Aug. 21, 2007

Orem, Utah - Entering year five of its venture into NCAA athletics, the Utah Valley volleyball program has proven its worth among the nation's Division-I volleyball programs.

A season removed from winning the Division-I Independent Championship, the Wolverines got back the final match before falling to IPFW 3-1. Still, the team finished 113th in the final Rich Kern RPI, putting it on the threshold of being in the top 3rd of 320 D-I teams.

Two consecutive banner seasons combined with the improved RPI rating puts added expectations on the program now and in the future.

"We are making strides," said head coach Sam Atoa. "The win/loss record shows that we are headed in the right direction. But we have a long way to go to get where I expect this program can and will be."

The Wolverines return its top two kill threats in junior Camie Manwill (4.20 kpg, .176%) and senior Jessica Endres (3.54, .345%) but a huge void will be left by the graduation of setter Lacee Koelliker, who will begin her first season on the sidelines this year as Atoa's top assistant.

"We're definitely going to have to look to Camie and Jessica for leadership quite a bit more than we have in the past. I do have high expectations for those girls and I should have those expectations because of what they've accomplished that past 2-3 years," said Atoa.

Three players, Kristi Lindley, Allyce Wilson and Shannan Brooks, have the unenviable role of trying to fill the shoes of Koelliker at the setter position.

Lindley is a transfer from Weber State who led the Wildcats with an average of 7.75 assists per game last season. Wilson, a Pleasant Grove native, averaged just under five assists as a freshman at Snow College and Brooks averaged 9.95 assists during her senior season at Lassiter High School in Roswell, Georgia.

"We were spoiled with such a good leader in so many different ways with Lacee," said Atoa. "Obviously we can't expect the new girls to come in and replace everything she did right away. I just expect them to do their best and not force themselves to try to be better than her."

Along with Endres, the club's seniors are Libero Chelsea Baugh (4.22 dpg) and Terin Ledall, who was third on the team with an average of 1.91 kills per game.

Other than the three seniors and Manwill, the only other two returners are junior Bethany Carron and sophomore Kristin Anderson (Bromley).

Anderson played in 14 matches (22 games) and averaged 1.45 kpg. Carron played in just seven matches before season-ending knee surgery.

Atoa will also have to rely heavily on newcomers to help strengthen the overall depth of the team.

Meagan Bluth (So., Gilbert, AZ), Kayli Broadbent (Fr., Gilbert, AZ), Lanni O'Reilly (Fr., Redlands, CA), Dani Robison (RS-Fr., Orem, Utah), Kathleen Stevens (Fr., Lafayette, CA) and Jaicee Kuresa (Fr., Millville, UT) round out the roster. Of those six, all but Robison are new to the program.

Robsion red-shirted 2006 while Bluth transferred from Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

The other four are freshmen with Kuresa, a three-sport standout at Mountain Crest High School, expecting to red-shirt the 2007 season.

The 2007 schedule reflects the continuing progress of the overall program and features five tournaments, including the year-end Division I Indpendent Championship, hosted by Utah Valley.

The Wolverines will open up the season at home against Wyoming on August 24th before traveling to Butler for the the first of the five tournaments.

UV will face all four in-state schools at least once, including Utah (in Orem, Oct. 23) and BYU (in Provo, Oct. 9), two of four teams on the slate that finished in the top-40 in last season's final Rich Kern RPI.

Arizona State, who finished 33rd in the RPI, will be in Orem on September 7-8 for the UVU Invitational along with Weber State and San Jose State.

The remaining top-40 school is Michigan (26th), who is hosting the Michigan/Nike Invitational in mid-September. Utah Valley will face the hosts along with Georgia Tech and Temple in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

"It's going to be a challenging schedule," said Atoa. "The Butler tournament and the Michigan tournament have some quality teams so we definitely have our hands full there. The in-state teams will continue to provide us with a challenge as well.

Gone from the independent ranks are last season's tournament champion IPFW, North Dakota State and South Dakota State, who all join the newly named Summit League.

Cal-State Bakersfield and NJIT are new to the bunch with both schools, along with Chicago State, Texas-Pan American and Providence all on the schedule for the 2007 Division-I Independent Championship on November 16-17.

Overall, Atoa expects the balance of the schedule to provide both a challenge and a chance for the team to try and equal the success of the past two seasons.

"The foundation of what we are building is coming along...slowly," said Atoa. "We are continuing to do some good things and that will help attract athletes that will help lead us in in the direction we want to go."