Volleyball grapples with inexperienced team

By Sam Wilson

Published Aug. 24, 2007

The MU volleyball team will open its regular season today at Mississippi, and after three seniors graduated last year, the 2007 squad will play a different brand of volleyball than last season.

"This year we are going faster than last year," senior Na Yang said. "The tempo is different."

Coach Wayne Kreklow said playing without last season's front row would change the team's style.

"We lost two pretty dominant front row players that, physically, I think were pretty dominant players," Kreklow said of former players Jessica Vander Kooi and Nicole Wilson. "I don't know if we have that kind of personnel (this season). So, I think it's going to have to be a team effort. We're going to have to try to control the ball well enough that we can spread the offense."

The Tigers are coming off an 18-13 season with an 11-9 record in Big 12 play that ended in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The team will lead off the season against two opponents that also qualified for the NCAA tournament last season: The Tigers play Mississippi today and Jacksonville State on Saturday. Arkansas State will play MU on Saturday.

Although MU's 31st ranking in the Ratings Percentage Index last season is the best of the teams, Ole Miss is coming off a record-setting season that included a 19-13 overall record and a final RPI of 54.

"I know Mississippi set a school record for Southeastern Conference wins last season," Kreklow said. "They've got most everybody back, so I know they're excited. I think they're looking forward to a good year. I think that's going to be a real test for us. Jacksonville State is kind of the same. They've probably had one of the better years that they've ever had last year. They again have a lot of their people back."

Jacksonville State finished last season undefeated in the Ohio Valley Conference and 24-5 overall with a final RPI of 62.

With various open positions and five freshmen competing for playing time, inexperience will affect the Tiger team, but how it will affect it is uncertain.

"A strength for a lot of people, too, especially coming into the Big 12 Conference, is inexperience," senior Tatum Ailes said. "Because you don't know what to expect, and that can always help you sometimes, because you don't over-think things."

But Kreklow said he feels inexperience could be the team's weakness.

"I think it's going to be something we're going to have to try to overcome," he said. "We're very young. We've got two seniors, everybody else freshmen and sophomores, so we will be young, and we will be fairly inexperienced. I think what we're going to have to do is have our sophomore class in particular kind of step up."

Despite the inexperience, Yang said she sees a Big 12 championship as a realistic goal for the team.

"We have to play together," she said. "The whole team has to play together as one person."