Kansas sweeps Alumni

Monday, August 20, 2007

Natalie Uhart wasn’t tentative. The Lansing junior wasn’t nervous either.

Even though Uhart suffered a season ending knee injury during last year’s annual volleyball alumni match, and Saturday brought the one-year anniversary of that fateful night, Uhart was feeling something quite a bit different.

“It was relief,” Uhart said.

Photo by Anna Faltermeier

Senior middle blocker Natalie Uhart and freshman outside hitter Karina Garlington go up for a block during the Kansas volleyball alumni game Saturday night at Horejsi Family Athletics Center. Kansas defeated the alumni in all three matches.

She was back on the floor, surgically repaired knee and all, as Kansas defeated a team of Kansas volleyball alumni 3-0 (31-29, 30-27, 30-28).

The key for Uhart was to not think about last year’s injury, and Coach Ray Bechard echoed those words.

“We tried not to bring it up,” Bechard said.

Bechard was more concerned about the play of Uhart and the rest of his team.

“I thought she got better as the night went along,” Bechard said, referring to Uhart.

Uhart finished the match with seven kills and a tipped ball that fell in and clinched the second game of the match, 30-27, for Kansas. Uhart also looked impressive playing along side senior Emily Brown. Brown led the team with eleven kills and finished with 20 assists. Sophomore Brittany Williams had eight kills, including a few highlight reel worthy smashes. Sophomore Katie Martincich also filled up the stat sheet with 21 assists and 14 digs.

Kansas played well in pressure situations, winning each game by a small margin at the end.

“Big points, we were good,” Bechard said.

Kansas also showed the ability to come back from a deficit, falling behind early in the third and final game 14-11 before rolling off four consecutive points to take a 15-14 lead.

Bechard also noticed a few negatives. He said he thought his team had too many service errors and too many receiving errors, but that those are areas that can be improved in practice.

Freshmen Debut

Five freshman played their first game in a Kansas uniform, and Coach Bechard was glad to get his rookies some court-time.

“The best thing about it is that they got the jitters out” Bechard said. “The freshman have looked really comfortable in practice, but when you roll the bleachers out and it’s a real match-like situation, it’s a little different.”

Bechard said that he thought Wichita natives Jenna Kaiser and Melissa Manda played well in their first appearances as Jayhawks. Denver native Karina Garlington played quite a bit as well. Melissa Townshend, a Topeka native, and Caroline Ferreira Americo, a San Paulo, Brazil native, also made their first appearances.

Alumni Update

If you think that an alumni scrimmage is an all-relaxed affair, you haven’t seen the Kansas volleyball alumni squad. Led by former Kansas standouts Jill Dorsey, a 2004 graduate, and Jana Correa, a 2006 graduate, the alums fought hard all game long and even had a few complaints about some questionable calls.

“We’ve been where they’ve been,” Dorsey said. “We’re athletes and we love to compete, whether it’s been two weeks since you’ve picked up a volleyball, or eight months.”

Dorsey, a Wellsville native and Kansas’ all-time leader in digs with 1,338, surprised her alumni teammates and her former coach by flying in from California at the last minute. Dorsey is currently residing in Hermosa Beach, Calif., and said she played sand volleyball as much as she could.

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