Mendenhall promoting change at Yale
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BY TODD HENRICHS / Lincoln Journal Star
At Willoughby’s, where Ally Mendenhall goes for coffee before home volleyball matches, any talk these days centers on politics.
Change, as you’ve probably heard, is the catch phrase for the candidates. Yet Mendenhall, an Ivy Leaguer with a keen interest in politics, can’t get enough of this season’s rhetoric.
“I actually finished all of my requirements before this year, but it’s an election year, and I need to be in political science classes where we can analyze all of it,” Mendenhall said. “It’s been very cool being at Yale during an election period.”
The setter, who four years ago led Lincoln Lutheran to that historic win against Columbus Scotus for the Class C-1 state title, is now in her senior season at Yale. She’s the captain, an elected position that carries clout and responsibility.
But before she ever had authority, her coach says Mendenhall was enacting change within the Bulldog program.
“The program has literally changed because of her,” said Erin Appleman, who is in her sixth year at Yale after spending eight seasons as an assistant at Penn State.
“When I got here, I had to constantly ask people to lift weights, and I had to constantly ask people to practice,” Appleman said. “Since she’s been here, she’s the one doing those things, so now the culture is that the girls go in and play on their own. They want to go in and lift weights and they want to eat right.
“She just has so much personality and drive, I think Ally is one of the neatest people ever to grace Yale’s campus.”
A regular starter since her sophomore year, Mendenhall moved into third on Yale’s career assist list in Friday’s sweep of defending Ivy champion Princeton.
The Bulldogs (11-4) fell Saturday to Penn, a loss that dropped them into a virtual three-way tie for the Ivy League lead. Winning a league title is the No. 1 goal for Mendenhall, who has played on teams that finished second three straight years.
Yale’s only outright Ivy League title in volleyball came in 1978.
“Every year, that’s the goal that we’re capable of,” said Mendenhall, whose team played No. 1 Penn State, as well as Saint Louis, the team that knocked off Stanford, in nonconference matches.
“The prestige of winning an Ivy League title, in and of itself, is a huge honor,” she added. “And knowing that we get to go on the national stage and play in the NCAA Tournament is just another benefit of that.”
The league’s champion may earn a berth into the NCAA Tournament, but there are few similarities between the Ivy League teams and the big-time programs that rule the sport.
Take this season, for example. Yale didn’t open until Sept. 12, two full weeks after Nebraska played its opener. The Ivy League’s season ends two weeks before the rest of Division I.
Spring practice in the Ivy League amounts to 10 days, and there’s no requirement that players stick around to train in the summer.
So how has Mendenhall used her time? She studied art history in Italy for a little more than a month after her freshman year. Following her sophomore year, she worked for eight weeks in Sen. Chuck Hagel’s office in Washington.
“By being able to dabble in different things, I’ve appreciated volleyball more because it’s not a job, it’s not something you’re required to do 24/7,” Mendenhall said. “When we do get to come in and practice, we practice really hard.”
But finding players isn’t easy for the Ivy League schools. Appleman can’t just go to club tournaments and identify talent. She has to know the academic prowess of each player.
It was former NU assistant Craig Skinner who pointed Appleman in Mendenhall’s direction, back when the 5-foot-9 setter was playing alongside current Huskers Jordan Larson, Amanda Gates and Rachel Schwartz on a Nebraska Juniors club team that contended for a national title.
Said Appleman: “Ally’s our first kind of big-time recruit.”
Mendenhall was voted second-team All-Ivy League last year, and after the season, she picked up an even greater honor.
Yale’s athletic handbook specifies that each varsity team have “one and only one” captain. Their election can require multiple votes of team members because a majority is required.
If it sounds like a political process, maybe it is. Former president George Bush was captain of the baseball team at Yale in the 1940s.
But as Mendenhall has shown, the famed school in New Haven, Conn., is also a place where a fresh face from Nebraska can lead the way.
“People don’t come here to go to school with their best friends, but they come here to meet people that are very different from themselves, to learn from other individuals and to aspire to do what they want to do while inspiring other people,” Mendenhall said. “That’s probably my favorite thing, just how excited and curious people are and how that rubs off on you.
“In volleyball … and in the classroom.”
Reach Todd Henrichs at 473-7320 or thenrichs@journalstar.com.
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Dennis wrote on October 22, 2008 7:45 pm: