2011 Women's Volleyball Season Preview
8/19/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Aug. 19, 2011
Fall camp for the Alabama women's volleyball team opened on Aug. 9, since then, the squad has had 18 practice sessions and will complete their two-a-day workouts on Saturday. The volleyball team opens the 2011 season on Aug. 26-27, when it hosts the Hampton Inn Bama Bash at the newly renovated Foster Auditorium. First serve for the 2011 campaign is slated for noon on Friday, Aug. 26, when the Crimson Tide takes on the Alabama State Hornets season and home opener.
The 2011 Alabama volleyball season will be one of new beginnings, which started with the hiring of the school's fourth head coach, Ed Allen in January. Allen comes to Tuscaloosa after he won 31 games at Tulsa in 2010 and was named the Conference USA and AVCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year.
"We want to secure a winning season and defend our home court," Allen said. "Those are the two things that are important to our team and I think they are dead on with what we are capable of doing."
The home court for the Tide in 2011 will be Foster Auditorium, the building where the program started in 1974. UA played the last 15 years (1996-2010) in Coleman Coliseum/C.A.V.E.
"Foster Auditorium is one of the best volleyball facilities in the country," Allen said. "It's going to have a huge impact on our ability to attract the kind of athletes we expect to get at Alabama."
UA is coming off a 2010 campaign that produced an 11-19 record. For the Tide to get back to its winning ways competitive drive, team unity and a high work ethic need to be instilled in the program.
When Alabama opens the 2011 season, coach Allen will utilize the talents of setters Stephanie Riley and Andrea McQuaid. Riley and McQuaid will be charged with running the offense, providing leadership and putting hitters in position to succeed.
"Both of our setters have a pretty good feel for the court," Allen said. "With Stephanie approaching her fourth year in the SEC, she has a great feel for the game. Andrea comes in as talented as any player that I've coached at her age, in terms of understanding the game."
Riley is the lone senior on the team and has played 265 sets during her career, dishing out 1,290 assists in three seasons. She enters her final season ranked 10th in school history for assists. Additionally, Riley has 409 digs in her time at the Capstone.
McQuaid, a sophomore transfer from Oklahoma, has collegiate experience, playing 51 sets in her only season with the Sooners. The 5-10 lefty will give the Tide an attacking option from the front row to keep opponents guessing at the net.
"Putting hitters in a position that allows them to do what they do best is going to be the number one thing," Allen said. "Understanding our plan and being able to execute that at a very high level will be important."
Alabama returns its top hitter from a year ago in junior Kayla Fitterer, in addition to sophomores Brianne Vande Griend and Shelbi Goode. Fitterer earned All-SEC second team honors in 2010 after leading the team with 403 kills. Fitterer's 403 kills and 3.73 kills per set ranked second in the Southeastern Conference a year ago.
"Kayla's got SEC experience and she's the most talented returning player from an offensive perspective," Allen said. "Having her back after playing two seasons in the SEC is going to help physically and her presence on the floor will allow others to succeed."
Joining Fitterer on the outside will be Vande Griend and Goode, two players that combined for more than 1,000 attempts during their freshmen campaigns in 2010. Vande Griend averaged 2.08 kills per set to rank third on the squad, while Goode's 1.72 kills per set were fourth.
Oklahoma transfer Cortney Warren and incoming freshman Simone Henderson will also add depth to the outside. During her freshman season with the Sooners, a Sweet 16 team a year ago, Warren averaged 1.48 kills and 0.48 blocks per set. Henderson comes to Tuscaloosa from Palm Springs, Calif., where she was named the Desert Sun Volleyball League Most Valuable Player when she averaged 12.0 kills and 2.5 blocks per set for La Quinta High School.
"For this team to be successful, we will have to minimize our hitting mistakes," Allen said. "We have to execute at a very high level and minimizing mistakes will allow us to stay in sets."
"First our middles, we want to take parts of the court away and channel balls," Allen said. "Second, we'd like to be able to touch balls and be able to slow them down some so that we can transition attack, and third we want to stuff attempts and end plays."
In order to achieve those three objectives, Alabama will have to rely on a young but talented group of players. The only returning middle blocker is junior Leigh Moyer. Therefore, three freshmen Katherine White, Taylor Masterson and Henderson will provide the depth up in the middle.
Moyer was second on the team with 62 total blocks in 2010 and returns as the team leader with a .273 hitting percentage as a sophomore. Moyer set a school record with she posted a .923 hitting percentage in a five-set win over UAB last season.
White comes to UA from St. Paul's Episcopal school where she was the Mobile Press-Register Girls' Athlete of the Year, as well as the Volleyball Player of the Year. She helped guide SPE to an Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 5A state title, posting 377 blocks and 533 kills as a senior. Masterson was an AVCA High School Watch List selection, a two-time all-state selection, and helped St. Joseph's Academy capture the Missouri Class 4A State title in 2010.
Three players will compete for time as the libero in junior Kelsey Anderson and sophomores Kelsey Melito and Cristina Arenas, a transfer from Texas. "The libero is the second most important position on the court besides the setter," Allen said. "Their ability to direct the back court is important. They are the anchor in our ball control and our defense."
Anderson saw time in 29-of-30 matches last season and led the Tide with 425 digs (4.09 dpg). Anderson had the team-high for digs in three, fourth and five set matches last season, which included a career-high 28 against Mississippi on Oct. 24.
As a freshman in 2010, Melito appeared in five matches (four during SEC play), recording one assist and one attack. Arenas appeared in two of the first three matches for Texas (2010 NCAA Final Four finish) last year, but missed the remainder of the season due to a hip injury. Riley, who averages 1.54 digs per set for her career, could also step in as the libero.
For the Alabama volleyball team to return to its NCAA form from 2005-07, all 13 players on the roster will need to contribute. With a new coach, a new home court and a new attitude, volleyball teams around the SEC will have to watch out for a rising Tide.
