Griz open season in Mississippi
8/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The University of Montana volleyball team will open its 2010 regular season this weekend when the Grizzlies play four matches in two days at the Mississippi State Maroon Classic in Starkville, Miss.
Montana will face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 9:30 a.m. (MT) and Austin Peay at??2 p.m. (MT) Friday and Arkansas-Little Rock at??2 p.m. (MT) and Mississippi State at 6:30 p.m. (MT) Saturday.
The tournament will be the season-opening matches for all five teams competing.
???We really don???t know anything about any of these teams, which is exactly what we need right now,??? fifth-year coach Jerry Wagner said. ???What I do know is that we are going to play hard and with a lot of enthusiasm and youthful exuberance.
???The key is how quickly we lock in on what our opponents are trying to do and how quickly we adapt to what they are trying to do. We???ve talked about it, but until we see another team running a particular style or defense against us, we won???t know how quickly we can make those adjustments in a match.
???We have some quality depth this year, so we should be able to manage this first tournament pretty well.???
Live coverage: Mississippi State???s website, MStateAthletics.com will offer live stats for all the tournament???s matches through the ???M2M/New Media??? link on the site???s homepage. Video broadcasts of the host Bulldogs??? four matches are also available through a subscription package through the same link.
Scouting the opponents
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi: The Islanders dropped 12 of their final 14 matches in 2009 and finished the season 9-22. They went 2-14 in league to finish sixth in the six-team West Division of the Southland Conference. The team returns just one starter in 2010, senior setter Jessica Jennett. The Islanders were picked to finish sixth in the Southland???s West Division again this fall.
Austin Peay: On paper the Lady Govs are one of the strongest team in the tournament, with five returning starters from last year???s team that went 22-9 and finished second in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 15-3 mark. The team returns first-team All-OVC senior setter Sarah Alisaleh but must replace the 2009 Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, outside hitter Stephanie Champine. The Lady Govs were picked sixth in this year???s Ohio Valley preseason poll.
Arkansas-Little Rock: The Trojans went 16-14 a year ago and finished third in the Sunbelt Conference???s West Division at 10-8. The team lost both of its All-Sun Belt performers from 2009 and returns just two starters this fall. The Trojans feature a lineup heavy on international players, with one from Latvia, one from Brazil and three from China.
Mississippi State: The host Bulldogs went 9-22 a year ago and finished fifth out of six teams in the Southeastern Conference???s West Division with a 5-15 league mark. The team returns four starters, plus its libero, and was picked to finish fifth in the West Division again this fall. Senior Ashley Newsome, a 6-1 middle blocker/outside hitter, led the team in kills (2.98/s), hitting percentage (.252) and blocks (1.11/s) in 2009.
Series histories: Montana will be facing Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Austin Peay for the first time in program history. The Grizzlies have a 3-0 record in their previous matchups against Arkansas-Little Rock and Mississippi State.
Montana swept the Trojans in 3-0 matches at Texas-Arlington???s tournament in 1995 and Fresno State???s tournament in 1997. Mississippi State traveled to Missoula in 1994 and lost to the Griz in straight sets.
Redshirt status still up in the air: Entering the tournament, Wagner expects to redshirt both freshmen middle blockers Erika Buchanan and Natalie Jones in 2010, though that is injury-dependant on the middles playing in front of them.
Freshman libero/defensive specialist Megan Murphey may redshirt, but that decision won???t be made until Wagner gets a handle on how well his 2010 team handles the ball, something it excelled at in 2009.
???We are pretty set on redshirting (Erika and Natalie), and the third one is something we???ll have to monitor,??? Wagner said. ???I don???t want to leave anything in the cupboard that might allow us to play the game the way we want to this season.???
First-year impact: The team???s three other freshmen ??? setter Kortney James and outside hitters Brooke Bray and Kayla Reno ??? will all be playing this season and all will be seeing considerable action in Starkville.
James will be the team???s starting setter, and Bray and Reno should see plenty of court time at the right- and left-side hitter positions.
???We???re in very good hands with these players,??? Wagner said. ???Our new players have been everything I could have asked of them to this point. They are all improving within the roles that we???ve asked them to play, and they are doing it while working as diligently as they can with fantastic attitudes.???
Roberts makes return: Junior outside hitter Amy Roberts was lost for the 2009 season 10 matches in, and she did not return to the volleyball court again until preseason camp opened on Monday, Aug. 9. But Wagner expects the player he now says has an even better mental grasp of the game than pre-injury to see action in one match each day this weekend.
???When Amy steps foot on that court, it???s going to be a new lease on the game for her,??? Wagner said. ???I think there are going to be a lot of good vibes out there with her back in uniform.???
Wagner hoping for more balanced numbers: Last fall the Grizzlies hit .206 as a team to rank fifth in the Big Sky Conference. A big part of that hitting percentage was due to the play of middle blockers Jaimie Thibeault, now a senior, and Brittany Quick, now a junior, who hit .353 and .296 to rank first and seventh in the Big Sky.
In contrast, Montana had a pair of primary left-side hitters in 2009 who hit below .100 in 16 Big Sky Conference matches.
That is a wide percentage gap that Wagner would like to see closed to a degree in 2010 if the Grizzlies are going to hit his team hitting percentage goal of .225.
???We were near that mark last year, but to hit it this season we???ll need our outside hitters to produce a much higher percentage than they did last year,??? Wagner said.
???I???d like to hit (.225) because our middles, who are pretty established, are able to duplicate and exceed what they did last year and our left sides become more of an offensive thorn to our opponents.???
