The Jacks will be without the services of Annie Adams, Emily Rooney who followed Andrew Palileo to Washington State. If you would like to read his online chat, just hit this link:
http://wsucougars.cstv.com/chat/081908aaa.html.
With six freshmen and four upperclassman, head coach Nana Allison Brewer and staff could have long season. Repeating as Summit League Champs could be difficult without Tina Martin, Adams, Amy Anderson, Rooney and Samantha Pearson, but that is why they play the game!
Here is a quick season preview from Zach Anderson about the 2008 Summit League teams:
Oral Roberts received six out of nine first place votes from the Summit League’s head coaches as favorites to win the conference. The Golden Eagles return five starters plus the libero from last year’s team that went 16-14 overall, 11-5 in Summit League play. The Golden Eagles are led by first-team All-Summit League player, Jackie Oliveira, who currently ranks seventh all-time on ORU’s career kills list with 1,116 kills. ORU also returns senior JoJo Souza, a second-team All-Summit league pick, and sophomore Jocelyn Swier who earned All-Summit League freshman team.
The 2008 Preseason Poll ranks from first to last, Oral Roberts with 62 points, IPFW with 55 points (one first place vote), North Dakota State with 54 points (two first place votes), Western Illinois tallied 38 points, and SDSU came in fifth place with 36 votes. Sixth place was IUPUI with 30 points, Oakland 26 points, UMKC 14 points and Centenary nine points.
IPFW returns five starters from last year including top three kill leaders- Jessica Miller (442), Rebekah Roehm (409), and Mayara Schlindwein (298). The Mastodons have won 20 or more matches in each of the last five seasons.
NDSU returns five starters from last year, including the duo of Summit League Setter of the Year Mattie Johnson, newcomer of the Year Brooke VandenBergh. The Bison will have to replace Summit League Offensive Player of the Year Christy Stuewe and Defensive Player of the Year Kari Fagnan, who set every NDSU digs record her senior year.
Western Illinois returns seven letter winners, including senior setter Sarah Trimpe, who currently ranks second all-time in career assists with 3,075 and all-league selection Monique Houston. The Westerwinds also welcome six freshmen.
SDSU will have a tough time replacing all-time kills leader Kristina Martin, digs leader Samantha Pearson and blocks leader Amy Anderson. The Jackrabbits will replace 2007 Summit League Coach of the Year Andrew Palileo with new head coach Nana Allison-Brewer.
IUPUI returns Chelsea Bastin who led the team with 492 digs in 2007, and Danielle Goodnight who had a career-high 1, 099 assists in 2007. The Jaguars will have to find some offense after the graduations of Carol Newell and Devika Bellamy; they combined for nearly 49 percent of IUPUI’s kills last season.
Oakland returns it’s first ever first-team All-Summit League selection Lauren Duquette to a team that made great strides in 2007 going 8-21 improving from their 1-25 record in 2006. The Golden Grizzlies also return all-freshman team pick, Katy Wilson, and Leah Dupuie; Dupuie tied the single season record with a 1.25 blocks-per-game average.
UMKC returns four starters, the libero, and eight letter winners including junior Jamie Hagerman, the team’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2007. Hagerman finished with 277 kills and 96 blocks during her first year. The Kangaroos also return senior Mandy Tipton, who became just the fifth member of UMKC’s 1,000-dig club in 2007. Tipton needs just 144 digs this season to set a new school record.
Centenary will welcome 10 freshmen to the 12-spot roster with lone senior Ashlee Freeman returning from the 2007 squad.
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