It’s really not what any Lobo fan wants to hear: a beefed-up schedule with lots of young talent.
That is the outlook for Jeff Nelson and the 2010 UNM volleyball team.
Nelson, the third-year head coach at UNM, has his Lobos embarking on probably their toughest task to date.
The Lobos have seven freshmen on the roster: Mariah Agre, Chantale Riddle, Lexi Ross, Juliane Hanna,
Carli Torr, Ashley Newman and Miquella Lovato. Adding to the difficulty, UNM will kick off the 2010 campaign with a trifecta of tough matches starting with Pepperdine Aug. 27, before facing Tulane and Stanford on Aug. 28 and Aug. 29, respectively.
On the other hand, while the Lobos are young, Nelson said they’ve looked like veterans in training camp.
“They have all blended right in and done a great job,” Nelson said of his freshmen. “They are going to have a lot of adversity during the year. Some will have back-up roles.”
Of course, the biggest test for UNM remains Stanford, which is picked to win Pac-10, after winning the conference in 2009. The Cardinal returns six starters, including three All-Americans, from a team that went 23-8 and advanced to the regional semifinal in the 2009 NCAA tournament. But working in UNM’s favor is the fact the it has three returning seniors in Lisa Meeter, Jade Michaelsen and Taylor Hadfield, all of whom have four years of experience.
But Hadfield said the team is up for the task.
“It’s a huge deal,” she said about playing Stanford. “It’s kind of an honor for us, too, that they would actually come here and play us. We are just very excited about the competition, because they are a team that has made it to the (NCAA tournament’s) Final Four the last couple of years.”
So, then, what would a win over the Cardinal mean for UNM?
“Oh my god. It would mean everything,” Hadfield said. “We play all of these great teams here in the Mountain West Conference, and it’s
definitely not a conference to look past. But playing a team from the Pac-10 conference, playing someone like a Stanford and beating them, that is huge.”
With senior leadership and booming confidence, Nelso said the Lobos are poised to make back-to-back appearences in the NCAA tournament and build upon last year’s success.
“I think that we are better now than how we ended last year,” Nelson said.
*Lobo alumni match
Johnson Gym
Aug. 21
1 p.m.*
