New day for Hawks

• Rebecca Johnson

Press File Photo Dickinson State sophomore Rebecca Johnson, an all-Dakota Athletic Conference libero in 2010, is one of a handful of players returning for the Blue Hawks this season.
• Jennifer Hartman

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Dickinson State senior Jennifer Hartman, left, is one of the few standouts who return to the Blue Hawk volleybal team this fall. Several players are gone from last year’s team that finished 13-1 in the Dakota Athletic Conference and shared the league’s regular-season championship. However, first-year head coach Maura Bronte-Pfeifer is optimistic about her team’s chances.

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It’s a new day for the Dickinson State volleyball department — and first-year head coach Maura Bronte-Pfeifer is confident that day will be a bright one.

Bronte-Pfeifer takes over a Blue Hawk squad that looks very different from the team that shared the regular-season Dakota Athletic Conference championship and finished as the DAC tournament runner-up.

Nonetheless, she feels Blue Hawks are talented enough to turn some heads.

“I think if we are going at 100 percent, we have a chance to come out and blow some people out of the water,” Bronte-Pfeifer said. “We’re very athletic, very well-rounded and consistently strong on defense.”

While the Blue Hawks had three all-DAC selections and a plethora of other players either graduate, run out of eligibility or leave the program, Bronte-Pfeifer didn’t exactly inherit a bare cupboard.

The Blue Hawks return a solid base with senior middle blockers Jennifer Hartman and Shaunda Dvorak, who have each been starters since their freshman season, all-DAC sophomore libero Rebecca Johnson and sophomore libero Katelyn Christensen.

Kesley Chan, a redshirt last season, will be the team’s setter and sophomore Jody Ferris could also see more time up front.

Hartman, the DAC freshman of the year in 2008 and a second team all-conference selection in 2009, is impressed with the team’s direction heading into their first weekend of the regular season.

The Blue Hawks play two matches today and two Saturday at a tournament hosted by Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Mont.

“Everybody seems really optimistic about how well we’ll do this season,” Hartman said. “We have four really good new girls who came in and they just meshed really well with the team chemistry.”

Junior college transfers Ebony Sanders, Brianny Williams and Sarah Zeibig and give the Blue Hawks a much-needed jolt of athleticism, Bronte-Pfeifer said. Also in the mix is freshman libero Dannie Harrison from Baker, Mont.

“They bring the level of athleticism in the gym up,” Bronte-Pfeifer said of the transfers.

Zeibig and Williams are outside hitters while Sanders is a right side hitter.

Ziebig, a junior from Phoenix College, said the transition for each of the transfers has been smooth.

“We’re doing really well,” she said. “We’re learning a lot and working really hard. We just need to keep working really hard and not get lazy, keep pushing ourselves and pushing each other.”

Players said Bronte-Pfeifer is making sure they aren’t slacking at all during the preseason either, whether it’s through conditioning workouts or technical drills.

“A lot of conditioning, which is really good,” Hartman said with a smile. “We definitely need that to come out strong in the preseason. We just have to make sure that when she tells us something, we make a big change and that she’s usually looking more for that than where the ball goes.”

Bronte-Pfeifer said she hasn’t had to worry about the team letting up either.

“We have a great group of girls who are all hard workers,” she said. “They’ve been coming in right from the get-go and leaving everything they can in the gym. I’m really excited about it. They’re all really excited and are already bonding as a team.”

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