http://miac-online.org/news/2011/10/21/WVBALL_1021113302.aspx

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. -- Bethel University Head Volleyball Coach Gretchen Hunt is currently developing some new literature to help her recruiting efforts. The theme of her new piece is: "An Abundant Life," which details how volleyball is just part of her student-athletes' experience. She also wants her players to experience all Bethel has to offer, whether it's study abroad, playing multiple sports, exploring professional opportunities or any other extra-curricular activities that make up a full and abundant college experience.

"The [recruiting pieces] contain all the things I want for [prospective student-athletes], an abundant life filled to the brim," Hunt said. "Volleyball will be a big part, but it won't dominate their experience. If they want to work hard for other things, we'll totally support that. We're selling them a full, abundant experience."

Of course, Hunt could also just show potential recruits a picture of senior hitter Nicole Wriedt.

Since coming to Bethel to pursue both volleyball and a college degree in the fall of 2008, Wriedt's life has certainly been abundant. Not only has she starred on the court for the Royals, but Wriedt has also enjoyed experiences abroad in India and Uganda while maintaining a 3.92 grade point average and logging 600 off-campus field experience hours in social service agencies - a requirement to complete a degree in Social Work. And that just scratches the surface of Wriedt's abundant life, which certainly defines the NCAA's often-used "student-athlete" moniker.

"She's one of our top students," Hunt said of Wriedt. "She's a star for our team. She's done the study abroad thing twice. She's worked with her [advisors] to be organized and make that all work. She just has been super involved in campus ministry. She's been able to be involved in some campus-wide things. You can't just randomly decide to do all those things, but you have to be organized and people on campus have to collaborate."

Wriedt said her extremely full college slate has helped her, "find in life what gives you energy, what you're passionate about and decide what to hold on to. I knew [Bethel] would give me a variety of opportunities."

A winning attitude

With everything on her plate, Wriedt hasn't just found time for volleyball, but she's excelled for the Royals throughout her career. On Oct. 12, she led Bethel to a big five-set win over Saint Mary's to keep the Royals in a tie atop the conference standings and, in the process, she recorded her 1,000th career kill. The Pewaukee, Wis., native (Arrowhead H.S.) worked her way into Hunt's starting lineup as a freshman, and has enjoyed All-MIAC honors following each of the last two seasons, with more honors likely on the way this year.

"[Wriedt's] been starting since she was a freshman, so she just has a lot of individual confidence," Hunt said of her star senior. "She's just steady. She's smart and calm and I think that rubs off on her teammates. She's left-handed and can crush the ball and is a really good blocker. You don't get a lot of 6-foot, left-handed, athletic, smart people. Those are great intangibles."

This season, those intangibles have been more valuable than ever as Bethel ranks among one of the biggest surprises in the conference. A year ago, the Royals were just 13-16 overall and 5-6 in the conference, tied for seventh place and on the outside looking in at the conference playoffs. In August, the league coaches picked Bethel to finish sixth in the Preseason Coaches' Poll. However, 2011 has been an entirely different story as the team is 19-6 overall with a 6-1 conference record and is currently one of four teams in the hunt for the MIAC title with just one league loss. The Royals are the only conference team to defeat ninth-ranked Concordia this season, and with just one more win, Wriedt and her teammates will lock up a spot in the 2011 MIAC Volleyball Playoff field.

Wriedt leads a balanced Bethel offense with an average of 2.91 kills per set. She's one of three Royals' hitters with at least 250 kills - 259 to be exact - and a .219 hitting percentage. Her stat line also features 59 total blocks and 82 digs overall, and she's been even better in conference matches, averaging 3.5 kills per set and hitting at a .269 clip.

However, Wriedt maintains her play has been just part of the Royals' storybook season. Instead, she said the biggest difference on this year's team is the squad's experience and mental approach to the game. Loaded with talented upperclassmen who have grown on the job, they've learned as a group how to focus on what matters, and the result has been a winning attitude.

"I would say definitely our mental game [is the biggest difference this year]," Wriedt said. "At the beginning of our season we focused on looking towards the next point and not dwelling on mistakes or anything in the past. That mental toughness aspect has carried us through.

"[The upperclassmen] all have different leadership roles. That's been helpful because it can be a burden to feel like you have to lead, but because we have six people who are strong, we can share that burden and that excitement."

"This year, the upperclassmen, the seniors and juniors, really think they can win," Hunt added. "They just believe in each other and in themselves. Part of that had to do with a lot of time in the offseason - not with volleyball - just meeting and talking and figuring out what they want."

The result is an almost-certain spot in the playoffs and a chance to compete for the conference title over the final two weeks of the regular season, starting Friday night with a home match against St. Catherine, which doubles as senior night to honor Wriedt and her classmates. They'll also travel to Macalester Saturday before a crucial final week with matches against fellow one-loss teams Saint Benedict and 11th-ranked St. Thomas. Fortunately for Bethel, Wriedt's experiences off the court have helped her perspective on it, which will be especially important in the season's biggest matches.

"Broadening my perspective on life to recognize its not all about me just makes playing a lot less stressful," Wriedt said. "I know my identity doesn't revolve around how I play. I put so much pressure on myself, and setting too high of standards hurt my consistency. As I've grown in that area, I've realized it's only one part of who I am and it's helped me relax."

'Really grown-up things'

This season has been different for Wriedt and her coaches and teammates in other ways off the court as well. The senior plans to graduate this spring with a degree in Social Work, and as a requirement of her degree, she has to log 600 hours of field experience off-campus in social service agencies.

This fall, Wriedt has been placed as a case management intern with the Minnesota Council of Churches, which is a big non-profit, non-denominational organization in the Twin Cities. Wriedt's role is in the refugee services department, where she's learning to help settle refugees that come to Minnesota and integrate them into their new community, as well as learning about all the different roles and the interaction within her organization.

"I've been there for almost two months," Wriedt said. "There was a lot of training at the beginning, meeting with staff, hearing about their roles and seeing how they all relate to one another. It's been super eye-opening to see the challenges that refugees face coming to America, and their resilience. They come from life situations that are beyond my comprehension. Some would stay in refugee camps for months or years; some are separated from families. When they come to Minnesota, we're basically resettling them into poverty for the first couple months. We're encouragers for them to let them know they can make it and become a contributing member of society."

An interesting aspect of Wriedt's internship is that she's learning how to help others face challenges, while it has also led to some challenges of her own. With everything on her plate, she can't attend any Thursday practices, which are crucial with several weekend tournaments or Friday-Saturday conference matches on the schedule. However, Hunt has been true to her determination that her players should enjoy a full experience, and has found ways to deal with the absence of one of her stars once a week.

"We've always had to deal with people missing parts of things, but it's been awhile since we've had someone who missed a whole day," Hunt said. "But if she has to plan ahead, than so do I. We plan on what Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will look like with her there. Then Thursdays her backup plays her spot the whole time, which is great because she gets the experience and we get that depth. As a senior, to miss once a week, it's still so worth it for us, and I'd never pressure her or make her feel stressed. She has to check with teammates on things she missed, but she has to have the option to do something that's also really important to her."

Hunt added that the responsibilities and challenges Wriedt faces daily at her internship has helped her mature and is giving her an incredible head-start on a promising career.

"She goes to this job where she deals with refugee families and connects them to services," Hunt said. "That's a grown-up, stressful job, and she does that, and then sometimes flies in just to get on the van as we're headed to games. She has to get rid of stress from her internship and get ready to play. They're used to that with classes, but those who are in clinicals or internships are dealing with really grown-up things."

Eye-opening experiences

Wriedt's story wouldn't be complete without detailing the incredible experiences she has had abroad. She spent the summer of 2009 in India with a missions organization called 1040 Connections. The group's mission is to connect southeast Asia, northern Africa and the Middle East to churches in the U.S. to share resources and strengths, and to spread Christianity to those parts of the world, and it certainly provided Wriedt with an eye-opening experience.

"I went with five people and really experienced a different culture," Wriedt said of her month in India. "There are people of all different religions crammed together, practicing their religion freely and communicating about it freely and seeing where Christianity fits into that and what it's like to be a Christian in that situation.

"It challenged my Christianity. I saw poverty. I visited churches girls' homes and gave food and more to girls and tried to save them. Who knows what could happen if they stayed on the streets?"

That experience ended up being the appetizer of Wriedt's abroad experiences during her college days. In 2011, she spent all of interim and the spring semester in Uganda through Bethel's study abroad program. She interned at a program called "Off to Mission" which was in place to help street children in the countries' capital city, Kampala, to improve their quality of life and ideally provide direction. Again, the lessons Wriedt learned were numerous and invaluable.

"That experience built on the hope I had after coming back from India that in the midst of suffering, God is hope," Wriedt said. "In Uganda, I saw how people speak and live God's faithfulness. They know God as a provider, and in rural areas, as a provider and a healer.

"At Off to Mission, 12 children lived at this organization at a community home. We lived life with them and it was more flexible than in the U.S. I learned to recognize the dignity and the worth of every person we served. It was just great to be there and experience the love and life that the social workers shared with their clients. It empowers them to recognize that they can do this."

Since she did her semester abroad in the spring, Wriedt didn't have to miss any of the Royals' traditional volleyball season. However, the MIAC does allow for seven practice dates in the spring, meaning she'd miss the non-traditional season workouts leading into her senior year. Again, Hunt and Wriedt found a way to make it work so the opportunity in Uganda could enrich her overall college experience at Bethel.

"If you're here, we want you to [participate] and think it's important," Hunt said of the non-traditional season, "but if you're going to go somewhere, it's not the end of the world. It's seven days. They just connect with our strength coach on what they can do depending on where they go, and in third-world countries they're walking everywhere and it's a super-physical experience anyway.

"This fall, (Wriedt) started a little slow, but it just isn't that big a deal to miss those seven dates. Being able to go to Uganda and have that kind of experience, she'd never be able to do it in the same way after college. Everyone just has to be willing to compromise. It was such an amazing experience for her, I'd never want her to stay here and miss that. They come back with such a different world view and a viewpoint of what's important."

In fact, it was her experience in Uganda that has helped Wriedt to cope with her constantly-busy schedule back at school this semester. Living abroad and so far away from home taught her to live in the moment and focus on where she is and what's she's doing, rather than what isn't there, or what lies ahead.

"The biggest lesson I took from living in Uganda for four months was the idea of being present in the place you're at when you're there with the people you're with," Wriedt said. "That's been big with my life now with volleyball and classes and my internship. I'm fully at my internship when I'm there and then, as I drive that 15-20 min.

"It does wear on me sometimes, but that's when I have a team to support me and say, 'Hey, you can do it. We need you.' They keep me accountable and give me that little push to play hard and I love them and the Lord and we love working hard for each other."

Playoffs and beyond

Thanks to her well-rounded experience at Bethel, even though graduation and the "real world" are still several months away, it's clear Wriedt will be ready for whatever life throws at her next. As her volleyball career winds to a close, Wriedt and her fellow seniors have already begun to recognize just how far they've come on account of their experiences, and what they've learned along the way.

"I was talking to the two other seniors (setter Kate Smith and outside hitter Haley Toter) and we're so surprised this season is ending," Wriedt said. "We remember coming in as freshman and the challenges we've faced and the ways we've grown through anything. We know we can handle tough life situations coming up because we've been through so much."

However, the curtain isn't closing on Wriedt and her fellow seniors just yet. They still have four big matches remaining, with the distinct possibility of postseason matches to follow. And though the intensity and pressure tend to ratchet up this time of year, everything that has led Wriedt and her teammates to this point have them prepared to seize the opportunity.

"I hope we finish our season playing passionately together, struggling well through the tough moments and continuing to glorify God in all of our actions," Wriedt said. "It's really exciting to have the experience of MIAC playoffs and possibly the NCAA tournament after that. We're setting our sights on what's ahead and working hard in practice and loving each other, and having the love and team unity at the core of everything we do."

Courtesy of MIAC