All nine WAC teams that will kickoff the 2006 season this week. No. 7 Hawai?i opens the season against preseason No. 19 by hosting Pepperdine on Aug. 25 and 26. Fresno State also starts the season at home, hosting the Fresno State Invitational. New Mexico State will begin the season close to home at the UTEP/Sun Bowl Tournament, while Utah State will open the season at the Hilton Albuquerque Classic. Boise State travels to Fort Worth to play in the TCU Invitational, while Nevada plays in the Montana State Tournament. San Jose State is at the Northern Arizona Tournament, while Louisiana Tech begins the season at the Wichita State Tournament.
AVCA Preseason PollRichKern.com Poll
HAWAI?I RANKED IN PRESEASON POLL ? The University of Hawai’i is ranked seventh in the 2006 CSTV/AVCA volleyball preseason coaches’ poll. The Rainbow Wahine, who ended the 2005 season with a 27-7 record, finished last season ranked ninth.
Defending national champion, Washington, starts the season ranked No. 3, while last season’s runner-up, Nebraska, starts the season ranked No. 1. Penn State takes the No. 2 spot, while Stanford is ranked No. 4 and Florida is ranked No. 5.
This season, the Rainbow Wahine return five starters, including All-American and WAC Player of the Year, Kanoe Kamana`o. Hawai?i also returns first-team all WAC selections, Sarah Mason and Juliana Sanders . Last season, Hawai?i earned its sixth Western Athletic Conference Tournament title. The Rainbow Wahine and New Mexico State were picked by the WAC coaches to finish first and second, respectively, in the WAC this season. The 2006 WAC volleyball season begins on Friday, Aug. 25 with all nine WAC teams competing.
2006 PRESEASON ALL-WAC TEAM ANNOUNCED ? The WAC Preseason all-WAC volleyball team was announced today as voted on by the nine coaches. Hawai?i All-American Kanoe Kamana`o was named WAC Preseason Player of the Year. The senior setter was the 2004 and 2005 WAC Player of the Year. Hawai?i led the way placing five on the 12-player team. Along with Kamana`o, senior Sarah Mason and junior Juliana Sanders earned preseason honors. The three were first-team all-WAC selections in 2005. Also earning honors were junior Tara Hittle and sophomore Jamie Houston, who were both second-team all-WAC honorees in 2005. New Mexico State placed four players on the preseason team, including 2005 WAC Freshman of the Year, Amber Simpson. The Aggies also had senior Jackie Choi and junior Kim Oguh named to the team. Both were first-team selections last season. Alice Borden was the final Aggie named to the preseason all-WAC squad. Boise State senior Cameron Flunder was the Broncos’ only honoree. Rounding out the team are San Jose State junior Jennifer Senftleben and Idaho sophomore Haley Larsen. Senftleben was a first-team selection last season, while Larsen was named to the second-team all-WAC and the all-freshman.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME ? Due to multi-million dollar renovations to the Pan American Center, New Mexico State will be displaced for its home matches this season. With the Pan American Center still undergoing renovations, the Aggies are playing their home matches at Las Cruces High School.
VOLLEYBALL FORMAT ? For the second-straight year the WAC will not compete in divisions. This season’s format will be a double-round robin. Each team will face the other eight at home and on the road. All nine teams will compete in the WAC Volleyball Tournament.
2006 WAC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
November 22 (Quarterfinals) Match 1 - No. 8 vs. No. 9
Match 2 - No. 4 vs. No. 5
Match 3 - No. 3 vs. No. 6
Match 4 - No. 2 vs. No. 7
Match 5 - Winner Match 1 vs. No. 1
November 23 (Semifinals) Match 6 - Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 4
Match 7 - Winner Match 2 vs. Winner Match 5
November 24 (Championship) Match 8 - Winner Match 6 vs. Winner Match 7
FREQUENT FLIER MILES ? New Mexico State sophomore middle blocker Amber Simpson spent her summer vacation playing volleyball in Argentina as a member of the Bring It Promotions All-Frosh USA Select Team. Simpson joined some of the best collegiate freshman from around the country. Team USA played matches in Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Freyre, Cordoba, Nogoya, Villaguay, Diamante and Ramallo. Simpson had a breakout season for the Aggies, earning WAC Freshman of the Year honors in 2005.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ? Utah State will begin its 30th season of collegiate volleyball in 2006 with an overall record of 486-577-8 (.458). The Aggies have reached the NCAA Tournament three times in school history (2000, 2001, 2005), advancing to the second round in 2000 and 2001. Utah State has produced nine All-American’s in its history, one academic All-American, and a national championship in 1978, followed by a runner-up finish in 1979. Utah State has also had two players play professionally in Elaine Roque and Karolyn Kirby, who was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2004.
TOP STAT LEADERS ? The following are the returning statistical leaders in the WAC from 2005. In hitting efficiency, six of the top 10 hitters are back, led by Hawai?i’s Juliana Sanders (.360) and New Mexico State’s Kim Oguh (.358), who finished No. 2 and No. 3 in the WAC, respectively. The remaining leaders are Boise State’s Cameron Flunder (.330 - fourth), New Mexico State’s Amber Simpson (sixth - .308) and Idaho’s Sarah Loney (.282 - 10th).
Eight of the top 10 kill leaders are back for the 2006 season. The top returner is San Jose State’s Jennifer Senftleben who was second last season, averaging 4.15 kpg. Boise State’s Cameron Flunder was fourth averaging 3.89 kpg. WAC newcomer Haley Larsen of Idaho was fifth, averaging 3.77 kpg, while Hawai?i’s Sarah Mason was sixth (3.72 kpg). The other returning leaders are Louisiana Tech’s Ambra Hayes (3.71 kpg - seventh), Hawai?i’s Jamie Houston (3.57 kpg - eighth), New Mexico State’s Alice Borden (3.52 kpg- ninth) and Fresno State’s Alison Pitton (3.51 kpg - 10th).
Eight of the top assist leaders from last season return for the 2006 campaign. Hawai?i All-American Kanoe Kamana`o is the top assist leader returning (13.85 apg) followed by New Mexico State’s Jackie Choi (11.97 apg). Idaho’s Saxony Brown is the fourth top returner in assists after averaging 11.90 apg, followed by San Jose State’s Brittany Collet (11.48 apg - fifth) and Nevada’s Tristin Johnson (11.11 apg - sixth). The remaining leaders are Nevada’s Ashley Miller (10.89 apg - seventh), Louisiana Tech’s Jillann Walker (9.85 apg - ninth) and Boise State’s Mandy Klein (8.61 apg - 10th).
Seven of the top 10 blockers return, but the WAC will not have the 2005 leader, Hawai?i’s Victoria Prince, who was first in the league, averaging 1.56 blocks per game. The top returner is New Mexico State’s Amber Simpson (1.35 bpg - second) and Kim Oguh (1.32 bpg - third). Hawai?i’s Juliana Sanders finished fifth (1.24 bpg), followed by Nevada’s Karly Sipherd (1.20 bpg - sixth). The remaining block returners are Idaho’s Sarah Loney (1.17 - seventh), Louisiana Tech’s Carly Johnson (1.06 - ninth) and Hawai?i’s Kanoe Kamana`o (1.02 - 10th).
Seven of the top 10 servers also return led by New Mexico State’s Tanya Allen who finished first last season, averaging 0.47 sapg, followed by Boise State’s Flunder (0.36 sapg- third) and San Jose State’s Kristina Conrad (0.33 sapg - fourth). New Mexico State’s Choi finished tied for seventh, averaging 0.30 sapg. The remaining top servers are Boise State’s Jackie Stroud, Nevada’s ristin Johnson and New Mexico State’s Jordan Bostic (0.29 sapg - tied for eighth).
Six of the top 10 dig leaders return led for the third-straight year by San Jose State’s Jessie Shull, who was first in the WAC digs per game, averaging 4.87 dpg. Also returning is New Mexico State’s Bostic (4.72 dpg - second), Boise State’s Jackie Stroud (3.92 dpg - fifth) and Utah State’s Kelsi Peterson (3.78 dpg - seventh). The other top dig returners are Fresno State’s Cheryl Selenak (3.46 dpg - eighth), Idaho’s Stacey Sode (3.32 dpg - ninth) and Fresno State’s Cassie Gilford (3.19 dpg - 10th).
RETURNING ALL-WAC PLAYERS ? Of the 12 first-team all-WAC players in 2005, seven should return for the 2006 season, including Hawai?i’s Kanoe Kamana`o, the WAC’s Player of the Year and Amber Simpson, the WAC’s Freshman of the Year. Hawai?i also returns first-team all-WAC selections Sarah Mason and Juliana Sanders. Boise State’s Cameron Flunder, New Mexico State’s Jackie Choi and Kim Oguh also return from the 2005 first team. San Jose State’s Jennifer Senftleben will be back from last season’s first team. Ten of the second-team all-WAC performers will also return this season, including New Mexico State’s Alice Borden, Jordan Bostic and Amber Simpson. Hawai?i has a duo returning, including Tara Hittle and Jamie Houston. Nevada also has a pair returning from the second team Teal Ericson and Karly Sipherd. San Jose State’s Jessie Shull, Idaho’s Haley Larsen and Fresno State’s Alison Pitton all return from the 2005 second team.
WAC TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO LAWLOR ? For the second-straight season, the WAC Volleyball Tournament will be played at the Lawlor Events Center on the campus of the University of Nevada. This is the fifth-straight year that the WAC Tournament has been played in Reno. Before playing in the Lawlor Events Center, the tournament was played in the regular season home of the Wolf Pack, Viriginia Street Gym.
HAWAI?I TO HOST VOLLEYBALL REGIONAL ? Hawai?i will host one of the four 2006 NCAA Women’s Volleyball Regionals, on Dec. 8 and 9. The other three sites will be Seattle, Wash. (University of Washington), Austin, Texas (University of Texas), and Gainsville, Fla. (University of Florida). Hawai?i will be hosting a regional for the second time since the NCAA switched to predetermined regional sites in 2003, and the eighth time overall. UH last hosted a regional in 2003, when the Rainbow Wahine defeated Illinois and Georgia Tech to advance to the NCAA Championships. UH has hosted at least one NCAA match in 16 of the 24 NCAA tournaments they have qualified for, but haven’t had an NCAA match in Honolulu in the past two seasons. Hawai?i has led the country in attendance every year since moving into the Stan Sheriff Center in 1994, averaging over 7,000 fans a match in the 11 years at the facility. In the 2003 Honolulu Regional, each session drew crowds in excess of 9,000.
BOISE STATE AND UTAH STATE NAME NEW HEAD COACHES ? The WAC will have two new head coaches this season with the addition of Robin Davis at Boise State and Grayson DuBose at Utah State. Davis was the associate head coach at a very successful Notre Dame program. A 16-year veteran of the college game, Robin Davis has been a member of the Notre Dame volleyball staff for the past five seasons, and this past season (2005-06) served as associate head coach. In addition to assisting in all aspects of the Irish program, he worked closely with Notre Dame’s middle and outside blockers and was instrumental in building the Irish into one of the top blocking teams in the country.
DuBose was named the new head women’s volleyball coach at Utah State University. DuBose, a former assistant coach at Utah State from 1999-2000, has spent the last four seasons as an assistant on Brigham Young’s men’s volleyball team.
DuBose began his collegiate coaching career at Utah State from 1999-2000 as an assistant to Tom Peterson. During that time, the Aggies won the Eastern Division of the Big West Conference in 1999, and advanced to the school’s first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2000. USU finished the 2000 season ranked 22nd in the country, the program’s first-ever top-25 ranking.
Boise State Broncos (0-0, 0-0 WAC) The Broncos open the 2006 season at the TCU Invitational ... they will face South Carolina in their season opener on Aug. 25 ... Boise State went 17-12 in 2004 and 8-18 in 2005 ... the team graduates just two seniors from last fall’s squad ... the Broncos return five starters and the team’s libero ... included in those positions are senior middle blocker Cameron Flunder, an all-conference first-team selection in 2005, senior libero Jackie Stroud, sophomore setter Mandy Klein, and sophomore middle blocker Robyn Hewitt ... the team also returns starters in Jamie Claussen (junior outside hitter) and Jeanette Jenkins (sophomore outside hitter).
Fresno State Bulldogs (0-0, 0-0 WAC) Fresno State begins its second year under head coach Ruben Nieves at home against UC Santa Barbara and Kansas State on Aug. 25 ... Fresno State extended its WAC postseason streak by qualifying for the WAC tournament as the seventh seed, having participated in every WAC Tournament since its inception ... senior Alison Pitton returns following an outstanding junior season ... an outside hitter from Elk Grove, Calif., Pitton had one kill in two years as a Bulldog prior to 2005 in which she recorded 302 to lead the team and earn second-team all-WAC honors.
Hawai?i Rainbow Wahine (0-0, 0-0 WAC) No. 7 Hawai?i opens the 2006 season this week with two matches against the No. 19 Pepperdine Waves on Aug. 25 and 26, at 7 p.m., at the Stan Sheriff Center ... Hawai?i returns five starters from the 2005 team that went 27-7 and advanced to their eighth consecutive NCAA Regional ... all five of those starters earned all-WAC honors last season ... the Rainbow Wahine are 27-5 all-time in season-openers, although they have lost two of their last two of their last five ... both of those losses came against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the 2001 and 2005 NACWAA Classics ... Nebraska was ranked No. 1 in the preseason polls leading up to those two matches.
Idaho Vandals (0-0, 0-0 WAC) Idaho begins the 2006 season against North Carolina at the Oklahoma Tournament on Aug. 25 ... the Vandals will face 10 teams this season that competed in the 2005 NCAA Tournament: Arkansas, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Missouri, Valparaiso, Saint Mary’s, Long Beach State, Utah State, Nevada and Hawai’i ... in their first season in the WAC the Vandals had two athletes selected to the WAC all-freshman team, Haley Larsen and Sarah Loney ... Larsen was also a second-team all-WAC selection ... Idaho has a 79-61 record against 2006 WAC schools.
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (0-0, 0-0 WAC) Carly Johnson and Shannon Phillips are ranked third and fifth, respectively, in total blocks for a season (129 and 115) ... Phillips was chosen to attend the NCAA Leadership Conference as a representative from Louisiana Tech ... she was picked from a pool of over 1,300 candidates ... Ambra Hayes recorded more kills in her junior season than her first two seasons combined (438) ... she is also 204 kills away from the 1000-kill club.
Nevada Wolf Pack (0-0, 0-0 WAC) The 2006 Nevada volleyball recruiting class was ranked 23rd by PrepVolleyball.com ... the 2006 Wolf Pack squad returns two second-team all-WAC selections in juniors Teal Ericson and Karly Sipherd ... Nevada has had a first-team all-WAC selection each of its six seasons in the conference after Salaia Salave`a was named to the squad for the third consecutive year in 2005 ... in six seasons in the WAC nine different Pack players have been named to either the first or second all-WAC teams a total of 18 times.
New Mexico State Aggies (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
In their first season in the WAC, the Aggies tied for second in the conference standings after finishing the with an 11-5 record ... overall, NMSU was 20-7 last season, which is the fourth consecutive 20-win season ... New Mexico State added seven newcomers to the 11 returning players from the 2005 squad ... the freshmen class has three in-state players (Kelli Goodan, Angel Tirado and Nicole Holguin), three Texans (Ashley Dominguez, Jessee Ericson and Whitney Woods) and a Californian (Krista Altermatt).
San Jose State Spartans (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
San Jose State begins the season at the Hilton Garden Inn NAU Invitational Aug. 25-26 ... the Spartans will face Fordham on Friday and Central Arkansas and Northern Arizona on Saturday ... the San Jose State-Northern Arizona match will be shown on www.bigskytv.org, and live stats will be available for all matches played through the Northern Arizona web site at www.nauathletics.com ... Live stat links will also be on
www.sjsuspartans.com.
Utah State Aggies (0-0, 0-0 WAC) Utah State will begin the 2006 season in Albuquerque, N.M., at the Hilton Albuquerque Classic ... USU will open the tournament against the host Lobos Aug. 25 and will then play two matches on Aug. 26 against Stephen F. Austin and against UC Riverside ... USU returns two starters, plus its libero, from the 2005 season as it went 21-13 overall, finished in second-place in its inaugural season in the WAC with an 11-5 league record, and advanced to its third NCAA Tournament in the last seven years ... overall, Utah State returns just five letterwinners from the 2005 season, and also has a new head coach in Grayson DuBose. USU’s returning starters are senior libero Kelsi Peterson, and junior outside hitters Beth Hodge and Amanda (Orgill) Nielson.