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Kristen Fenton
Fresno State |
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WELCOME TO THE WAC Next season, Idaho, New Mexico State and Utah State will join the WAC. Both Idaho and New Mexico State advanced to the NCAA Tournament last season. The Vandals lost to Hawaii in Honolulu in the first round. New Mexico State lost to BYU in the first round. The Aggies were a perfect 15-0 in the Sun Belt in 2003.
REGIONAL SITES SET The NCAA Division I Womens Volleyball Committee has announced the following sites for regional competition of the 2004 NCAA Division I Womens Volleyball Championships. The first sight is the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville, Ky., along with the Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis, Minn.; Bank America Arena in Seattle, Wash., and the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wis. Louisville, Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin-Green Bay are the hosts for regionals, which will be held December 9-12.
RETURNING ALL-WAC PLAYERS Of the 12 first-team all-WAC players in 2003, five will return for the 2004 season, including Hawaiis Kanoe Kamana`o, the WACs Freshman of the Year. Rices Rebeca Pazo, Fresno States Kristen Fenton, Nevadas Salaia Salave`a and SMUs Jessica Mihm also return from the 2003 first team. Eight of the second-team all-WAC performers will also return this season, including Fresno States Tiffany Bishop and Robyn Keune. SMU has a trio returning, including Jacky Niederstadt, Beth Karasek and Kelly Larkan. Other second team returnees include Rices Rebecca Kainz, Nevadas Tristin Adams and San Jose States Jessie Shull.
RICE NAMES NEW HEAD COACH The WAC welcomes one new coach this season. Genny Volpe, formerly an assistant coach at Texas A&M University, has been named Rices new head volleyball coach. Volpe spent the past three seasons at Texas A&M, where the Aggies were 70-26 and appeared in the NCAA tournament each season. Texas A&M finished the 2003 season ranked 16th in the final AVCA poll and advanced to the NCAA regional semifinals where it lost to eventual national champion Southern California.
This is not Volpes first stint at Rice. She spent the 1995 season as an assistant coach for the Owls under former head coach Henry Chen. She helped direct Rice to its first postseason bid as the Owls were selected to play in the NIVC tournament.
PERSONNEL CAPSULE Nine schools return at least three starters for the 2004 campaign. Hawaii returns only one starter. Nevada returns the most letterwinners with 10, while Tulsa brings back nine. Boise State, Fresno State, Rice, and Nevada bring back eight letterwiners. The following is a breakdown of each teams letterwinners returning and lost and starters returning and lost.
Team LR LL SR SL
Boise State 8 4 5 2
Fresno State 8 5 4 2
Hawaii 6 7 1 6
Louisiana Tech 7 4 3 3
Nevada 10 3 7 1
Rice 8 3 4 2
San Jose State 8 4 3 4
SMU 10 2 5 1
UTEP 5 4 4 3
Tulsa 9 2 5 1
WAC TOURNAMENT RECORDS Several records were broken at the 2003 WAC Tournament. Fresno State outside hitter Kristen Fenton set the record for attempts with 96 in a five-game loss against San Jose State in the quarterfinals. The previous record was 78 by San Diego State's Martina Vitkova-Engels against Wyoming in 1997. Fenton also tied the record for service aces in a match with four against San Jose State in the quarterfinal on Nov. 21. In team records, both Louisiana Tech and SMU tied the team record with five ball handling errors in their quarterfinal match on Nov. 21.
ACADEMIC AWARDS Several WAC volleyball players were honored with district academic awards.
Fresno State's Tina Brennan was named to her first Academic All-District VIII Team, as voted by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Brennan was named to the six-member first feam all-District VIII Team, which encompasses the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and the province of British Columbia. Majoring in liberal studies with a cumulative 4.0 GPA, Brennan was an integral part of the Bulldogs' defense since her arrival in 2001.
Catherine DuPont, Rebeca Pazo and Rebecca Kainz were named to Academic all-District VI teams as selected by CoSIDA. It was the second first-team honor for DuPont, as she was named to the district team in 2002, and was also named a third-team academic all-America that season. Pazo was a second-team all-district selection in 2002, and this was the first honor for Kainz. DuPont, a junior, owned a 4.00 grade point average in sports medicine and Spanish. Pazo was an economics and Spanish major with a 3.417 GPA. The junior is a two-time all-WAC selection, and was twice named to the academic all-WAC team. Kainz owned a 3.442 GPA in English and policy studies.
Nevada outside hitter Christine Harms was named to the Academic all-District VIII second team. Harms carried a 4.00 grade point average in civil engineering.
SINGLE-SEASON LEADERS Several WAC players were among the single-season leaders last season. Hawaii senior Kim Willoughby was second in total kills with 752. She holds the No. 1 spot with 850 in 2001 and the No. 3 spot with 688 in 2002. The senior was also second in kills per game with a 6.60 average. She holds the top spot, averaging 7.20 kpg in 2001. Willoughby was fourth in aces with 71.
San Jose State freshman Jessie Shull ended the season tied for fifth with 473 digs. SMU's Beth Karasek was sixth with 468 digs. In digs per game, Shull ended the season second, averaging 4.30 dpg with Karasek ending the season sixth with a 4.11 dpg average. Rice's Rebecca Neal avergaged 4.00 dpg, good for eighth.
Hawaii setter Kanoe Kamana`o was sixth in assists per game with a 13.68 apg average.
CAREER LEADERS Kim Willoughby is among the leaders in several WAC career categories. Willoughby is first in the WAC in career total kills (2,598) and kills per game (5.91). Rice's Rebeca Pazo moved to third in kills per game with a career average of 5.02 kpg. Hawaii's Lily Kahumoku is fifth with a career average of 4.46 kpg. Willoughby is also third is service aces per game with average of 0.44 sapg.Willoughby is second in total service aces with 194 and third in total digs with 1,440. The All-American is also third in total digs (1440) and ninth in digs per game (3.29 dpg).
HAWAI`I'S WILLOUGHBY BREAKS WAC CAREER KILL RECORD Against Baylor on Sept. 6, 2003, Hawaii senior Kim Willoughby had three great feats. She tied the school record for single-match aces with six. She also broke the school record for career aces (191). To top both of those achievements, she surpassed the 2,000 career kill mark, breaking the WAC record for career kills. The two-time WAC Player of the Year had 752 kills last season, to give her 2,598 career kills, breaking the record previously held by San Jose State's Joslynn Gallop (1997-00). Gallop ended her illustrious career with 1,996 kills. Willoughby was first in the WAC in kills per game (6.60 kpg). She holds the record for career kills per game also with an average of 5.92 kpg.
FENTON REACHES 40-KILL MARK Fresno States Kristen Fenton made history when she recorded her first career 40-plus kill match. With 41 notched against CS Northridge on Nov. 12, she tied the national mark for most kills collected last fall and became just the fifth player in the country to post a 40-kill match last season and the ninth player overall in Division I history to total at least 40 kills since rally scoring was introduced in 2001. Against CS Northridge, Fenton collected a match-high 41 kills and hit .323 (41-10-96) with two assists, 14 digs and three blocks. The 41 kills was a new rally scoring school record for a five-game match as well as a breaking a 12-year old school record and North Gym record (old mark was 36 by Paola Paz-Soldan, vs. New Mexico, Sept. 5, 1991).
TERRIFIC TOURNAMENTS The WAC performed very strong in tournaments last season. Fresno State traveled to the Northern Arizona Invitational and went 3-0 en route to the tournament win. SMU captured another title, winning the Loyola-Chicago Invitational. Hawaii and Tulsa both won tournaments that they hosted. Hawaii won the Spring Invitational, the Aston Imua Wahine Challenge and the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic, while Tulsa won the Ewing/Grover Olds-GMC Invite. Louisiana Tech won its second tournament title of the season, capturing the Drake Tournament.
PACKING THE STANDS Once again, Hawaii led the nation in attendance. The Rainbow Wahine drew 153,655 in 21 home matches last season for an average of 7,486. The Rainbow Wahine have led the nation in attendance the last eight years. Hawaii also held 14 of the top 15 single-match highs last season, including the nation's second best, 10,300 fans that saw No. 2 Hawaii defeat San Jose State. The attendance for Hawaii's win over Georgia Tech in the NCAA Regional Final was 9,412 on Dec. 13. The Rainbow Wahine's average was the second highest in the WAC since Hawaii averaged 8,378 in 1996.