2006 Volleyball Preview

BILLINGS, MT – Montana State-Billings volleyball players and coaches believe that 2006 will be their year.  Yes, every collegiate sports team enters its season believing it will be successful.  But the Yellowjackets’ list of reasons to believe in 2006 is compelling.

MSU Billings was one match from reaching the NCAA Tournament last year, losing in the Heartland Conference championship match to Western New Mexico.  Along with the conference title goes an automatic berth to the NCAA Tourney, a place no Yellowjacket volleyball team has come close to reaching.  With Western New Mexico moved on to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the Yellowjackets have to be considered one of the top contenders in the Heartland this season.

Also playing in the Yellowjackets’ favor is the fact that every player from last year’s team is returning.  Without a senior on the roster in 2005, the Yellowjackets posted the best overall record in school history at 20-8.  In 2006 they will have four seniors, three of which earned all-conference honors a year ago.  Head coach Pa’ulasi Matavao, entering his seventh year at the helm after guiding the Jackets to the program’s only two winning seasons, will have one of the most experienced squads of his tenure.

To top it all off, the Heartland Conference bylaws reward the defending conference champion with the right to host the conference championship tournament.  Since the defending champ is no longer in the conference, the honor falls to the Yellowjackets, last year’s runner up.  On November 3 and 4 the Yellowjackets will host the conference’s top four teams at Alterowitz Gymnasium with the conference crown and a trip to the NCAA Tourney on the line.

“It was a good thing for our kids to get that taste,” Matavao says of last year’s trip to the conference title match.  “I remember sitting in the room after we lost to Western New Mexico for the championship.  We went around the room and everybody said they can’t wait to get back to this spot again next year when we’re sitting in the room after winning it.  Everybody had that taste and wants to win it now because they know what it feels like to get to that championship game.  It will be a big plus for us to host it this year, and all of the kids are excited about having their families here to watch them play in that last weekend of the season.”

With all of that said, the road to the conference tournament won’t necessarily be an easy one for the Yellowjackets.  The entire first half of the season will be played on the road, and the overall strength of the Jackets’ schedule will be a challenge from start to finish. 

MSU Billings opens the season with three consecutive weekends at tournaments away from Billings.  The Jackets will face Quincy, Fort Lewis, Armstrong Atlantic, and UC-Colorado Springs at a tournament in Colorado Springs August 25 and 26.  They’ll make one more road trip before classes start, meeting Dixie State, Eastern New Mexico, Fort Lewis and Seattle Pacific at a tourney in Durango, CO, on Labor Day weekend.

Following the first week of classes, the Yellowjackets will take their longest trip of the year.  It begins with the Heartland/Lone Star Crossover Tournament in Wichita Falls, TX, where they’ll play Central Oklahoma, Texas A&M-Commerce, and Southwest Oklahoma State.  That tourney will be held September 8 and 9.  The Jackets will then travel to Odessa, TX, to face University of Texas-Permian Basin on September 11 and 12.

Texas-Permian Basin and Texas A&M-International are reclassifying from NAIA to NCAA II to join the Heartland Conference.  Since they are in their first year of transition, both will still count as NAIA matches and will not count in the conference standings this year.  However, all Heartland Conference teams have agreed to include the two on their schedules this season as non-conference NAIA counters.  The Jackets will play TAMUI on the road and UTPB at home.

“Armstrong Atlantic was a top 25 team last year, so I think they’ll be really good,” Matavao says of the early season schedule.  “Seattle Pacific was the one team that beat Nebraska-Kearny (national runner up) last year in the regular season.  Eastern New Mexico has traditionally been a good team in the Lone Star Conference, and Colorado Springs was pretty good in the RMAC last year.  Those are the teams on our schedule that I think will be pretty good going into the preseason tournaments.  In the Lone Star-Heartland crossover tournament there are three good teams from the Lone Star that we’ll be playing.  It’s good to play those kinds of teams to get us ready for conference. 

“I think our preseason schedule should get us ready for the season.  There are some teams that have been really good traditionally, and I’m hoping we can compete with them and win some of those matches.”

MSU Billings finally receives a break from traveling when the Jackets play down the street at Rocky Mountain College on September 19.  That starts a string of five-straight matches in Billings, including four at Alterowitz Gym.  The Jackets’ home opener and conference opener will be September 22 when they host Dallas Baptist University, who the Yellowjackets swept last season.  The Patriots and Yellowjackets will meet again on September 23.  MSU Billings closes out the month with two home matches against Texas A&M-International on September 29 and 30.

A weekend trip to San Antonio to face University of the Incarnate Word will begin October.  The Jackets and Cardinals developed the beginnings of a rivalry last season.  Incarnate Word spoiled senior weekend in Billings, winning both matches at Alterowitz Gym.  Just a week later MSU Billings knocked the Cardinals out of the conference tourney to advance to the title match.

Following the October 6 and 7 matches in San Antonio, the Yellowjackets will play five in a row at home.  The stretch begins with St. Edward’s University on October 13 and 14.  The Hilltoppers and Yellowjackets split their two matches last season.  After an October 17 match against Rocky Mountain, the Yellowjackets close out the home schedule on October 20 and 21 against Oklahoma Panhandle State.  The Jackets swept the Aggies last year.

MSU Billings will wrap up the regular season on October 27 and 28 with two matches against St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.  The Rattlers and Yellowjackets split two matches in Billings last season.  This year’s series on the final weekend of the season could very well influence seeding at the conference tournament.

“I think we have a good chance at winning the conference this year,” Matavao says.  “Incarnate Word is going to be really good.  I think they only lost two players from last year.  St. Mary’s was a really up and down team last year, but they were young.  I think they will be a team to look out for this year.  They could get it together and be really, really good.  St. Edward’s was really young last year, so it just depends on how they do early in the season.  They could be another team that could really surprise people this year.

“I think our kids know what it takes now to win the conference.  Everybody’s coming back, and we added some new kids that I think can help us with some of the weaknesses we had last year.  I think in the end we should be right there.  I have a really good feeling about this team and these kids.”

The “kids” Matavao will be relying on have a wealth of experience, both individually and collectively.  Junior middle blocker Alicia Cazemier (Vauxhall, Alberta) was a conference player of the year candidate last season.  She earned first team all-conference and second team all-region honors after averaging 3.96 kills and 1.19 blocks per game. 

A trio of seniors were all-conference selections last season as juniors.  Ali Watson (Calgary, Alberta) and Natalie Bills (Provo, UT) were each named to the first team along with Cazemier.  Watson led the team in kills with 4.02 per game.  Bills was the top setter in the Heartland, averaging 12.19 assists per game.  Outside hitter Jessica Bratton (Casper, WY) had another solid season to earn honorable mention honors.  She averaged 3.10 kills per game and will have a shot at the all-time school record for kills this year, needing 312 to tie Olivia Munro’s 1,288.

“Last year Natalie Bills and Jessica Bratton were our team captains,” says Matavao.  “They did a really good job with the on and off the court stuff.  This year we’re looking a little more to Alicia Cazemier.  We think she’s a player who has that attitude and can be a really good leader.  She started to assert herself last year, and I’m looking for her to take a bigger role this year.”

The supporting cast had as much to do with the Jackets’ success in 2005 as did the all-conference players.  MSU Billings had few weak spots in the lineup despite suiting up just eight players.  Alexis Sandru (Twin Bridges, MT), Nicole Kruse (Huntley, MT), Taylor Faught (Billings, MT), and Jessica Lechner (Pompeys Pillar, MT) all played significant roles in 2005 and should be even better in 2006.

Sandru, a senior outside hitter, had the best season of her career, averaging 2.00 kills and 3.38 digs per game.  Kruse was a newcomer as a sophomore and averaged 3.44 digs from her libero position.  She also set a school single season record with 62 service aces.  Faught saw action in 23 matches as a true freshman and recorded 39 aces.  Lechner was second on the team with a .280 attack percentage while playing several positions.

“Alexis Sandru is a kid I’ve had here for four years,” says Matavao.  “She doesn’t really say much, but is just a good hard worker who leads by example.  We’ll look for Alicia and Alexis to do a little bit more than they’ve done in the past, and I don’t think they’ll have any kind of problem taking that responsibility.”

While Cazamier is one of the conference’s top blockers, the Yellowjackets will ultimately win or lose with their offense.  They should be able to attack from anywhere on the floor, and Matavao has a number of possible lineup combinations from which to choose.

“I think our strength this year is going to be our outside hitting,” predicts Matavao.  “Ali Watson struggled a little bit last year coming in her first year.  By the end of the season she got it together.  She had a really good off season this spring.  Same with Jessica Bratton.  I’m looking for those two to hold the outside. 

“Alicia is going to give us what she’s been giving us for the last two years in the middle.  She looked good in the spring, too.  And our setting has been consistent since Natalie’s been here.  She’s going to give us good, consistent setting.”

If there was a missing link on last year’s squad, Matavao believes it might have been not being able to give Cazemier help in the middle.  He thinks he solved that problem with the addition of Brooke Zent, a 6-foot-1 freshman from Hysham, MT.  An all-state middle for the Pirates, Zent is expected to see action right away this fall.

“I think Brooke Zent will make an immediate impact,” says Matavao.  “She has really good ability.  I think she will help us a lot in that middle position and be able to shut people down.  She’ll give us what we didn’t have last year as a second middle as far as blocking.  Jessica Lechner played there last year.  She’s a really good offensive player, but is lacking the blocking ability as a middle.  We moved Jessica to the right side where I think she will be able to help us big time this year.”

Joining Zent as incoming freshmen will be Jill Trabing of Buffalo, WY, Leslie Boyd of Missoula, MT, and Katrina Solomon of Billings.  Trabing played at Buffalo High School, Boyd is out of Big Sky High School, and Solomon is a product of Billings Senior High.  According to Matavao, recruiting the area’s best players is becoming a little easier after back-to-back winning seasons.

“I think playing in last year’s conference tournament was important, not only for our kids, but for our program,” he says.  “It was a big boost for our program now that we can go out and recruit kids and say we made it to the championship game of the conference tournament.  Kids are looking at us a little more seriously than in the past.  Now we’re getting some good looks from some of the major kids in the state that maybe two years ago we didn’t have a chance at.”

If the Yellowjackets reach their goals in 2006, the program’s exposure to top prospects could grow significantly.  After all, this group’s goal is loftier than any past Yellowjacket teams could even dream.

“The main goal this year is to get to the NCAA Tournament,” concludes Matavao.  “That’s what we’re playing for this year, and the kids all know that.  The ultimate goal for us is to win our conference and get to the regional.  I think we have the team to get there now.  It’s just up to the kids to see how far we can go.”