The Rising Sun

Setter Autumn Risch will travel with her Minnesota State
volleyball teammates to Japan this summer

The NCAA allows member schools to take trips abroad once every four years. 

The Minnesota State women’s volleyball program has taken advantage of this rule a couple of times in the last few summers with the Mavericks travelling to Argentina in 2009 and Eastern Europe (Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy) in 2013.  

With the idea that the trips enhance the student-athlete experience, the Mavericks are in the midst of preparing for another excursion.

Head coach Lori Rittenhouse, staff and players will sojourn to Japan in a few weeks, leaving Minnesota July 24th and returning August 4th. The Mavericks are slated to play four matches over the course of 12 days of the tour, which will take them to Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo.

The trip will also include time for practice, along with sightseeing and other activities.

“The mission of these trips is to provide real and meaningful experiences for each student-athlete,” said Rittenouse. “Intercollegiate athletics offers much more than a statistical column and a win/loss record. It provides the framework for growth and development as an individual; enhances the skills and motivation required of leaders; and offers a unique and variable environment for student-athletes to navigate and practice tactics of teamwork, communication and cohesion.”

Rittenhouse, a Mankato native who is entering her third year as head coach of the Mavericks, said that the submersion into a new culture, foreign language and unfamiliar surroundings provides a unique opportunity for growth, personal discovery and pushes one out of a state of comfort. 

To make this once-in-a-lifetime foreign tour a reality, the Mavericks hosted, coordinated and organized over 60 youth volleyball tournaments over the past four years and not a single cent from the student-athletes or University dollars will be used to pay for the tour.

Autumn Risch, a setter from Howards Grove, Wis., who’s heading into her junior season with Minnesota State, is looking forward to the trip. 

“It’s hard to explain how excited I am for the opportunity to travel to Japan. It is a once in a lifetime experience that I know we will all remember for the rest of our lives.,” said Risch, a psychology major who saw action in 29 matches in 2016. “I’m most excited about sharing this experience with some of my greatest friends. It will be amazing to not only play together overseas, but to also enjoy the different culture and beauty of the country.”

I" can’t wait to play international competition and I think it’s amazing that our team gets to represent our university overseas. We put in a lot of work in as a team last spring and I know we have continued to put in the work over this summer. I’m excited to see how that will continue in our Japan training as well as when we finally get to compete. As an individual I want to focus on leading the team through any obstacles we might face considering we don’t know what the competition will be like, and as for the team, I want us to keep looking forward and stay focused and competitive the entire trip.”

               

Setting the Table

Autumn Risch is the latest in a long line of outstanding
setters from Minnesota State

Legacy.  A word that maybe gets tossed around in the sports world so much that sometimes it loses some of its meaning. 

However, in a situation where there is a direct line between the current setter with the Minnesota State women's program and the six ones that held the position dating back to the early 1990's, it's difficult to dismiss the correlation.

Take a look.  Heidi Schnagl racked up 3,963 assists for the Mavericks from 1991-94. Nichole Roethig had 3,804 assists from 1995-98. Jen Blendermann totaled 4,367 assists from 1999-2002. Steph Sandstrom finished with 3,417 assists from 2004-2007. Brittany Stamer established the school record with 4,718 assists in her four seasons with the program from 2008-2011 and Ellie Van De Steeg followed with 3,578 assists from 2012-15. An almost unbroken string of multiple-year all-conference, and in some cases, Minnesota State Hall of Fame setters (as Schnagl and Blendermann are).

While the first four setters on the list played for former coaches Marge Burkett and Doug Tully, Stamer and Van De Steeg played for Dennis Amundson, who coached the Mavericks from 2005-14. 

Current head coach Lori Rittenhouse-Wollmuth credits Amundson, who had a 181-111 won-loss record in his nine seasons with Minnesota State, for the recent spate of outstanding table setters. “Setting was his passion," said Rittenhouse-Wollmouth. "It’s what he really studied and what he really enjoyed coaching so he was able to establish his style of coaching that works. It definitely works in our league so it’s just been really great to have a setter established so when the newbie comes in we don’t skip a beat. Not many programs can have this many setters who have that level of success.”

Autumn Risch gained some unexpected experience last year due to an injury to Van De Steeg and in her first career start, helped engineer an upset over seventh-rated Minnesota-Duluth on Oct. 23rd. The Howard Groves, Wis., native is settling into the responsibility of being the starting setter in her second season with the Mavericks this year.

“It’s been great having Autumn as a starter," said Rittenhouse-Wollmouth. "She very savvy and she’s a real student of the game. She comes from a coach’s family. which I think always helps. She has a real calm intensity out there that has allowed our hitters to gain some confidence and just keep a steady vibe."

“It’s been going pretty well," said Risch, who is averaging 10.4 assists per set and is closing in on 700 assists through the team's first 17 matches. Her 10.29 assists in league play ranks eighth in the conference - a league in which seven teams are rated in the NCAA Division II top 20 poll. "I’m enjoying it a lot and, naturally, it’s a lot different than last year. My goal as a freshman was always to push Ellie in practice and now my goal is to push myself and challenge myself. My goal every day is to lead the team in the right direction toward our goals.” 

Risch gives much of the credit to her success to Van De Steeg.

“I got to work with Ellie a lot, which was a really great experience. She had a lot of knowledge to share and really made it easy for me to transition from high-school to college just because she helped me out so much allowing me to learn the game better through her,” she said.

                                                          contributed by Collin Wilmes, Minnesota State Athletic Communications intern