ZACH ENGLUND
Staff Writer
PAUL CLARK/Photo Editor
The future looks bright for this year’s Pepperdine women’s volleyball team. Finishing the 2005 season second in the West Coast Conference (10-4) and 18th overall (19-12), the team looks to build on the successful season as it enters 2006 play ranked No. 19 by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
With returning All-WCC players such as senior Sophia Milo, junior Lecca Roberts and sophomores Cassandra Chamberlain and Julie Rubenstein, this is already considered a powered team with loaded talent.
Although the Waves lost setter Melissa Mehlhorn and outside hitters Katy Daly and Breegan Mulligan, Head Coach Nina Matthies considers her returning players ready for the challenge and labels her incoming group as “extraordinary players who just need experience.”
Freshmen Kiah Fiers, Rachel Lumsden and Kayla Walker, and junior transfer Nina Baltimore look to help fill the void from those who left and bolster an already impressive roster.
While the 23rd-year coach attributes some of the team’s current success to her assistant coaches Tim Jensen and Tim Nollan, she is also quick to say that the coaches are only a small part of the much larger picture.
“The team will only go as far as the players take them,” Matthies said. “Great players can make the coaches look very good.”
Matthies said the team has been working hard to shore up its passing and serving in training camp, the only two areas she thought really needed improvement to heavily compete against this year’s schedule.
Another key to success will be the leadership and strength that seniors Milo, Kekai Crabbe and captain Kristin McClune bring to the team.
Milo said she thinks the team, being more experienced, has a better understanding of focusing on the little things instead of dwelling on the ultimate goal, which can seem like an overwhelming challenge.
Along with the added experience comes better court awareness, and Milo believes the team has improved when it comes to being in the right place at the right time on the floor.
The Waves began regular-season play Friday at No.-7 Hawaii and will play their home opener Friday against Texas.
According to Matthies, there are even greater expectations for this year’s team than the year before, but the talent level that is clearly evident demands those high expectations. The players already have a strong bond with one another, firmly believing in the team concept, and plan on honing their focus on one game at a time. All of these keys to success are giving the Waves a reason to believe this will be a season to remember.
08-28-2006