North Carolina State University Athletics
Volleyball Opens Season With Wolfpack Classic Friday-Saturday
9/1/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 1, 2005
The NC State volleyball team opens its season with a five-team tournament at home this weekend. A new court awaits NC State at Reynolds Coliseum and will make its debut with the Wolfpack Classic. Head coach Mary Byrne and her squad couldn't be more excited to get the season underway.
"Our team really worked hard in the preseason," Byrne said. "There is a different attitude this season. The effort is 100 percent better as far as going after the ball and just the consistency and effort everyday. We're pleased with that and now we're at a point where we are trying to put a consistent lineup on the court and gain some chemistry before we go into our first tournament."
As part of the renovations currently underway at Reynolds Coliseum, the NC State volleyball team will not only benefit from a large, new locker room, weight room and training room, but the coaches also have new offices, located just off the court in Reynolds. The court, a new surface constructed across the end of the basketball floor, making a T shape, will set up a more intimate atmosphere for the rabid Wolfpack volleyball fans, in the end of the building.
"Just with the game of volleyball there is a lot of momentum changes and the home crowd can really help you," Byrne said. "By putting ourselves in a smaller arena, it should heighten that atmosphere and give us a little more home court advantage. Several schools in our conference play in facilities like that and the noise level definitely helps. It's better for the fans to be more on top of the court and feeling like they are right in the midst of the action instead of sitting so far away from the court. I'm always impressed with the crowds that we have at home. We really have some people standing behind us who enjoy the game of volleyball, so we hope to reward them this year."
The starting middle blockers from 2004, Adeola Kosoko and Stefani Eddins, are without question the team leaders in 2005. Kosoko led the squad in attack percentage last year and was second in blocks, while Eddins led the ACC with a school-record-breaking 1.56 blocks-per-game last season and was second on the team in attack percentage. Kosoko and Eddins also led the team in games played last year as they were the only two on the squad to start every match and play in every game.
"Knock on wood," said Byrne as she rapped her knuckles on her desk. "Hopefully they'll play in every single game this year. We're going to rely pretty heavily on those two offensively."
Ashley Wallace returns to the right side after putting up solid numbers both offensively and defensively last year as a freshmen. A trio of freshmen are competing for the starting job at outside hitter this season.
"Ashley Wallace is showing good things offensively in practice," Byrne said. "She'll be on the right side and we'll probably have Karlie Urbaniak on the outside along with Casey Wyatt and Aiwane Iboaya. So we'll have a nice blend of youth and experience at those positions."
Even with the increased amount of offensive firepower that the Wolfpack's freshman class brings to the table, NC State is cognizant that without a stellar defensive effort, its offense won't have a chance to succeed.
"A lot of our success will be based on how quickly our young outside hitters make that adjustment, but Adeola and Stefani will take a lot of the offensive pressure off the outside," Byrne explained. "We are going to rely heavily on our two middles and we are going to have to be very creative on how we get the balls to them. So we're going to have to be very defensive and pass the ball very well for us to run that."
Andrea Bentley returns for her sophomore campaign as the Pack's libero after leading the club in digs last year.
"We're really relying on our defense and our passing game," Byrne said. "Our defensive specialists Kelley Blakewood and Kayla Ragan, will join Andrea Bentley, who played a majority of the matches last year at the libero. Melissa Rabe will start for us at setter and a junior transfer Lyssa Ramirez will be our backup setter. Lyssa will continue to push Melissa all season."
NC State was second in the ACC last season for blocks and Eddins was a huge part of the reason for that as she led the league individually in blocks-per-game.
"Our blocking is going to be even stronger this year because Stefani has provided the motivation for everyone to get in there," Byrne said. "We should have a more consistent lineup this year, which should help our defensive game. It starts with our blocking and then goes to our secondary line of defense, which is the backcourt and we've got some solid people back there. Where we need to pick things up is offensively. It's improved every year, but we need to get that number up for us to have success."
With the added depth in this season's roster, Byrne is able to allow her players to specialize in certain slots to best suit everyone's assets.
"The other strength that we are trying to utilize this season is scoring points off of our serves," Byrne said. "We are going to use Amy Cochran almost primarily as a serving specialist in order to utilize her strong serve. We need to be really aggressive at the serving line and that will provide momentum for us in each match."
First serve is at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning as the Wolfpack Classic gets underway at Reynolds Coliseum in the first of two days packed with 10 exciting volleyball matches. NC State will open its season with The Citadel, which should begin at noon on Friday and then will take on Campbell at 7:30.
