The 2001 season brings a fresh start for the UNM volleyball team with a new coaching staff and an abundance of new, young players.
First year head coach Tom Peterson inherits a team with a lot of inexperience as the Lobos have seven newcomers, including five freshman. Also, of the five returning players the Lobos have, none are seniors.
“We’re so inexperienced; we don’t have a lot of name players like other teams have so it might take us a little while,” Peterson said. “But we’re confident in what we can do eventually at the end of the season.”
Peterson’s confidence comes from having a system that has worked for many years and for several programs. He won an NCAA men’s volleyball championship with Penn State University in 1994, a national coach of the year award and took the Utah State University women’s program to the NCAA Tournament in 2000.
“They are very motivating, very positive; they never put us down,” freshman outside hitter Ashley Kirsch said. “They are always positive in practice so I think, definitely, it will help us be a strong team because of that.”
The team overhaul began after the Lobos finished the 2000 season with a 10-17 record, including 5-9 in the Mountain West Conference. With the Lobos not having had a winning season since 1996, UNM replaced Lauren Brassey Iversen, who coached the Lobos for 17 years, with Peterson. The team also lost one player because of graduation and four players left the program for various reasons.
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Peterson said he was assured by the players that left the program that it had nothing to do with the coaching change. He said many of them left for personal and family reasons.
Kirsch, who was recruited by Brassey Iversen, said that it may be better for the Lobos to have so many new faces.
“I was excited and upset because I liked a lot of the girls that left but I think that we will have a stronger program now because the girls who stayed are the ones that wanted to play and stick with the program,” she said.
The Lobo newcomers will have a chance to learn from a talented group of returning players. Junior setter Kelly Griffin recorded the second most double-doubles, which are assists and digs, on the team with nine last season. Junior middle blocker/outside hitter Vanessa Shields returns after missing most of last season with a knee injury. Despite the injury, Shields still averaged the second most kills per game at 3.46.
“The mark of our team, if we win games, will not be the mark of one player; it’s going to be a team effort,” Peterson said. “So we’ll have some even statistics. We don’t have one person who will dominate for us.”
Peterson said the one advantage of being a young team is that the players usually learn quickly because there is so much to learn.
“The team’s learning curve is really steep right now and we are going to get better and better and better,” he said. “They are going to buy into our system. They don’t have to change to another system because we are all new. We will have them for a number of years and get better and better.”
The Lobos have a tough conference as it holds three top-20 teams that are very talented. Brigham Young University, last year’s conference champion, is ranked at 11, Colorado State University is ranked 14 and the University of Utah is ranked at 21. The Lobos are predicted to finish seventh in the conference.
“We have a team that will compete,” Peterson said. “We have been working very hard in practice. I can’t really say win-loss how we are going to do right now, but as far as working hard and on the things we want to do in our system, the girls will bust their butts. They’ll be working hard.” Peterson and his staff bring in a new system and a new offensive philosophy that they expect will help them compete against the tougher teams.
He said the offense is predicated on passing the ball around faster to avoid getting shots blocked. He said it is a lot different than the strategies of other teams because other teams usually just set the ball to their outside hitter for points. However, he said his offense will try to get points from all positions and places on the court.
“It is a very sophisticated offense, more risky against better competition,” he said. “We have to take bigger risks because we will be facing teams a lot taller than us. It is a really interesting offense.”
He also said the rule changes that have been made by the NCAA are very interesting. He said that one rule change is rally scoring up to 30, meaning that the team that is not serving can also score points. Another rule is that serves can now hit the net and cross over to the other side and still count.
Both Peterson and Kirsch said that it is very important for the team to feel comfortable and confident playing with each other.
“With our offense and all, it will be exciting to see us compete,” Peterson said. “We will be new so I think we will be a little up and down. It will be interesting to see how fast we coalesce. So I think all of that will make it an interesting season.”
UNM Volleyball Home Schedule
All games played at Johnson Arena
Aug 31. University of Texas at El Paso 7:00 p.m.
Comcast Invitational Tournament
Sept. 01 McNeese State University 12:00 p.m.
Comcast Invitational Tournament
Sept. 01 University of Northern Iowa 7:00 p.m.
Comcast Invitational Tournament
Sept. 20 University of Nevada at Las Vegas* 7:00 p.m.
Sept. 22 San Diego State University* 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 05 Air Force Academy* 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 12 Colorado State University* 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 13 University of Wyoming* 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 26 University of Utah* 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 27 Brigham Young University* 7:00 p.m.
* indicates Mountain West Conference game
UNM Volleyball Roster
No Name Ht. Pos Yr
1 Anna Reines 6-3 MB/OH So
3 Amy Steele 6-0 S/RS Fr
5 Malena Thompson 6-1 OH/MB Sr
6 Vanessa Shields 6-0 MH/OH Jr
7 Stacey Rich 5-8 DS Fr
8 Lynzie Hayes 6-0 MB So
9 Kelly Griffin 5-9 S Jr
10 Blaire Burns 5-9 DS/OH Jr
11 Staci Masten 5-10 OH Jr
12 Alex Tixier 5-7 S/DS Fr
13 Cayse Kaveny 5-11 MB/RS Fr
14 Ashley Kirsch 6-1 OH Fr
Head Coach Tom Peterson, First year
Assistant Coach Grayson DuBose,First year
Assistant Coach Deborah Baker, First year
