October 21, 2015 at 2:43 p.m.
Staying the course
Rhinelander native impressing at college level and she still wants to see improvement
Staying the course
By By Cory Dellenbach-
"It was intimidating at first because I went from being the go-to person in high school to being the least-skilled person on the court," Wissbroecker said. "I had to compete with players who were way out of my league and the seniors, when I was a freshman, went to play professionally in France. So I was technically competing against professionals to get on the floor."
Wissbroecker, who is majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry, says she had to change her technique when she arrived at the college level and also had to increase her strength.
"My freshman year was just a learning experience, watching the game, catching up with the pace and then my sophomore year I was on the borderline of the person to be in or not, going in for big blocks in games was my role last year," Wissbroecker said. "I had to strengthen up my muscles in order to hit the balls as hard as they hit in college."
As a freshman, Wissbroecker played in two games and earned her first college career dig at home against Minnesota-Crookston. Her sophomore year gave her more playing time, seeing the floor in 32 games and finishing the season with 23 kills and scoring 32.5 points last year.
"This year I've worked on my back row and front row, so I'm able to play all the way around, which was something I was not told I was going to do when I came here," Wissbroecker said. "I was told I was only going to be a front row player, but I was able to improve enough."
MORE PLAYING TIME
In her junior year so far, Wissbroecker has played in 21 matches - starting 20 of those. She's played in 76 sets and has scored an average of 3.49 points per set and has an average of 2.96 kills per set.
Wissbroecker has racked up 225 kills. She also has 174 digs recorded so far this season and has earned the team 265 points.
"There was an adjustment period for her learning the nuances of the game and understanding what was being asked of her at this level," said UM-Duluth volleyball head coach Jim Boos. "She's gotten better and better and improved in that manner and now she's getting comfortable out there and certainly learning still every time she is out there on the floor. She's getting better every chance she gets and we're really hoping by the end of the year she's really figuring it out and starting to gel and can do some special things. Physically she's one of the more talented players you see at that position."
The 6-foot outside hitter earned NSIC Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career on Oct. 5. Wissbroecker led the Bulldogs offense averaging 5.17 kills per game (31 total) with just five errors on 57 swings for a .456 hitting percentage. She also had 19 total digs, two service aces and four blocks in a sweep of University of Mary on Oct. 2.
"She's doing a really nice job of having to pass the ball, defend, block, serve and attack," Boos said. "She's really starting to figure it out."
Boos says Wissbroecker's physicality and her height are two key factors in what makes her a talented player.
"She's extremely jumpy with long arms too," Boos said. "With her blocking she can really get up and over the net. When she does get in someone's way and blocks the ball it can be pretty impressive. She has the capability of going up and really tearing the cover off the ball when the situation is right."
IMPRESSIVE SEASON
UMD has played much of the season holding the No. 1 ranking in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division II Coaches Top 25 poll. The team earned the honor in week two and held onto that spot until two week when they slipped to No. 5 ater a loss to then No. 3 Concordia St. Paul. The Bulldogs dropped further to No. 8 this week after a loss to ninth-ranked Wayne State last Thursday.
"I think it helps that we have three returning All-Americans, including my setter, a middle and a first-team All-American outside, so there's already some pieces in place there that have been in there before and been in some big matches throughout their playing career," Boos said. "Then we just had to fill up some of those holes from graduation last year and some of those people like Taylor are starting to get comfortable on the court and are doing a nice job and finding a way to win."
The Bulldogs are 9-3 in the NSIC and 16-5 overall.
UMD will travel to Minnesota State Mankato Friday before a rematch with Concordia-St. Paul Saturday.
CONTINUED IMPROVEMENT
Wissbroecker, who turned 21 earlier this week, knows she'll continue to improve with the help of her coach and the programs they have in place during the offseason.
"The coaches are really good at doing that," Wissbroecker said. "They tell us flat out that we're going to get worse before we get better and that we just have to believe in them to keep trying and keep failing in order for it to work because if you don't fully commit to what they are doing you're just going to be stuck in your old ways and you're not going to get anywhere."
Wissbroecker says she would like to improve her strength a little more and work on her arm swing in the front row - making it faster and snappier.
"In the summer we do workouts with the football team in the mornings, training every day, doing conditioning and strength training with them," Wissbroecker said. "We're one of a few teams that work out like that and it helps us. We have some big girls on the team."
Boos hopes to see Wissbroecker continue to be a serve-receive staple of the Bulldogs team and also eliminates errors.
"Right now she's high kill, but high error type of hitter," Boos said. "As she gets more comfortable and understands different attacking situations and develops more shots and more ability to take advantage of matchups, I hope we'll see her hitting percentage continue to increase."
Wissbroecker, a 2013 graduate of Rhinelander High School, is the daughter of Jason Wissbroecker and Gigi Peterson. Her younger sister, Hope, is a sophomore on the RHS volleyball team and was fourth in the Great Northern Conference this season with 191 kills.
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