eading into this season, Gopher seniors Ashley Wittman and Tori Dixon had combined for 2,477 kills and 549 blocks, as well as four All-American and five All-Big Ten awards and two selections to the conference All-Freshman Team.
PHOTOS: ERIC MILLER
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But they’ve been combining talents for a lot longer than that. Dixon and Wittman also played five years together for their Northern Lights AAU team, and have lived together since they first arrived on campus. In other words, they’ve spent roughly half of their lives practicing and playing volleyball and hanging out together. And it shows. On the last day of preseason camp, they sat across a table from each other at the Sports Pavilion taking turns reflecting on their shared history and, yes, completing each other’s sentences. “We know what helps the other person—what they are comfortable with. We know each other’s goals, aspirations and everything,” says Dixon, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker from Burnsville, Minnesota, and the daughter of David Dixon, former offensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings. “We’re teammates, we’re friends and we’ve known each other’s life history. We’ve grown up together.” Wittman, a six-foot outside hitter from Shakopee, Minnesota, nods in agreement. “We’re not afraid to let each other know what we’re really feeling and to have those hard conversations and fight about things, because we’ve been together for so long, we’re able to talk about things that need to be talked about,” she says. “It’s been fun, for sure. It’s going to be weird not playing with each other, I think.” “I don’t like talking about that,” Dixon pipes in.
PHOTO: COURTNEY ANDERSON
The long road to ‘right up the road’ Dixon and Wittman tasted success, and lots of it, at an early age, winning three AAU national championships in a row in the age groupings of 15s, 16s, and 17s. They also played for the USA Youth National Team for a couple years and were able to travel extensively, including to Puerto Rico and Italy. But there was no overt or secret LeBron James/Dwyane Wade/Chris Bosh–style agreement to come to the University of Minnesota in lockstep. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Although they traveled together to visit a couple of other Big Ten schools, namely Wisconsin and Illinois, they explored other colleges on their own. “I honestly don’t think we ever talked about coming to the same place together,” adds Wittman. “When we both decided to come to Minnesota it was like, ‘Sweet, we’re going together.’” “Minnesota was the best mix of pretty much everything I wanted, a good volleyball program, lots of [academic] options, a good school, and it just worked out that it was right up the road from me,” she Dixon. “I can see my parents when I want and my friends from high school are around, so it’s just comfortable. I loved it here and I still do.” “Walking around campus, I could see myself actually going here, rather than when I walked around the other places,” adds Wittman. “And like Tori said, it was nice that I’m not too far
away and my family can come support me and watch me, and I can see them and get off campus if I need to.” Continuity in times of change Throughout their first three years, Dixon and Wittman have been consistently excellent. Both earned spots on the Big Ten’s All-Freshmen Team in 2010. Wittman was a unanimous AllBig Ten and second-team All-American selection as a sophomore, and Dixon claimed those same honors as a junior. Still, they’ve experienced more than their share of coaching changes. They played their first year in 2010 under legendary coach Mike Hebert in his final season before retiring. Although Hugh McCutcheon was announced to be Hebert’s successor, Laura Bush took over as interim head coach the following year while McCutcheon fulfilled his commitment to coach the U.S. women’s team in the 2012 Olympics. Now, as McCutcheon enters his second full season as head coach, Dixon and