Last season, Idaho women’s volleyball made a Western Athletic Conference finals appearance and said goodbye to six graduating seniors. This season the Vandals have different opponents and different players to fill in the gaps.
“It’s a different mentality this year then its been the last couple of years with the new group and you always get that when you cycle out with a large group of kids,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said.
The root of the redevelopment stage will involve the replacement of five starters including the outside hitter position that was formerly occupied by the graduated Allison Baker, three-time first-team all-WAC pick. Julia Church, a three-year starter on the outside, also graduated last spring.
“The hitter’s standpoint, its been great, better than we were last year to be honest as far as the tempo,” Buchanan said. “We’re looking for who can swing and ball control at the same time.”
One returning player for the outside hitter spot, Ashley Christman is coming off her best season with 50 blocks and six matches with double-digit kills. Coach Buchanan said she looks like she has improved on her success in camp.
“Ashley Christman has returned as a senior blocking a lot better and has done some great things,” Buchanan said.
Other players who will be competing for the outside include returnees Katelyn Peterson, Ali Forde and Jessica Hastriter and transfer Tineke Bierma.
In Bierma’s final season at College of Southern Idaho before transferring to UI, she led CSI to its tenth NJCCA National Championship with an errorless performance of 10 kills, four blocks and two digs in the national championship match. During the season, she had 210 kills, 45 blocks and a hitting percentage of .199.
Dual-sport athlete Forde set out as a redshirt last season eager to prove her spot while Hastriter, who set a career-high 14 kills against Cal-State Northridge last season, looks to do the same. As a true freshman last season, Peterson earned all-freshman team honors most notably hitting a career-high .400 with seven kills in the regular season finale at New Mexico State. For the season, Peterson hit .147 overall.
“We’ve got some depth there — more depth than we’ve had,” Buchanan said.
With the departure of primary setters, Ryann Carter and Jenny Feicht, the torch has been passed down to sophomore, Meredith Coba to run the offense. Coba played in just 8 matches her freshman year behind Carter and Feicht.
Senior, Taylor Wilkinson and 2013 WAC preseason player of the year Alyssa Schultz will take over the middle after last season’s departure of second-team all-WAC pick, Alex Sele. The libero is yet to be determined after the departure of Janelle Chow, but defensive specialist returnees, Samantha Delmer and Jenna Ellis will emphasize ball control.
The schedule is significantly different than last season with the Vandals playing few of the same teams than they did last fall. The Vandals will play four tournaments against non-conference opponents to start the season and a 16-match schedule against WAC teams. Four non-conference opponents have top 100 RPI’s from 2012 out of 330 total NCAA Division I teams. Six of these opponents will be new to the conference.
“We tried to find balance and get a variety of teams we could play based on their season last year, RPI and knowing we would lose a group of girls,” Buchanan said. “We knew it would be a rebuilding year for us.”
The Vandals will start the season off with at the Wyoming Invite in Laramie, Wyo., on Aug. 30.
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at [email protected]