St. Thomas volleyball made history this week, winning the Summit League championship to secure the program’s first ever trip to the Division I NCAA Tournament. After defeating top-seeded South Dakota State in a hard-fought four-set match, the Tommies celebrated a milestone nearly five years in the making as they completed their transition to full Division I postseason eligibility. Thanh Pham, head volleyball coach at the University of St. Thomas, spoke with the Pioneer Press and WCCO Radio about the team’s breakthrough victory and what this moment means for the program.
From the article:
The Tommies volleyball team is going dancing.
In its first season of Division-I postseason eligibility, the program became the school’s first to earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament by knocking off top-seeded South Dakota State in four sets in the Summit League Tournament title match Tuesday in Brookings, South Dakota. ...
“We just played so hard tonight,” St. Thomas coach Thanh Pham told the broadcast. “For our girls, it was a battle. We knew what it would come down to, and it was exactly what we thought — just a knock down, drag out fight.” ...
Morgan Kealy was named tournament MVP after she recorded 41 set assists in the final.
NCAA Tournament action begins next week. The Tommies’ seed and regional site will be announced during Sunday’s selection show.
From the conversation:
Rena Sarigianopoulos: What was the mood heading into last night’s championship match against South Dakota State? Did you guys think like we just got to win one, one more game, one more game, or did you know you had it?
Pham: I would say neither. Actually. I think the way that we’ve been presenting information to our team is that the team that focuses on execution is going to be the one that wins, but the team that focuses on emotion is probably going to be the one that loses. So whether we get to play or make the play or not, we have to execute the next ball, and let’s just stay in that mind frame of controlling our thoughts and making sure that our actions back what we want to be doing. So going into the match, we’re just talking about, OK, we need to make 25 plays, and how are we going to do it? So it became an exercise in the process versus the outcome. ...
Sarigianopoulos: We have not one, but two, women’s professional teams that are coming to the Twin Cities in the next couple of years. Do you think this is just kind of a beginning? Is this a jump off now, I know you’ve been doing this for a long time, but are we about to see this explode even more?
Pham: Well, that’s the plan. The state of Minnesota has the fourth-best population for high school athletes who play volleyball, and we couldn’t be more proud to be a part of that. I think the TV rights have had done amazing things for women’s volleyball, and we just hope to capitalize on this momentum.
