Women's Volleyball 2010 Season Preview
Aug 20 | Women's Volleyball
Coming off its most successful season in five years, the Rutgers volleyball team is excited to get its 2010 season underway.
The Scarlet Knights return five regular starters, including their leader in kills (Caitlin Saxton), assists (Stephanie Zielinski) and total blocks (Hannah Curtis) from a 2009 squad whose 10 wins equaled the total amount of victories from the three previous seasons combined.
With the five returning starters and depth that comes from back-to-back nationally recognized recruiting classes, Rutgers’ 2010 squad will enter the season with high expectations.
“Without question, our goal is to reach the BIG EAST Tournament this year,” said head coach CJ Werneke. “We’re in year three as a staff and we feel that with the returners who have had two years in our system, and the talented newcomers we’ve added, that we have a great mix of experience and youth. We’re going to have some depth, we’re going to have some experienced players and this is a year that we anticipate making a big jump not only within the conference but outside of the conference as well. “
Outside Hitters
The outside hitter position will be one of the strengths for RU in 2010. The Scarlet Knights return an experienced core of outside hitters and welcome several newcomers who will also compete for time at the position.
“We love the depth at this position,” said Werneke. “We have seven people vying for two spots and that makes for a really competitive situation.”
Leading the way at the outside hitter positions will be seniors Caitlin Saxton (Encintas, Calif.) and Emma Chrystal (Portage, Mich.). Saxton led the 2009 squad in kills (380), attacks (1155) and aces (31) while Chrystal ranked in the top-four in every major statistical category.
“We have Caitlin and Emma who will be in that position for the third year for us,” Werneke said. “We’re expecting them to continue their improvement and we’ll rely on their senior leadership and competitive nature.”
Also returning for the Scarlet Knights are Katie Groff (York, Pa.) and Kylie Orr (Kettering, Ohio), who both saw action in 2009.
“Katie is another senior who brings some experience and came on late last year and played some big matches for us,” Werneke said. “Then we’ve got Kylie who was hampered with some injuries last year and kind of got thrown into the fire a little bit as a freshman, but moving forward we’re looking forward to her accelerating her game and being more of a contributor for us this year.”
Rounding out the potential outside hitters is a trio of highly touted freshmen: Brittany Bozzini (Saratoga, Calif.), Tiffany Regmund (College Station, Texas) and Mariah Horvath (Poway, Calif.).
“We love having four experienced players and then three youthful players that bring in new energy and new skill level to that position,” Werneke said. “That’s very exciting to us as a coaching staff.”
Setters
Setting up the Scarlet Knights’ attack will be a pair of players who saw action last season; sophomore Stephanie Zielinski (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and junior Kallie Pence (College Station, Texas).
Zielinski led the team in assists last year as a freshman totaling an impressive 766 assists for an 8.42 A/S average, while Pence ranked second on the team with 277 sets for a 5.13 A/S average.
“We’ve got two kids who competed all last year in Kallie Pence and Stephanie Zalinski, so again it’s going to be a battle,” Werneke said. “It’ll probably be a match-to-match type of thing about who’s going to start. Stephanie got a lot of experience as a freshman and Kallie is going to be a junior so we feel pretty confident in those two running our offense and running our court. “
Middle Blockers
Leading the defensive charge for the Scarlet Knights will be a pair of experienced middle blockers; junior Hannah Curtis (Wasilla, Alaska) and sophomore Alex Jones (Chesapeake, Va.).
“Hannah and Alex got a lot of experience last year,” Werneke said. “They’ve continued to improve year-to-year and have become players we are going to rely on heavily.”
Curtis and Jones ranked first and second on the team in blocks last season and showed their all-around game by both being among the top-four respectively, in kills and attack percentage.
Adding depth to the middle blocker position will be senior Lauren Voss (Hartland, Wis.) and freshman Sheridan Taylor (Manhattan Beach, Ca.).
“Lauren Voss also plays and has seen time at that position and then you add Sheridan for four true middles, which we’ve never had in our program,” Werneke said. “Our staff loves having four girls who have a great deal of experience and can really play that position on any given day, any given match.”
Libero/Defensive Specialist
One of the questions facing Rutgers at the start of the 2010 season is who will step up and take the place of Jamie Godfrey in the libero position. Entering the fall, sophomore Kelsey Ross (Orinda, Calif.) appears to be the frontrunner, but Coach Werneke says the position is up for grabs.
“We don’t have a true libero. Kelsey Ross converted from outside to the defensive specialist for us. As a freshman, she didn’t get to see a lot of playing time with a senior ahead of her but she had a good spring and is gaining experience,” Werneke said. “Then after that there are a lot of players who can play that position. When you have experienced volleyball players like we do now in our program it could be anyone from one of the incoming freshman to Kallie to Caitlin, Emma, Katie, any number of people. That’s one of the positions where we could see a role by committee possibly, but that’s what we’ll see after preseason - who wants that position and who’s going to really fight for it. “
Schedule
The Scarlet Knights will be tested by a difficult schedule which features six teams (Long Beach State, George Mason, TCU, Louisville, Cincinnati and Notre Dame) that advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2009.
“We feel that it’s a competitive schedule, one that we’re excited about,” Werneke said. “It’s nice to have 12 of our 28 matches at home this year. BIG EAST wise we have eight home matches and that hasn’t happened since our staff has been here. There is nothing like the confines of your home gym, home court advantage so to speak, and we’re looking forward to holding court and winning most of those matches at home.”
RU will compete in four tournaments prior to BIG EAST play, including hosting a tournament for the first time since 2005.
Rutgers opens its BIG EAST schedule during the final weekend of September with road contests against the two teams that met in the 2009 BIG EAST Championship finals. The Scarlet Knights will battle defending champion Louisville on Saturday (Sept. 25) and runner-up Cincinnati on Sunday (Sept. 26).
The Scarlet Knights return home to the College Ave. Gym for a five-match home stand where they will face Pittsburgh (Oct. 1), West Virginia (Oct. 3), Villanova (Oct. 9), Rider (Oct. 12) and Seton Hall (Oct. 15).
Rutgers is on the road again for four consecutive BIG EAST matches to close out the month of October.
RU travels to St. John’s (Oct. 22), Connecticut (Oct. 24), Georgetown (Oct. 29) and USF (Oct. 31) to close out BIG EAST regular-season action away from the Garden State.
The Scarlet Knights finish regular-season play with another four-game home stand where they will battle Marquette (Nov. 6), Syracuse (Nov. 7), defending BIG EAST regular-season Champion Notre Dame (Nov. 13) and DePaul (Nov. 14).
The 2010 BIG EAST Championships will take place Nov. 19-21 at Fitzgerald Field House located on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.
Despite the difficult schedule Werneke is confident that his team has what it takes to succeed this year.
“Every position has been a three year culmination of getting to this point. This is where we wanted to be in year three experienced having our returners two years into our system and having incoming freshmen with experience who can add depth, energy and life to the program,” Werneke said. “As a coaching staff, personnel wise, we’re exactly where we want to be. Everything’s found a place for us like we thought it would and now it’s just going out there putting in the work, competing and putting ourselves in the best positions to win.”
