Q&A with Melissa Munsch
Oct 17, 2002 | Volleyball
October 17, 2002
| Sophomore outside hitter Melissa Munsch took time out to talk with AggieAthletics.com about the pressures of being a returning starter on a young team, the mental aspect of volleyball, her most memorable moment as an Aggie and some of the funny things she's done.
Did you put a lot of pressure on yourself coming into this season after the type of year you had last year? "I just knew that, personally, I wanted to be consistent and I wanted to continue to do well and try to work with a new team to hopefully make this team as consistent as last year's was. But I didn't feel any pressure, like it was all up to me or anything like that. I knew it was going to be a whole bunch of people working together to make this team, so it wasn't up to me only. It was the entire [group] working together to build the team." You are just one of two returning starters from last year's highly successful squad. Do you see yourself as someone who should set an example or help the ones that weren't out there very much last year? "I kind of feel like I should try to take on more of a leadership responsibility since I have been out there, just to help the ones along that are just coming on the court and are wondering what they have to do. [I hope to] just bring the experience I got last year, and try to show them that experience as well, to help them along and get better." Some people may think you just go out and hit the ball as hard as you can all the time. How much of volleyball is a mental game, knowing where you're going with things and not being out there just smacking the ball around? "You have to know quite a bit, because you can't just go up there and swing like crazy at every ball. You have to know things like: where the block is, is the block together, are their hands off the net, can you tool them, where the defense is, can you tip, can you not tip, where do you tip, who do you not tip to, is the pass there for the setter to set the ball to where you need it-so there's a lot of things that you have to think about. Personally, I don't like to think a lot. It helps me to play better if I don't think about it. It's just a thing you get used to doing, seeing the block and knowing if there's a hole or there's not a hole. If I see a hole, I hit the hole. If I don't see a hole, I go somewhere else." Is that something you learn watching film or something you pick up as the game progresses? "Part of it is from when we watch film and scout. We see the consistency of another team's block, like if they leave line open we know we have more line to hit. But also, as you go through the game, they may not necessarily do the same things they did against one team that they do to us. You get a feel for it from the beginning and you go from there and build on it. Sometimes the other team moves the block and you just have to figure out ways to go around it." As competitive of a player as you are, do you enjoy playing in a league like the Big 12? "It's so much fun. I love it. It's a lot of real high-level competition. I really like going up against big teams because I want to prove to them that 'Hey, we're just as good if not better than you.' It can be anybody's night, so we try to prove how good we are." Does it wear on you a bit that there are no off nights in the Big 12, or is that just a part of playing in a tough league? "Well, it's kind of like a building process. We win a game and you want to stay pumped for the next game and build on [the win]. And then, if we should happen to lose a game, you want to rebound from it. People may think you're down but you will work your hardest to come back and come back strong." You didn't play a match last weekend for the first time since August. How rare is a weekend off and what did you do, if anything? "I basically just hung around. I know some of the girls went shopping, some went home, and some to the football game. It was just kind of a weekend for ourselves. This weekend was probably really good just because we got a chance to actually rest and catch up on stuff like studies and things we haven't gotten much of a chance to do. A couple of us have injuries and that helped, not having to do anything really, and helping the injuries heal some. It will help us to go out and start back up strong." What's your most memorable moment at A&M...is there one particular match that stands out? "Going to the Elite 8 was a really good experience. The Stanford match [at A&M's tournament in September] was pretty memorable [for me personally], but the Elite 8 match was pretty equal to that too. It was a big match and a lot of fun to be in, and to know 'Hey, we're in the Elite 8 now.' So it meant a lot just to be there." Who's the funniest player on the team, maybe the "comedian" or "clown" of the group? "Pretty much Carrie [Moreira]. She [hasn't played] for a while because of her injury, but she is hilarious. She cracks us up all the time. We do our game plan in the locker room and she is hilarious. She's always acting like a clown. If you see her on the sideline, she acts like she's the yell leader and does the yells, and that's really fun. That's fun for the bench too. She's pretty funny most of the time." Speaking of clowns....did you wear a clown nose all the way across campus one day last year? "Last year, Kendra [Felder] and I were in a class together out in the architecture building. For five extra points on the midterm [our professor] gave us a clown nose the first day of school and said, 'If you bring this back on the day of the midterm you get five extra points.' So everyone in class put it on and sat through that class or whatever. I told Kendra, 'I'm gonna wear this.' She said, 'Okay, me too.' We got out of class and started going towards Cain Hall to eat, and she dared me to wear it all the way to Cain. So I did. She rode behind me and counted 30 people that actually stopped and stared. She didn't think I'd do it. Ever since then she says I do the most random things. I'm pretty serious most of the time, but then I do random stuff and it surprises people a lot. But that's fun." |
