No. 19 Illinois, No. 21 Northern Iowa and No. 25 Notre Dame are ranked in the season-opening USA Today/CSTV Top 25 Volleyball Poll and also appear on the 2004 Illinois State volleyball schedule. The Birds open the season Sept. 1 against Illinois in Champaign, play Northern Iowa twice in Missouri Valley play and meet the Irish Oct. 13 at Notre Dame.
Those teams give coach Sharon Dingmans Redbirds an opportunity to extend an Illinois State tradition, which has matched the Redbirds against nationally-ranked teams 101 times in the 22-year history of in-season volleyball polls. The Birds have played Top 25 teams 20 times in Dingmans first four seasons at Illinois State and the coach plans to keep the schedule strong.
We are at a point in our program where we feel we should be able to beat some of these teams, said Dingman, whose Redbirds were 1-4 against ranked teams in 2003. We put this schedule together to position ourselves to beat some good teams and get a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Playing great schedules is an Illinois State tradition. We plan to see it continue.
Two-time defending NCAA Champion Southern California swept into the No. 1 spot, followed by Nebraska, UCLA, Florida and Minnesota.
Illinois State foes Pittsburgh and Wichita State were also listed among teams which appeared on at least two ballots of the national poll conducted by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Redbird coach Sharon Dingman is a member of the national voting panel of just 65 Division I head coaches. She wasnt surprised at the results.
It has a familiar flavor to it, said Dingman. I do think there are lots of teams not listed in this poll that will win their way into the Top 25. Those top four or five (in the poll) are mighty tough. But, you get beyond them and theres a lot of parity in our sport.
The teams in the 2004 Preseason Top 25 are familiar to Illinois State. The Redbirds have met 23 of the 25 currently-ranked teams for a total of 224 matches (nearly one-fifth of the 1194 all-time matches played by Illinois State). One of only nine Division I teams with more than 800 all-time wins, ISU is an aggregate 97-127 against the teams in this Top 25.
The Redbirds start preseason practice this week, coming off a 19-14 record in 2003 in which Illinois State won 14 of its last 18 matches. Middle blocker Emily Kabbes, outside hitter Laura Doornbos and setter Kelly Rikli are returning all-Missouri Valley Conference players for the Redbirds, who lost just one letterwinner off their 2003 team.
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