North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Opens Up 2002 Season at Florida Atlantic Tournament
8/27/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 27, 2002
The NC State volleyball team begins the 2002 season on the road this weekend when it travels to Boca Raton, Fla. to participate in the Florida Atlantic Tournament. The Wolfpack will compete in four matches beginning on Friday with highly touted Minnesota at 12:30 pm and then Florida Atlantic later that night at 7:00 pm. On Saturday, NC State will play Wright State at 10:00 am and finish with Youngstown State at 5:00 pm.
The Golden Gophers are returning 11 letterwinners from 2001, a team that went 19-13 overall and advanced to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. This past weekend, Minnesota opened play in the State Farm Women's Volleyball Classic, beating No. 8 Pepperdine, 3-0 in the first round before losing to top-ranked Stanford in the championship game, 3-1. Cassie Busse led the Golden Gophers with a combined total of 29 kills, while setter Lindsey Vander Well finished the tournament with a team-best 72 assists.
Wright State, Florida Atlantic, and Youngstown State will all open the new season this weekend. The Raiders, coached by 2001 Midwest Region Coach of the Year Joylynn Tracy, welcome back 12 letterwinners, five of which are returning starters. Senior outside hitter Karis Day is a huge reason why Wright State is the preseason pick to win the Horizon League title. Last season, Day led the league with a hitting percentage of .322, while finishing second in kills per game (3.87); numbers that helped earn her Horizon League Player of the Year and All-Midwest Region honors.
Florida Atlantic is looking to build off of its 13-16 record from a year ago and is picked by the Atlantic Sun coaches to finish third in the conference. The owls, like NC State will be a young team as the season begins, but will look to mature quickly. Meanwhile, Youngstown State is hungry to improve on a 10-18 season last year. In order to do so, the Penguins will look to junior middle hitter Annie Buschur and junior outside hitter Colleen Royer. Buschur and Royer had two of the top three hitting percentages from a year ago with .224 and .234 respectively, while combining for 485 kills on the season.
