Mike Morrison - June 2010 update
It’s been a busy couple of months since the 2010 volleyball season got under way in April… I’ve been writing regular columns for DiG Magazine, the official magazine of AVP beach volleyball, I was just featured in a 3-page spread in the May issue of Volleyball Magazine, and there’s a photo of me doing a jump serve in the June/July issue of Men’s Fitness, which is pretty cool.
On the court I’ve been making progress in some major aspects of my game, including siding out, my hitting percentage, and my number of blocks per game. I’m currently 4th on the tour for blocking this season, and I finished 1st in hitting percentage at the Huntington Beach Open June 3-6.
That’s not to say this season hasn’t been without its obstacles. My partner Matt Olson and I have had some tough breaks (at the wrong times) in recent AVP tournaments. So after a few subpar finishes early in the season, Matt and I have decided to try working with different partners, because we should both be making deeper runs in these events. It’s kind of unfortunate because we played great for two thirds of the Huntington Beach Open, but after losing a huge battle to the 5th seed in the second round, we lost to another top seed in the early contender bracket round and finished at a disappointing 17th place.
Matt and I are the best of buddies, and fortunately we’re both totally cool about remaining professional when it comes to AVP stuff; just because we match up well on paper doesn’t mean that we necessarily make the best team once we get on the court. We showed signs of brilliance at times, but have made the decision that we both need to play with different style players to finish strong on a more consistent basis.
Matt and I have both teamed up with players who should fit us better. I was fortunate to reunite with my old partner, Eyal Zimet, who I played with in the semi-finals last season- he has a gnarly jump serve to score points and a big hitting window. He’s also improved his defense over the past few months, and just finished 5th place at the Huntington Beach Open. Hopefully this change in partners will be just what I need to finish the season on top- I’ll keep you posted!
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