Griz in Philadelphia to start 2011 season
8/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Aug. 24, 2011
The University of Montana volleyball team will open its 2011 season this weekend when the Grizzlies play three matches in two days at the Temple Invitational in Philadelphia. The tournament also includes South Carolina and Stony Brook.
Montana will face South Carolina in the tournament's opening match at 1 p.m. (MT) Friday. The Grizzlies will face Stony Brook at 8 a.m. (MT) and Temple at 5 p.m. (MT) Saturday.
The tournament, which will be the season-opening matches for all four teams, is being held at Temple's McGonigle Hall.
Coverage: Live stats for all six tournament matches can be followed at http://www.sidearmstats.com/temple/wvball.
New-look teams: Both South Carolina and Temple will be playing for first-year coaches this weekend.
The Gamecocks will be playing their first match Friday for Scott Swanson, most recently the associate head coach at Minnesota from 2006 to 2010. Swanson was the head coach at Texas-El Paso for four seasons before taking the associate head coaching job at Minnesota.
Temple's new coach is Bakeer Ganes. He spent five years on the staff at West Virginia before being named the Owls' coach last January.
Deborah Matejka-DesLauriers has been coaching Stony Brook since 2000, Montana coach Jerry Wagner is beginning his sixth season with the Grizzlies.
Where they were picked: Montana was picked for a third-place finish in the Big Sky Conference preseason coaches poll, South Carolina was picked for a fifth-place finish in the five-team Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference, Stony Brook was picked fourth in the American East Conference, and Temple was picked ninth out of 10 teams in the Atlantic 10.
How they finished last season: Montana went 13-15 in 2010 and finished in a tie for third in the Big Sky. The No. 4 Grizzlies lost to No. 1 Portland State in five sets in the semifinals of the Big Sky tournament.
South Carolina went 7-23 overall and 4-16 in SEC play to finish fifth in the Eastern Division. Ben Somera, who coached the Gamecocks for four seasons, resigned in early December.
Stony Brook went 11-18 overall, 6-6 in America East matches to finish fourth in the seven-team league in 2010. The No. 4 Seawolves lost to No. 1 Albany in five sets in the semifinals of the America East tournament.
Temple went 4-25 last season, tying for ninth in the Atlantic 10 with a 1-14 league record. Bob Bertucci, who is now coaching at Lehigh, stepped down last November after 16 years coaching the Owls.
Montana preview: The Grizzlies return five players with starting experience in senior middle blocker Brittany Quick, senior outside hitter Amy Roberts, sophomore Brooke Bray, sophomore setter Kortney James and sophomore outside hitter Kayla Reno.
Bray played right side as a freshman, but she is being moved to middle blocker as a sophomore.
Junior outside hitter Paige Branstiter and sophomore Megan Murphey were both letterwinners last season. Branstiter played in 22 of 28 matches in 2010, Murphey 21 of 28 matches.
Murphey will be taking over libero duties for the graduated Brittney Brown, the 2009 Big Sky Conference LIbero of the Year.
Montana's other four players will all be seeing their first collegiate action if they step foot on the floor of McGonigle Hall this weekend. Middle blocker Natalie Jones is a redshirt freshman, defensive specialist/outside hitter Kaitlyn Molloy, middle blocker Capri Richardson and setter/outside hitter Kelsey Schile are all true freshmen.
What everyone else has back: South Carolina returns five starters, the big name being Juliette Thevenin, a 6-1 sophomore outside hitter who averaged 3.65 kills per set in 2010 on .224 hitting. The Gamecocks also return their starting setter and leading blocker from 2010.
Stony Brook, the slight tournament favorite, has perhaps the top player in the tournament in senior outside hitter Alicia Nelson. Nelson, who has the same hometown (Apple Valley, Minn.), high school (Eastview) and club team (Northern Lights) as Montana freshman Kelsey Schile, averaged 3.81 kills on .232 hitting last fall and earned first-team All-America East honors.
The Seawolves also have a senior setter and return their leading blocker from last season.
Temple is the tournament's biggest unknown. The Owls will not only be under a first-year coach, but they return just three starters. Sophomore outside hitter Elyse Burkert averaged 2.23 kills per set in 2010.
The histories: Montana will be facing Stony Brook and South Carolina for the first time in program history.
The Grizzlies and Owls met last September at Montana's tournament, their first-ever meeting. Montana topped Temple in five sets, 17-25, 25-20, 27-29, 26-24, 15-10.
Tournament outlook: "We're mostly concerned with starting out at a higher point than we started last season, with clearer, more defined goals and expectations," Wagner said.
"South Carolina and Temple are under new coaches and Stony Brook isn't someone we've seen before, so we'll just expect everyone's best and hope our best is better.
"It should be a lot of super competition and just the experience we need right now."
The lineup: Wagner will use this weekend's three matches as trial by fire as he tests different combinations and lineups.
"I think that our depth and the strengths of the players who give us that depth will allow us to do a lot of different things this weekend," the coach said. "At this point, I'm not sure which lineup is going to be our best.
"While we are going to try some different things lineup-wise, I know every group we have on the floor is going to do a couple of things that that will make any of our lineups successful: We are going to compete feverishly and we're going to handle the ball efficiently."
Quick and Roberts named captains: Montana's two seniors, middle blocker Brittany Quick and outside hitter Amy Roberts, are this year's captains.
Roberts is knee brace-free and flying around the gym after a 2009 injury and a 2010 season played with a bulky ACL brace. She was a second-team All-Big Sky Conference player in 2008.
Quick, honorable mention All-Big Sky last fall, is taking over the lead middle blocker position from the graduated Jaimie Thibeault. Thibeault finished her career as the Montana career leader in blocks.
"We rely on our captains to be the ones who keep everyone in the right frame of mind when the team is not at the gym," Wagner said.
"When we are practicing, I want them to lead by their strong play and the day-in and day-out workmanlike mentality they both have and let the younger players view that as an example of how you become an accomplished player.
"I think they've done a nice job getting us to this point. We're starting at a higher point this season, and we wouldn't be doing that without the strong leadership Brittany and Amy have given us throughout the year."
Olgard calls it a career: Emma Olgard, who would have been a redshirt junior on this year's team, has opted to end her playing career due to lingering injury issues.
Olgard, a 6-3 middle blocker from Spokane, Wash., redshirted in 2008, then played in 21 matches, getting seven starts, as a redshirt freshman in 2009.
She played in just two matches last season because of injury.
"As with any player this staff has recruited, we always plan for the best, but sometimes things don't go the way you planned them," Wagner said.
"Unfortunately Emma had to spend most of her time trying to get back into the gym, and the burden of that when everybody else keeps getting better every year just became too much.
"Emma was a joy to be around and a good teammate."
