Not only are two of the best teams in the Missouri Valley ushering in the start of the home conference volleyball season at Illinois State, but those teams (SMS and Wichita State) feature two of the leagues marquee players who are aiming at league career records held by former Redbirds. SMS senior Linette White has a chance to break Kendra Haselhorsts Valley career hitting percentage mark and WSUs junior lefthanded laser-launcher, Sara Younes, has the rest of this year and all of next year to take aim at Julie Mueller Paskas 20-year-old league record for career service aces.
The Bears, 8-3, 1-0 in the Valley and Birds, 5-7, 0-2, play at 7 p.m. Friday. Wichita State, 7-5, 0-1, stops at Indiana State on Friday before coming to Redbird Arena for a 7 p.m. Saturday match.
According to figures released by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, the Bears are just five slots from joining No. 10 Northern Iowa to give the Valley two ranked teams. The powerful SMS offense, quarterbacked by senior Chenille Bayless, features three players averaging above 3.00 kills per game. While Erin Murphys 3.71 kills top the list, White is smashing defenses to the tune of a league-leading .367 hitting percentage on 3.29 kills per game and thwarts opposing offenses with a hand in 1.44 blocks per game--also the Valleys top figure. Sophomore Katie Werges 3.07 kills per game give the SMS underclass players representation among the teams elite. Whites .353 career hitting percentage gives her a .033 cushion over Haselhorsts .320 from 1997 to 2000.
Redbird coach Sharon Dingman, whose team wants to bounce back from road losses at Bradley and Northern Iowa, repects SMSs experience.
SMS is similar to UNI in that they have five returning starters and senior leadership, said Dingman, whose team has just one senior, middle blocker Staci Boyce. Wichita State is a very athletic team. Sara Younes served us off the court last year (at Redbird Arena) and passing her serves will be a priority.
The Shockers opened the Valley season last Friday against the Bears at the renovated roundhouse, Charles Koch Arena. Oddly enough, as the Redbirds were falling in five games at Bradley with 20 service errors, the Shockers were surrendering 22 service errors in a five-game loss to SMS. Serving is usually a Shocker strength, as Younes has more service aces (61) than three other Valley teams. She also leads the Shockers in kills and blocks. Younes has 227 aces. Paska had 364.
Our serving at Bradley was about as far off as you can get, said Dingman, and it seems that Wichita State had some of the same kinds of problems. I think our team has realized that you have to prepare to play in every practice, to compete in this league. If it (practice) gets easier, the improvement wont come. Every day, I hope our players say thats the hardest practice weve ever had.
The Redbird offense features Emily Kabbes, the No. 2 percentage hitter in the league, and Laura Doornbos, who ranks No. 5 in kills. Theyre set by Kelly Rikli, who is just 32 set assists from becoming the seventh Illinois State setter to reach 2,000 career assists.
Ironically, WSU and SMS came into Redbird Arena a year ago on the same weekend (Sept. 27 and 28) and both came away with victories to establish themselves as Valley contenders. Historically, winning in Redbird Arena hasnt come easily for league foes--ISU is 72-11 in regular-season home conference matches since 1992, and Northern Iowa has six of the 11 non-ISU wins. The Redbirds, who are No. 18 in the nation in home attendance, are at home for the first time since the Barker GMC Classic Aug. 29-30.
Playing at home is special at Illinois State, and we would love to have the kinds of loud crowds our players really enjoy, said Dingman. Playing the four teams picked to finish ahead of us in the (preseason) coaches poll is a tough way to start the conference season, but I hope that the type of non-conference schedule we played helped us get ready for that.
