A rare midweek Missouri Valley Conference match allows both the Illinois State and Indiana State volleyball teams to build stronger schedules. Tuesdays 7 p.m. match at ISU Arena in Terre Haute opens the door for both teams to meet strong opponents in tournament play this weekend--when all other Valley teams open their league schedules--and both coaches believe its a good thing for their teams and the Valley.
The Redbirds, 3-3, already have faced No. 26 Louisville and No.19 South Carolina in the first two weekends of the season. Utah, No. 21, is on tap for this weekend for the Redbirds. Indiana State, 3-4, plays in Purdues tournament this weekend, facing the Boilermakers, Tulane from Conference USA and No. 23 Notre Dame.
Redbird head coach
Sharon Dingman thinks the extra weekend of non-conference play creates opportunities.
Were excited to get to play another ranked team, Utah, this weekend, said Dingman. Playing strong schedules and meeting teams from around the country are important to put ourselves and our league in a position to be stronger.
Indiana State coach Jim Bertoli agrees, and points to Illinois States typical non-league schedules and No. 24 Northern Iowas road win at No. 8 Wisconsin last week as important by-products.
Illinois State has traditionally played a strong non-conference schedule both at Redbird Arena and going on the road, said Bertoli, in his fifth year at Indiana State. We feel weve upgraded our schedule and were seeing more Valley teams--like Creighton and Northern Iowa--doing the same. Obviously, it pays off in a lot of ways. I was really excited, not only for Northern Iowa, but for our conference when they beat Wisconsin. Even if youre not sure your team will be ready for that kind of competition, we still want to play that kind of schedule.
Dingman believes her team has answered a lot of questions over the first two weeks of the season. One of those answers would be lots to the question of how many players she will have to use.
Were perfectly okay with that, said Dingman, who has used 10 or more players in each of the last five matches. We will continue to sub a lot and, for the most part, the bench has done a great job.
In addition to the all-around play of senior setter
Becky Weber, who narrowly missed her second triple-double in two weeks at Miami, senior
Abby Lewis, junior
Megan O'Connell and freshman
Wendi Roesch are three more answers.
Having Abby on the floor is critical to our success, said Dingman. She just makes us better. Mo (OConnell) is back from her shoulder sugery and has an even better all-around game. All you have to do is look at the stats and you can see that Wendi (2.57 digs per game, No. 3 on the team) is getting the job done.
The Sycamores, 3-4, had a great opening weekend, winning three of four matches in their own tournament, but went winless in three matches at Montana State over the weekend. Four-year starters Cheryl Berg at outside hitter and Megan Mirs at setter give coach Jim Bertoli some valuable experience and leadership. Freshmen Brittanie Stowell and Kristin Widmar also have shown promise which could earn Indiana State one of the six invitations to the Valley Tournament.
Were going to need contributions from six to nine players, said Bertoli. We dont have a dominating player, so we have to get contributions from several.
Although the Redbirds have a 31-2 record in the all-time series, the Sycamores have played Illinois State tough, particularly in Terre Haute, during Bertolis tenure. Starting with a 3-0 win in 1997, Indiana State has taken at least one game from the Redbirds in ISU Arena each of the past four years
