St. Michael-Albertville Volleyball Hoping to Rise in Postseason

head coach Ryan Dehnel had his girls' volleyball team in the gym last Thursday, despite the sunny skies outside beckoning students and families released for the so-called MEA weekend. 

The reason: For the Knights to accomplish some postseason goals, learning can't take a break. 

"We're going to practice our butts off," Dehnel said. "We have to. Our section has some of the best teams in volleyball. But when you get to the postseason, you can create some situations where you can win. If we can get through a couple of matches, we're in a spot where we have nothing to lose." 

No doubt, the sixth-seeded Knights are an underdog going into the Section 5-3A tournament. But it's role the girls from St. Michael-Albertville don't mind. 

"The regular season, for us, was all leading up to right now," said junior Candice Yager. "Winning conferece was great. But I think the 2011 team loves being the underdog. It's time to go big or go home." 

St. Michael-Albertville's players and coaches think they match up well versus Totino-Grace in the first round. Though it's a 6 vs. 3 game, the Knights have seen Totino before, and played them well. Tontino won 2-1 (tournament format), but each game was tight, with a 26-24, 23-25, 14-16 decision going against the Knights.

"We're excited," Yager said. "We'd be so pumped to play them again because we know we had our chances, and couldn't pull it out. So a second time would be great."

They'll get that chance tomorrow night in Fridley. 

"I think a lot of it is intensity," said junior Becky Hackenmueller, one of the team's leaders in kills and blocks. "If we can keep it up, we've seen how awesome we can play together. We had times against Blaine [the No. 1 team in 3A] where it all came together, even though we lost. So if we can stress the importance of each game, and visulize it before it happens, we can be ready." 

Now, Dehnel is hoping all the practice pays off. 

"We need to focus on us, and not the other side. Some of these teams have great hitters, and we'll look at how we can stop them. But if we can find when we want to attack, and keep growing and learning, it should be fun," he said. "That Totino match was so close last time.