we'd give up a big run. We're just going to have to get over that hump pretty soon if we want to beat anybody that's good. Losing's never fun, fortunately we don't do it very often but we've got some issues we've got to rectify. I think this week of practice has been very good for us. It's allowed us to get a little healthier and just work on a couple things in particular. I think we're getting better.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net will be conducting weekly interviews with 12th year Aggie head volleyball coach Mike Jordan as the Aggies look to defend their regular season WAC co-championship and advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. This week we talked with Coach Jordan about last weekend's season opening performance at the Mean Green Volleyball Classic, their own home opening tournament where they'll face Florida State and No. 8 Illinois as well as an exhibition with the Italian National A2 Team and a home match against I-10 rival UTEP.

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the weekend. Kelsey Brennan had a big weekend, particularly on Saturday.
Mike Jordan: I thought we played well at times. It was the first weekend and the first Division I volleyball for a few of our players, significant court time anyway. I think we certainly did some really good things. Our 'A' game when we had it was very very good, we just didn't have it enough. I thought our serve-receive improved over the weekend, I thought our decision making improved over the weekend but we've got some things we definitely need to get better at fast.

bc.net: Kelsi Phillips has stepped into the libero role, how would you grade her play this past weekend?
MJ: She was really good. I was really impressed with her. She passed great serve-receive, she was relentless defensively and gave us a ton of energy. She served the ball pretty well. She did all the things you want your libero to do. She really was a key factor in us winning some close games.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: You had a pretty phenomenal freshman year last year, you finished top 10 in the league in assists per game which is more impressive because you split time with two other setters. What was the hardest part about last year for you?
Jennah DeVries: Just being a freshman. I was the youngest person on the team and it was just hard finding the groove and bonding with all the girls, not off the court, just on the court. Finding the rhythm. I eventually got into. It was pretty stressful for me because I wasn't used to all the playing and traveling and balancing school and stuff. But I found a way to do it.

bc.net: What did you learn about yourself last season?
JD: I learned that I could drive through things. I learned that I could fight through things I didn't know I could. I had a hard time last season like I said just balancing out things. I made it through.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Kelli, you finished in the top five in hitting percentage and top 10 in blocks per game in conference play last season, what have you been working on this offseason?
Kelli Goodan: I've been working on my fundamentals, my footwork and my hand position and where coach wanted me to go on the transition moves. It's all the little things put together that make the big picture better and make it work like a well oiled machine.

bc.net: What are you hoping to bring to the team this season?
KG: I hope to bring leadership and motivation. I want to better the team as a whole. I want to contribute to the team as best as I can, I want to be the best player I can possibly be and hopefully bring everybody else together and be a big force on the court.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: First time seeing all the kids in the gym together, what were your initial impressions?
Mike Jordan: We're athletic, our skill level has a long way to go. We've got a lot of young players and so there's a lot to learn. We're going to find ourselves walking through a lot of stuff systems wise to make sure they understand it and watching a lot of film to help them as much as possible. It's going to be a lot of work. But we are very athletic. I think we've got a shot to be very good.

bc.net: With having three seniors and so many young players will you rely on those seniors more this year than maybe in years past?
MJ: We always rely heavily on your seniors every year. That's not going to change this year. We've got some good upper classmen that are good players and they understand leadership and they're really good people. I think they'll do a really good job taking care of the younger players.  Continue Reading This Post >>