2000 volleyball team has depth, leadership, experience

ANDRIA MORGAN
DM Staff Writer

The Ole Miss volleyball team will open the 2000 season with all the tools necessary to be a great team. It will be up to the Lady Rebels to put all the pieces together and turn potential into results.

The Lady Rebels return nine letter-winners off of last season's 10-19 squad, including four starters. Returning players, including seniors Kira Zschau and Renata Nowacki, provide Ole Miss with leadership and depth in key positions on the court.

According to head coach John Blair, the Lady Rebels are looking forward to moving forward this season due to strong leadership, good balance, great depth and team unity.

"We had a great spring season," Blair said. "We have had players with ability and depth before, but the one thing that we improved on greatly this spring was our team unity."

Ole Miss will start the season today at the Texas-San Antonio Invitational, which includes Oregon out of the powerful Pac-10 Conference and Wyoming from the Mountain West Conference.

"Our early season play will be vital to our conference success," Blair added. "During those early matches we will focus on everyone coming together to understand their roles. We hope to get some wins early and then head into SEC play with some momentum."

Coach Blair will have the tough job of replacing Lisa Frannino at setter. Frannino, who used up her eligibility last season, ranks second on the career assists chart with 3,953.

Nowacki has experience at the position and will be relied on for her leadership.

"We will really look to Renata for leadership," Blair said. "She is great at getting the team together and we will rely on her to control the tempo."

Two newcomers will provide some flexibility at the setter position. Cheryl Wilson, a transfer from Auburn, and Jade Polonich, a freshman from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, both should see some playing time.

"Cheryl brings some experience, coming from Auburn, but will have to learn our system," Blair said. "Jade brings a real competitive fire to the court, and that is something we need at this position."

The returning outside hitters are junior Jaime Burns, sophomore Erica Tricco, the elder Zschau. Karla Zschau is the only newcomer to the group.

"We are looking at the outside hitters to make a lot of improvements as a whole this year," Blair said. "I definitely think the group is up to the task and we will be relying on them."

Ole Miss returns all three of its middle blockers in junior Abby Hollander and sophomores Sarah Lansden and Erin Newsom.

"We like the situation we have with our middle blockers in that they are all three interchangeable, Blair said. "They are all unique and have varying strengths and at the same time none of them have any glaring weaknesses."

Playing the opposite position for the Lady Rebels this season will be juniors Leigh Rittiner and Julie McCue.