Murray State University Athletics
Volleyball returns nine for 2006
8/9/2006 5:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
The Racer volleyball team returns to campus this week to prepare for the new season, which opens Sept. 1 at the UNF Labor Day Classic in Jacksonville, Fla. Noted teams on the 2006 schedule include North Carolina State, DePaul and Memphis.
Murray State returns nine players from last year's 7-16 squad, including five of its six starters and libero Heather Norris. Head coach David Schwepker is optimistic about the returnees.
"Last year, we started five freshmen and two juniors," he said, "and they did really well, considering they were freshmen just coming in. Just being in the program and getting used to playing at this level, those players will be different this year. They will show us what they were capable of doing coming out of high school, and will step it up a bit and play much better."
Norris, a sophomore this season, led the defense last year for MSU with 5.64 digs per game, ranking 17th in the nation in that category, while classmate Alison Mugler ranked ninth in the Ohio Valley Conference with 4.58 digs per game, helping the Racers to an OVC-best 20.08 digs per game, ranking No. 2 in the nation.
Senior Katie Kemezys ranked fourth in the OVC with 1.05 blocks per game and eighth in the league with 3.53 kills per game.Classmate Holly Jansen was 11th in the OVC with 0.88 blocks per game. Kemezys was sixth in the conference with 4.29 points per game, while Mugler was sixth in the league with 0.34 aces per game.
Schwepker brought in four signees this season to help provide balance in the Racer game plan.
Junior Tara DeMage, the sister of Eastern Illinois volleyball alumna Kim DeMage, helped Jefferson College to a combined 60-22 (.732) record in her two seasons there and ranked ninth in the nation in digs in 2004. She earned all-conference accolades in both of her seasons there.
Freshman Cassie Chesney was recruited for her setting prowess, which will guide the offense. She helped Eastland High (Lanark, Ill.) to a combined 136-28 (.829) record in her four seasons, and last year pushed the Cougars to a 31-8 mark, handing out 917 assists, earning all-state honorable mention and Player of the Year honorable mention as well as being a unanimous all-conference first-team selection.
Freshmen Leah Rippy and Jessica Rydz will help bolster the already strong defense. Rippy helped Mahomet-Seymore (Ill.) High School to a combined 70-22 (.722) record in her three seasons of play. She was a three-time team Most Valuable Player and helped the Bulldogs to a 30-3 mark last season to go with a conference championship with 310 kills and 384 digs. She was an all-state second-team honoree last season.
Rydz helped Jacobs High School (Algonquin, Ill.) to a combined 66-38 (.635) record, handing out 1,612 career assists as setter and serving up 70 career aces. She was an all-state honoree and a Pre-Season Top Player awardee by the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Last season, she handed out 526 assists and served up 25 aces for the Eagles.
"To make it to the OVC Tournament this season, we're going to have to be more consistent in our offense," Schwepker said. "Our defense is going to be better than last year, but the offense has to step up.
"In our spring workouts, we worked on individual skills.We worked out certain plays, but we didn't have to do so many 'team' things, since almost our entire team came back from last year, so it took more of an individual workout slant."
Murray State was picked to finish ninth in the 11-team conference in this year's pre-season poll. Eastern Kentucky, last year's co-champion, was picked first with 181 points and seven first-place votes, while Tennessee State, the other co-champ last season, was picked second with 179 points and eight first-place votes. Jacksonville State, last year's tournament champion, was picked third with 175 points and seven first-place votes.
The rest of the poll included Southeast Missouri (147 points), Eastern Illinois (126), Samford (93), Austin Peay (90), Morehead State (67), Murray State (61), Tennessee Tech (49) and Tennessee-Martin (42).
"Mentally, this will be a tough league this year," Schwepker said. "I think that everybody is going to be fighting, and what I think you will see is the teams that can pick it up towards the end will win."
The Racers open the season with the entire month of September -- 14 matches -- on the road. MSU will play in the North Florida Labor Day Classic, the Kent State Invitational and the Memphis Invitational before opening conference play at Eastern Illinois on Sept. 22.
Murray State opens its home slate on Oct. 6 against Morehead State, then will host Eastern Kentucky, Southeast Missouri and Eastern Illinois. Four more OVC matches on the road will close out the month of October, but the Racers will finish with a four-match homestand in November against Samford, Jacksonville State, Tennessee-Martin and Tennessee Tech.
