The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

The volleyball team will play at Toledo today and the game will be on ESPN3 at 7. Fizzle the Rocket launch and bring home a victory!

I think hiring the new broadcast / video productions dude is working out well so far.

Even volleyball's got a slick intro vid now!

(10-23-2015 12:04 AM)stdatwmu Wrote:  I think hiring the new broadcast / video productions dude is working out well so far.

Even volleyball's got a slick intro vid now!

I like the video. Now all they need to do is win consistently. Would be nice to see the competitive and ranked once again.

(10-23-2015 06:47 PM)John52168 Wrote:  Now all they need to do is win consistently. Would be nice to see the competitive and ranked once again.

They made the NCAA tournament last season and reached the Sweet 16 a few years ago. They may not be able to reach the program heights of the early '80s, but I'd say the program has done quite well recently.

(10-23-2015 11:58 PM)The Colonel Wrote:  

(10-23-2015 06:47 PM)John52168 Wrote:  Now all they need to do is win consistently. Would be nice to see the competitive and ranked once again.

They made the NCAA tournament last season and reached the Sweet 16 a few years ago. They may not be able to reach the program heights of the early '80s, but I'd say the program has done quite well recently.

Yes they did, but they haven't maintained a level of success for multiple years in a row in awhile. I may be wrong but to me that is a sign of a revolving door to the coaches office.

I do miss the success of the teams in the 80's.

(10-24-2015 01:35 AM)John52168 Wrote:  They haven't maintained a level of success for multiple years in a row in awhile. I may be wrong but to me that is a sign of a revolving door to the coaches office.

Colleen Munson has been the head coach since 2005. Over the past decade, her teams:

- have finished with a winning overall record every season
- have never finished a season with a sub-.500 record in the MAC
- have never finished a season any worse than third in the MAC West

Here are the numbers:

http://www.wmubroncos.com/ViewArticle.db...=204949218

She's also won a couple of MAC championships and made a Sweet 16 run before losing to the eventual national champions.

Short of expecting us to run the table in the MAC every year, I'm not sure what more anyone can realistically expect. That's a Hawk-like resume (arguably, an even stronger resume than Hawk's).

Lol 4 head coaches since 1978. Quite the revolving door of coaches.

(10-24-2015 11:25 AM)The Colonel Wrote:  

(10-24-2015 01:35 AM)John52168 Wrote:  They haven't maintained a level of success for multiple years in a row in awhile. I may be wrong but to me that is a sign of a revolving door to the coaches office.

Colleen Munson has been the head coach since 2005. Over the past decade, her teams:

- have finished with a winning overall record every season
- have never finished a season with a sub-.500 record in the MAC
- have never finished a season any worse than third in the MAC West

Here are the numbers:

http://www.wmubroncos.com/ViewArticle.db...=204949218

She's also won a couple of MAC championships and made a Sweet 16 run before losing to the eventual national champions.

Short of expecting us to run the table in the MAC every year, I'm not sure what more anyone can realistically expect. That's a Hawk-like resume (arguably, an even stronger resume than Hawk's).

VB has been very solid. Last year was a coaching masterpiece.

They had two head case issues both revolving around love interests with one including a 2nd yr player who had been MACFOY.
Without my knowing specific details, I do know Munson navigated through that morass "excusing" both players in the waning weeks or last month of regular season. With the "issues" excised the rest of the team revived and recovered to not only win the MACC but were down to the final set elimination by two much higher seeds, Miami and Reigning Conference champs OU. WMU clawed back stealing a set in each. With both opp slightly on their heels the gals started throwing straight rights and lefts and finished with hooks to the temple dropping each with a resounding thud. Think Buster Douglas and Mike Tyson in Japan.

And that was just last year. The team has been more than representative.

VB is every bit as business as the major mens sports. Club leagues and teams with big $ backing from shoe and clothing companies. In the 80's that was non-existent. Two gals from my community, Sarah Powers and Jenny Aubuchon played at WMU in the 80's. Woman's sports was just getting established. The power houses were not your typical P5 programs you know today. The balance of power was out west at Stanford, UCLA and Long Beach State. There were exceptions and WMU became one of them. Back then the talent funnel was 100% relationships and which schools programs were truly committed to winning. WMU was at the forefront. But $ have distorted the playing field and now a days it is exactly like FBl and MBB. $$$$$ equals facilities, opportunities and exposure. That markets "success" and like FB and MBB the best tell the programs if they are choosing them not the other way around.

If WVB had a practice facility, even shared with MBB separate from University arena they would attract more established talent and would be virtually at the top of the MAC year in year out and making a regular 3-4 year splash in the NCAA's. No question in my mind.

I cant speak for Munson but I'll assume if she wants to continue coaching after her family grows and leaves she has the talent to go big time. Right now I guess quality of life matters more.

But she is that good.

I will also add that this year the chemistry is slightly different.

One senior who is solid but not spectacular. But has been injured but seems to getting back lately. Think Connar Tava. All around, glue, sometimes focal point but usually doing the ugly work.

Last year they had two 5th year gals with Gossen being a player. Their setter was all Mac.

This year they have a JC big to make up for the loss of the former MACFOY who was shown the door last year.

Four freshman, two of which are back line defensive specialists are seeing a lot of time. One is starting to "bloom" as she has been folded into the mix with another injury to a sophomore who had played well last year and was doing great until ... She is out of St. Phillip in BC.

New setter is a freshman. Very good but has shown a knack to be a combo player who scores. So Munson has used some combinations that include a 2nd year setter who sat last year and looked to have been beaten out by this freshman. However, when given the opp she has come in allowing the freshman to be that combo threat. Think Wilder and Bryce Moore on the floor together.

Their home court wasn't ready at the beginning and even when it was scheduled to be done it wasn't so initial home games were at K College. No excuses but the fact is that with a new influx of personnel, playing about the first 1/3 of the season on the road it is taking some time for the chemistry to gel.

The gals lost last night at home to perennial power OU. Close 3-1 match with closely contested sets.

Give them some more time to bring it together and if they can stay healthy they can be a force in the tournament. They wont likely sneak up on anyone but they wont need to.

John, we're lucky to have Munson. Your way off on this one.

Okay, first of all, I said I may be wrong and clearly I am dead wrong in this instance. Colonel hit the nail on the head when he mentioned the success the team had in the 80's. I was in middle school and high school during those years and would listen to Broncos volleyball on the radio. I got used to the Broncos being competitive and ranked all the time. They would beat power 5 schools on a more times than not. But in July of 1986 I left for basic training in the Army. Thus, my only source for Broncos coverage became the scoreboard in the newspaper during football and basketball season. It was in 1997 when I came back to Michigan and January 1998 I attended my first class on campus afrer transferring from the University of Alaska Anchorage and it was the first month I ever accessed the Internet.

My problem is I'm stuck in thr 80's success of the volleyball team. I want our teams to be ranked, competitive, conference champions and I want to see all our teams to start beating ranked and power 5 schools on a regular basis. The truth of the matter is I'm sick and tired of losing all the time to schools like UM, MSU, OSU, ND, etc.

I have known Collene Munson has been here for a few years and that she has the team pointed upwards. I didn't realize she has been here for 8 years (from 2005 to 2012 I didn't have any access to the internet until I bought my first phone that had access to the internet a $30 Straight Talk special). But, I want more than competing against Ohio for the MAC Championship every year and the once in 30 years sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

I want to apologize for my lack of knowledge and misinformed comments! I'm sorry for wanting to see our teams competitive and ranked nationally. I promise to work on it and to accept the fact that all that matters is just being competitive in the MAC and the NCHC and the huge paydays from our big brothers in other conferences like the Big 10.

this is a sport I would love to see the school make a bigger commitment to. At the JVA/AAU/USAV levels, the midwest is on-par with So Cal and Texas for producing talent. Part of the increased commitment would be to add Sand Volleyball. Might sound trivial to some, but this is a big deal to the players coming up.

(10-26-2015 07:27 AM)John52168 Wrote:  My problem is I'm stuck in thr 80's success of the volleyball team. I want our teams to be ranked, competitive, conference champions and I want to see all our teams to start beating ranked and power 5 schools on a regular basis. The truth of the matter is I'm sick and tired of losing all the time to schools like UM, MSU, OSU, ND, etc.

Nothing wrong with having those ambitions - I think all of us would like to see that. Unfortunately, times have changed regarding volleyball as a sport. Back in the glory days of the '80s, volleyball was something of a niche/regional sport, which IMO is part of the reason we were able to be as strong as we were back in those days. Now, obviously, volleyball is a major sport of emphasis throughout the country, which makes it much harder to get back to that level.

All of that said, I'll gladly take two NCAA trips in five years, including a Sweet 16 appearance with a loss to eventual national champion Penn State. Last year, we lost to Wisconsin, and IIRC Wisconsin also made a pretty deep run.

When I was at WMU, I was a manager for the basketball team, so I spent quite a bit time coming and going along with the other sports that competed and practiced at UA. As a manager, you're pretty much a nobody, so it was interesting to see how others treated you. Cathy George (head coach at the time) and Colleen Munson were always really friendly to me, often stopping to say hello when they didn't have to. Ron Stewart, the women's basketball coach at the time, was the same way. I came away really impressed with them for that, and I've enjoyed seeing the volleyball team continue to do well in the years since.