Rice Volleyball 2011

By Dan Elledge     8/24/11 7:00pm

Volleyball is back starting tonight and the Owls are hoping that they can get back to the NCAA tournament after not receiving a bid last year. Last year was up and down for the Owls as they finished with a .500 record at 16-16 with an 11-9 record in Conference USA play. Rice entered last year with high hopes of making a third consecutive NCAA tournament, but erratic play and close losses ended their dreams quickly. 

With Rice career assist leader Meredith Schamun (Jones '11), career digs leader Tracey Lam (Lovett '11), Caroline Gill (Wiess '11) and Justyna Brewczyk (Martel '11) graduating last year, the Owls have enormous holes to fill coming into the season. However, Head Coach Genny Volpe is very impressed with the five members of the freshman class: libero/defensive specialist Daniela Arenas, outside hitter Lizzy Bache, setter Dana Edwards, middle blocker Jillian Humphrey and outside hitter Noelle Whitlock. Unfortunately, Whitlock tore her ACL in practice about a week ago and will be out for the rest of the season as she will redshirt this season. Volpe expects the rest of the group to be immediate contributors and to help get the team back to the NCAA tournament. 

Along with the newcomers, many savvy veterans are returning to the team including senior outside hitter Jordan Meredith, junior middle blocker Nancy Cole and sophomore setter Megan Murphy, who hope to be the leaders of a Rice team that is looking for a rejuvenated season after last year's troubles. 

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The Owls have practiced many different strategies throughout the offseason and Volpe has been very impressed with the improvement in the focus and attitude of the players after last year's bumpy season. Volpe understands that the team doesn't want to finish in the middle of C-USA again. 

"They have worked their butts off and they have a great attitude," Volpe said. "We are really doing good in a lot of things and determination is carrying the team through. The team really did not like the feeling of finishing in the middle of the pack in C-USA at 16-16. They don't want to finish in fifth; they want to finish in the top three."

Meredith agreed that she felt like she had noticed a difference after the first day of practice, claiming she saw a new team with a different attitude and mindset due, in part, to the freshmen. 

"We definitely changed our focus and our mindset coming into this preseason," Meredith said. "The team has shown good chemistry and I am very excited to see how the season does turn out. From the first day of preseason, I was blown away by how the freshmen were playing."

Volpe noticed the same thing, as the team knows that in order for it to be successful, the freshmen are going to have to play a vital role. 

"The freshmen know that they are going to have to play some key positions and do their job and do what we know they can do," Volpe said. "The freshmen expect that and more from themselves."

The Owls are confident and they are not hiding from the tough opponents early in the season. They have a home match Sunday against Stanford University, which is ranked sixth in the country. The Owls are also hosting the University of Delaware, a team that has been picked to win the Colonial Athletic Conference, for their first match of the season tonight. 

With Stanford, Volpe knows that it is going to be a rough contest for the Owls, but even though she admits Stanford has advantages, she still thinks that the Owls have the potential to surprise some people. 

"Stanford is one of the best teams in the country," Volpe said, "They consistently make it to the final four, so they are going to be very athletic. They are probably going to be a little bit taller and a little bit faster than us, but we can still challenge them and hopefully test them."

Expectations are high among the team for this season. They have been projected to be sixth in the preseason in C-USA but Volpe is confident that they can at least get top five and maybe top three. Meredith agreed, by saying that she is very impressed with the team and she thinks it is possible for them to win the conference, although the University of Tulsa will stand in their way. 

"Tulsa is always going to be tough," Meredith claimed. "I think that finishing first in conference is not an outlandish goal by any means. We have worked very hard this year, and I think with the level of new talent coming in, we could go a long way."

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