August 8, 2007

2007 Volleyball Preview
Jackets Look for Same Success in New Conference

BILLINGS, Mont. – With three-straight winning seasons under their belts, the Montana State Billings Yellowjackets will shoot for number four in a new region and a new conference with a new coach.  The Lady Jacket volleyball team had never posted a winning season before 2004, when they finally accomplished the feat with a 14-11 mark.  They followed it up with a 20-8 record in 2005 and a 26-5 mark in 2006.  Last year’s record-breaking season also sent the Jackets to the NCAA Tournament for the first time, and they advanced to the Southwest Region semifinals.

In 2007, everything will be new for a program that appears to be on the rise.  Seven-year coach Pa’ulasi Matavao is gone, replaced by first-year head coach Sara Schaub.  Matavao left as the only winning coach in school history (99-97 overall record), and Schaub is taking the reigns of her first team.  She spent the last five years as an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan, where she was also a player.

Along with changing coaches, the Jackets’ lineup will change significantly in 2007.  Seniors Ali Watson, Jessica Bratton, Natalie Bills, and Alexis Sandru graduated as the only class with a winning record at MSUB.  Watson, Bratton, and Bills were all-conference selections in the Heartland Conference, and Bratton, Sandru, and Bills each played in over 300 games in their careers.  Those four starters will be replaced by a combination of new players to the squad and sophomores who didn’t see a lot of action last year as freshmen.

Finally, the Heartland Conference, in which the Jackets posted a combined 17-5 record over the past two seasons, is in the rearview mirror.  MSUB is moving to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in 2007, placing them in the ultra-competitive Pacific Region.  Out of the GNAC, Seattle Pacific, Western Washington, and Central Washington all qualified for the NCAA Pacific Regional in 2006.

“I think the level of play in the GNAC and the Pacific Region is higher than in the previous conference and region,” said Schaub, who will be seeing her first glimpse of volleyball in the West.  “We only have six returning players this year, and only three of them saw significant playing time last season.  It’s going to be an all new team, under a new coach, and in a new conference.  That’s a lot of different variables going into the season.  We just have to be ready for whomever we play on every given night.”

The success of the season will be determined by the GNAC conference schedule.  While the Jackets played just 10 conference matches last year, 18 of their 28 matches in 2007 will be GNAC counters.  Of the nine teams in the GNAC, five had winning records last year.  With an ambitious 10-match pre-conference schedule and two matches against cross-town Rocky Mountain, the Jackets will be in high-level matches all season. 

“Looking at last year’s results, there are many very good teams in the GNAC,” said Schaub, who will be seeing her first glimpse of volleyball on the West Coast.  “Seattle Pacific has won back-to-back GNAC titles, so they’re the team everyone is going to be gunning for.  They lost their All-American setter, but they still have a lot of strong hitters back.”

“Western Washington only lost twice in conference play, and both were to Seattle Pacific.  They beat everybody else.  They’ll be hungry to win it.  Central Washington also had a good season last year and didn’t lose much, so I’m sure they’ll be up there as well.  I hope we can fight with those top teams and be in that third, fourth, or fifth spot for our first year.”

Schaub will build the 2007 Yellowjackets around seniors Alicia Cazemier and Nicole Kruse.  Both earned all-conference honors last season, and Cazemier is a two-time all-region selection.  By the end of the season, Cazemier will likely hold school career records for solo blocks, block assists, total blocks, and kills.  Junior Jessica Lechner will also be a key component both offensively and defensively.  She was a regular starter last year and has a career .274 attack percentage.

“Our two seniors are going to be our backbone,” said Schaub.  “Nicole Kruse is our libero and our floor captain in the back row where hopefully she starts off every play with a good pass.  We’ll try to get her passing two-thirds of the balls.  Our middle blocker, Alicia Cazemier, will be big in the middle offensively putting the ball away.  Defensively Alicia and Nicole will be our main people with Alicia setting up a good block, and Nicole digging up everything around her.  We’ll be strong up the middle this year.”

The early-season challenge for Schaub will be building around Cazemier, Kruse, and Lechner.  Unfortunately starter Taylor Faught is out for the season with an injury, leaving open the setting position, which will fall to transfer Stefania Aladjova.  With just nine healthy bodies, everyone will play a role, just as they did in 2005 when Matavao fielded a roster of eight.

“We definitely need some people to step in right away and be solid, mostly our setter Stefania,” Schaub said.  “She has to come in and be able to control this team right away.  I have no doubts that she can do that.  We’re going to look to her to take on that role.  She also has a great jump serve, so hopefully we can get some points off her serve every match.”

“Another player that will play an important role this season is Devon Crotteau.  She’ll give us a weapon on the outside since we graduated both of our outside hitters.  We will look for her to produce some kills and also be very consistent in that outside hitter position.  I will also be looking for Jen Boe to have a big year.  She will see playing time as a freshman, so we’re looking for her to step in and take over that other outside hitting role.”

“All of our returnees had a very productive spring.  They’ve also worked really hard all summer in order to take a step this fall and be a team that competes in the GNAC.  That includes Katrina Solomon, Jessica Lechner, and Jill Trabing.”

While the Jackets will work overtime in fall camp to put all the pieces together before their August 24 opener at a tournament in Omaha, Neb., they won’t have to start completely from scratch.  Schaub’s system of play will no doubt vary from Matavao’s, and about half the players on the floor at any given time will be new.  But a nucleus and winning atmosphere are there to build around, and Schaub thinks that’s enough to give the Jackets a chance each night.

“When I watch film from last year, I think they did a really good job of going hard all the time,” she said.  “I hope we can keep that up this year.  One of our goals is to play hard and make every point count and every ball count.  That will be our mentality this year.  We’re going to have a young team, so it’s going to be a little different style of play than the returnees are familiar with.  We’re going to try to quicken up the offense and spread it from antenna to antenna vertically along the net.”

2007 Schedule
8/24 – at Nebraska-Omaha
8/24 – vs. Mary
8/25 – vs. Colorado State-Pueblo
8/25 – vs. Minn. State Moorhead
8/31 – at Colorado School of Mines
8/31 – vs. Mesa State
9/1 – vs. Western State
9/1 – vs. Western New Mexico
9/6 – at Northwest Nazarene*
9/8 – at Seattle Pacific*
9/13 – Saint Martin’s*
9/15 – Western Oregon*
9/20 – at Alaska Fairbanks*
9/22 – at Alaska Anchorage*
9/27 – Western Washington*
9/29 – Central Washington*
10/2 – at Rocky Mountain
10/6 – at Seattle*
10/11 – at Western Oregon*
10/13 – at Saint Martin’s*
10/18 – Alaska Anchorage*
10/20 – Alaska Fairbanks*
10/25 – at Central Washington*
10/27 – at Western Washington*
11/1 – Rocky Mountain
11/3 – Seattle*
11/8 – Seattle Pacific*
11/10 – Northwest Nazarene*

Home matches in bold
*Great Northwest Athletic Conference match

2007 Roster
#1 Jennifer Boe (Casper, Wyo.)
#2 Hillary Morrison (Evansville, Wyo.)
#3 Katrina Solomon (Billings, Mont.)
#4 Nicole Kruse (Huntley, Mont.)
#5 Jill Trabing (Buffalo, Wyo.)
#7 Devon Crotteau (Casper, Wyo.)
#8 Taylor Faught (Billings, Mont.)
#12 Stefania Aladjova (Sofia, Bulgaria)
#13 Alicia Cazemier (Vauxhall, Alberta)
#14 Jessica Lechner (Pompeys Pillar, Mont.)