Friday, October 14, 2011

MUH volleyball team captures league title


By Bob Ratterman
New coaches and two seniors new to the team led the Miami University Hamilton campus volleyball team to a league championship after a losing record a year ago.

The Harriers defeated Ohio State University’s Lima campus team 3-1 Wednesday, Oct. 12, at home to clinch no worse than a tie for the championship, heading into the final match of the Ohio Regional Campus Conference West Division schedule against Wright State’s Lake campus at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon, Oct. 15.

Their final regular-season match will be a nonconference one Sunday afternoon at Southern State.
The team celebrated Senior Night Wednesday, honoring their two seniors, Dana Hamblin and Devon Wells. The two played at Miami Middletown for three years and both joined the Hamilton campus team this year and both contributed the turnaround in Hamilton.

The MUH volleyball team ran their record to 11-5 overall and 6-1 in the ORCC West Division Wednesday, their only ORCC loss Sept. 28 at Ohio State Lima. This season marked a turnaround for the Hamilton campus volleyball team which posted a record of 7-10 a year ago with a 4-4 ORCC mark.

Wednesday’s win means they can do no worse than share the title with Middletown, but, having beaten MUM twice in league play, they hold the tiebreaker. A win over WSU Lake Saturday means an outright title and coach Sarah Dennis expects to see that happen.

“I’m not planning on tying,” she said after Wednesday’s win. “We talk about playing our own game.
We can’t give anything away. More often than not when we lose, we beat ourselves.”

MU Hamilton volleyball coach Sarah Dennis and her father, assistant coach Dan Dennis, watch Wednesday as the Harriers defeated OSU Lima 3-1 to win at least a share of the division championship.—Photo by Lisa Back


Wednesday’s match found the Harriers starting slow in each game, but building momentum, except in the third game.

In the first, they ended a bit slowly, too, but held on. A 15-9 lead turned into a 17-12 lead but they managed a 25-20 win. They trailed early in the second game but finally broke a 7-7 tie and went out to a 13-7 lead, which became a 20-13 lead and then shrunk to a 20-18 lead. MUH had a timeout to settle down and ran off four points, gave up one more and then won 25-19.

That timeout may have been a major turning point because it gave MUH a 2-0 lead in games. OSU Lima came back with a third-game win, 25-23, in a game which saw the score tied 13 times and neither team able to build more than a two-point lead.

In the fourth game, however, Hamilton jumped to a 9-3 lead after an early 1-1 tie and widened that lead to 13-3 with Wells serving. The Harriers turned a narrow lead into a 10-point lead, on the way to a 25-12 game and match win.

“We showed we are something to be scared of. Tonight was amazing. My team pulled together,” Wells said, adding of the string of points on her serve in that deciding fourth game.“  I just kept going and thought about the point in front of me.”

She said she is confident that the team will have the outright league title after Saturday’s match with Wright State Lake but insisted the team is not overconfident.

Dennis added, “In that fourth game, we meant business.”

Dennis has her father, Dan, as her assistant coach now, but she was an assistant coach for him for two years when he was girls’ basketball coach at Finneytown High School. Later, she was the head girls’ coach at Deer Park High School, which meant they coached against each other twice, her dad winning both.
“We played against each other twice,” she said. “It was pretty awesome. He had a far superior athletic group of women. It was two of the most surreal nights of my life. I could hear his voice in my head telling me what I needed and there I was coaching against him.”

Her father is responsible for her getting the Miami Hamilton volleyball job. He learned of the opening last year when he was taking youngsters to the MUH games as part of a pep club he formed as youth director at the Lindenwald United Methodist Church.

She applied and got the job but then had to find an assistant coach.

“I’ve had assistants in the past I did not get to choose and I wanted someone who was behind me unequivocally and he knows more about sports than any other human being,” she said.

She called having her father as her assistant “weird,” but said he has no ego about being in charge and wants only to see the players improve.

“He’s different from the stereotypical dad,” Dennis said. “He taught and coached me in high school. As a family, we are close, but the take-charge role is strange. The selflessness I ask for from the girls, he does, too. It’s not shocking that it works so well.”

Dan Dennis credits his daughter and the players’ hard work with the team’s success.

“This team is mentally together. I’m proud to be part of the staff as a team player,” he said. “(Sarah) knows more about volleyball than I do.”


She said she feels the job is a great mach for her and her players are working hard.

Sarah Dennis holds a bachelor's degree from Wittenberg University where she was a member of the Tigers' basketball team. She was a Graduate Assistant Coach for women's basketball at The Ohio State University. She is currently a teacher at Lakota East High School, teaching English to sophomores and creative writing to seniors.

“I am super pleased with the results,” she said of her first MUH volleyball squad. “This is a phenomenal group of young women. I love these girls. They are willing to work and willing to try. They are open to all I’m trying to do here. The results speak for themselves.”

Wells, a graduate of Middletown High School, played volleyball at the Miami Middletown campus for three years with Hamblin, but both switched to the Hamilton campus program this year. Wells said Middletown lost their coach after last season and she was coming to the Hamilton’s open gym to work out over the past summer. She saw Dennis there and was impressed.

“I watched her and just knew this was where I was supposed to be,” she said. “Coach is awesome, funny and crazy.”

Still ahead after this weekend is a league tournament being held Oct. 21-23 at OU Chillicothe and the state tournament the following weekend. Wells said the team is not resting on their laurels from a division championship.

“The (league) tournament and state will be a challenge,” she said. “There will be a lot of teams. It is all about skill at state because there are teams we have not played. The (league) tournament is about knowing your opponents and their tendencies.”

Friday, October 7, 2011

MUH volleyball team building toward strong finish


By Bob Ratterman

Three conference matches next week will decide where the Miami University Hamilton campus Harriers finish in the final conference standings.

The Harriers will be at home on Saturday, Oct. 8, hosting a nonconference match with Clark State and then begin a stretch of three Ohio Regional Campus  Conference West Division matches in seven days.
Two of those conference showdowns will be on the home court in the Hamilton campus gym.

They will be on the road Sunday, Oct. 9, for an ORCC match at OU Chillicothe but will be home for West Division matches with OSU Lima on Wednesday, Oct. 12, at 7 p.m. and with Wright State Lake on Saturday, Oct. 15, at 1 p.m.

The Harriers enter this crucial stretch of games with a league record of 4-1 (8-5 overall) and winners of  their last two ORCC matches on the road, at WSU Lake and Miami University Middletown. The win over MUM was the harriers’ second in league play and came in five games Wednesday, Oct. 5.

Those two league wins were sandwiched around a non-league loss in three games to UC Clermont.
Senior Dana Hamblin leads the team with 184 digs while freshman Erin Sharp leads in blocks with 31. Hamblin’s season high was 41 digs in the team’s first league meeting with Middletown while Sharp had her season-high nine blocks in that same match.

Wednesday’s match with OSU Lima will also be Senior Night for the Harriers, who will celebrate the contributions of two seniors, Hamblin and Devon Wells.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Love of volleyball drives Fairfield resident at MU Hamilton


By Bob Ratterman

A love of volleyball made Fairfield High School graduate Dana Hamblin turn down a job offer and go to college at the Middletown regional campus of Miami University. She is now in her senior year and playing at Miami’s Hamilton campus but her love of the sport has not diminished.

The Hamilton campus Harriers started slowly, going 2-2 in their first four matches, but Hamblin and Hamilton coach Sarah Dennis see a lot of potential and heart in the team can envision a bright future. That outlook may have gotten a bit brighter Wednesday night when the Miami regional campus teams faced off in Hamilton and the Harriers defeated the Middletown campus team 3-2.

“We have a lot of talent, so much potential, I feel, the potential to win state and conference,” Hamblin said. “It feels like a lot of best friends but we only met this year. So far, we are doing well putting things together as a team.”


Dana Hamblin photo by Lisa Back


It’s a new-look Hamilton team in 2011, including Hamblin who played three years at the Middletown campus and decided to switch campuses to be closer to home.

With a roster of three freshmen, two sophomores, one junior and two seniors, coach Dennis calls her team a “melting pot of volleyball skills.”

In addition to Hamblin, the other senior is Devon Wells, who played at Middletown High School. The roster is peppered with players from around the area—Ross, New Miami, Northwest, Edgewood, even Union County (Ind.) High School, in addition to Fairfield and Middletown.

“It’s all very new,” the coach said. “I have two players returning from last year, two who played in high school together and two who played with Miami Middletown. Everyone else is strangers who came together. They are incredibly talented young women.”

Hamblin loved it at Middletown but transferred this year to the Hamilton campus because of the shorter drive from her Fairfield home.

“It’s wonderful driving 10 minutes down the street,” she said. “After practice, I’m tired and (at Middletown), I knew I had a 45-minute drive home.”

Her coach is happy about the switch, too, calling her “a gift to this program,” and adding, “Her ability on the court and her leadership are incredible. She takes it personally when a ball hits the ground or when a teammate lets up. I have coached some good athletes but her combination of heart and ability is an asset to our team and an asset to anything she undertakes going forward.”

This week found her on the other side of the net when the Middletown team visited the Hamilton campus gym for a match in the Ohio Regional Campus Conference’s West Division. They will have a return match Oct. 5 in Middletown.

They also had a Sept. 11 matchup in the Titan Invitational, won by Middletown, but Hamblin saw some fight in her new team in that earlier MUM meeting. It was only one game in the match, but she felt her new team came together in a solid win in the first game.

“We all played our hearts out,” Hamblin said. “We won 25-12. It was an exciting moment that let the girls know how much skill and potential we had in there. It was a big moment for us.”

Hamblin said she enjoys the regional campus feel of sports and likes the atmosphere. She changed campuses primarily because Hamilton is closer to her Fairfield home and cuts the driving time home when she’s tired after practice and a day of classes. The volleyball is important to her.

“I love it. I’ve always loved to play,” she said. “A lot of people say if you play Division 1, it’s too much like a job, with 6 a.m. workouts, training. The fun aspect you kind of lose sight of. I love it here. I get to play. I get to have a family. I get to have a life outside. I have two sisters who play sports at Fairfield and I get to watch them play.”

She sees a lot of promise in this year’s Hamilton campus team and is proud to be a part of it. As a senior, she does not feel they are building for a future she will not share. She sees the chance for success this year.

Dennis, too, is optimistic about their chances this year and also continuing that into the future with a roster of only two seniors.

“I know it’s only been a couple games,” Dennis said. “They want to get out of the gate a million miles an hour, but it’s important to have the hard work and be there for each other and pick each other up. Seeing this through is important. The desire and heart are there.”

Hamblin said her high school volleyball career was a bit rocky, but she loved the sport and stayed with it.
Her junior year was her best in high school as she earned Student Athlete of the Week honors, as well as being named to the all-conference and all-city teams and was recognized in the top five performers for digs in the Cincinnati area.

Hamblin said another girl stepped during her senior year to the Libero position and Hamblin did not get to start, “Not even on Senior Night,” she added.

Although disappointed, she said she loved the sport so much that she practiced with the junior varsity team and jumped at the chance to play at Miami-Middletown, turning down a job she was offered at Cincinnati Financial.

She enjoys the style of play she finds at the college level. In high school she was limited to the role of setter but now is more of an all-around player and likes playing all aspects of the game.

“I’m becoming a hitter, getting a kill, setting a winning point. A kill is awesome,” she said. “I love volleyball. I’m passionate about it. I’m trying to start a volleyball club.”

She has two younger sisters who play sports at Fairfield High School. Her youngest sister is following in her footsteps with an interest in volleyball, but the middle sister is a soccer standout.

“Her heart is with soccer,” Hamblin said of her sister. Her youngest sister, 14, however, is “excelling in volleyball.”

Hamblin said she hopes to continue in volleyball even beyond this year. She thinks about after college working at a screen printing business because it is sports-related and to running a volleyball club…and to continue to play the sport.

 “I’m going to figure out a way to play after this,” she said. “I don’t know where they are, but I’ll find ‘em.”

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Hamilton, Middletown campuses in volleyball rivalry match Wednesday

By Bob Ratterman

Regional campus athletics may seem like an afterthought to outsiders but it is still college sports played by young athletes with skill and a drive to succeed.

That will be the case on Wednesday, Sept. 21, when the volleyball team from the Miami University Middletown campus visits the Hamilton campus gym for the first of their home-and-home series in the West Division of the Ohio Regional Campus Conference. The teams will play again Oct. 5 in Middletown.

The Harriers' Dana Hamblin is shown in action against UC-Clermont in the first match of the season. Photo by Lisa Back



This will actually be the second meeting between the two teams this season as they met in the Sept. 11 Titan Invitational, in a match won by Middletown but hotly contested.

Senior Dana Hamblin plays for the Hamilton campus team this year, but has played for Middletown the previous three years and she saw some fight in her new team in that earlier MUM matchup. It was only one game in the match, but she felt her new team came together in a solid win in the first game.

“We all played our hearts out,” Hamblin said. “We won 25-12. It was an exciting moment that let the girls know how much skill and potential we had in there. It was a big moment for us.”

Hamilton coach Sarah Dennis said everyone involved the program is excited to match up with Miami’s other regional campus team again and test themselves against a team that has done well in recent years.

“There’s a feeling like family within the program and a rivalry forces you to evaluate your motivation and focus,” Dennis said. “The game is easy to get excited about and up for. We will fight to win.”

Hamblin said she enjoys the regional campus feel of sports and likes the atmosphere. She changed campuses primarily because Hamilton is closer to her Fairfield home and cuts the driving time home when she’s tired after practice and a day of classes. The volleyball is important to her.

“I love it. I’ve always loved to play,” she said. “A lot of people say if you play Division 1, it’s too much like a job, with 6 a.m. workouts, training. The fun aspect you kind of lose sight of. I love it here. I get to play. I get to have a family. I get to have a life outside. I have two sisters who play sports at Fairfield and I get to watch them play.”

She sees a lot of promise in this year’s Hamilton campus team and is proud to be a part of it. As a senior, she does not feel they are building for a future she will not share. She sees the chance for success this year.

“We have a lot of talent, so much potential, I feel, the potential to win state and conference,” Hamblin said. “It feels like a lot of best friends but we only met this year. So far, we are doing well putting things together as a team.”

Dennis, too, is optimistic about their chances this year and also continuing that into the future with a roster of only two seniors.

“I know it’s only been a couple games,” Dennis said. “They want to get out of the gate a million miles an hour, but it’s important to have the hard work and be there for each other and pick each other up. Seeing this through is important. The desire and heart are there.”

With a roster of three freshmen, two sophomores, one junior and two seniors, Dennis calls her team a “melting pot of volleyball skills.”

In addition to Hamblin, the other senior is Devon Wells, who played at Middletown High School. The roster is peppered with players from around the area—Ross, New Miami, Northwest, Edgewood, even Union County (Ind.) High School, in addition to Fairfield and Middletown.

“It’s all very new,” the coach said. “I have two players returning from last year, two who played in high school together and two who played with Miami Middletown. Everyone else is strangers who came together. They are incredibly talented young women.”

They lost the season opener to UC-Clermont Sept. 9 and lost the Titan Invitational to Miami Middletown Sept. 11.

“We finished third in the tournament to Middletown and played as well as a team as they have so far,” Dennis said.

Hamblin displayed some of that heart and desire when asked about the highlight of her college volleyball career. Instead of responding with a story about a conference or state championship match and the glow of a title, she chose one play in her sophomore year at Middletown in a match against IU East. The ball shanked off another player and she took off after it.

“The ball went 20 feet off the court and I just ran after it,” she recalled. “I don’t know how I caught up with it but I not only touched the ball but I got it back on the court. It was one of those moments that really stand out.”

Hamblin said she is happy to be at Miami Hamilton this year but her three years at Middletown were successful, including going from no wins the year before she started playing there to going .500 and winning the conference and state championships over OSU Newark, which had won the league title seven consecutive years.

Dennis said she coaches her team to win and has athletes who want to win but she understands what life is like for them, living at varied locations—not on campus—and taking classes at various Miami campuses, often commuting during the day. She said she works to be an understanding but demanding coach.

“I know what it is like to play for a bad coach and I know what it is like to play for a good coach. They want a coach who is honest and has the players’ back.”

Hamblin is excited to be part of a team on the upswing.

 “The fans and even the refs see us play and say, ‘Wow.’ Everybody is excited. I have a lot of faith in this team,” she said.