Volleyball looks to live up to high expectations

Last year the Yale volleyball team began its season with lofty expectations and bold predictions of victory--and ended it with bitter disappointment. This season, the Eli volleyballers seem to have regained some of last year's initial confidence and are expecting a very strong season. Having lost only three graduating seniors from last year's Ivy League championship-contending team, the roster, from top to bottom, looks solid, sporting a dominating group of veterans and a collection of talented freshman recruits.

JULIA TIERNAN/YH The Bulldog squad, an early favorite to win the league crown, takes a moment to focus before one of last year's contests.

This year's captain, Rosie Wustrack, BR '99, is the heart and soul of the squad. Wustrack was named Ivy League Player of the Year in each of the past two seasons, in addition to being named 1995 Rookie of the Year. Wustrack is also on track to graduate as Yale's all-time leader in five different statistical categories: kills, hitting percentage, service aces, digs, and blocks. Last season, Wustrack racked up an impressive 367 kills, a .304 hitting percentage and 39 service aces. In the history of the conference, no volleyball player has ever received the honor of Ivy League Player of the Year three times, and Wustrack may be the first to do so at the conclusion of this season.

Wustrack heads into this season more optimistic about the squad's chances for success than she ever has been. "We basically have no weak links at all," Wustrack explained. "The sophomore class...came back in excellent shape. We have good leadership in our junior class. Every position is four deep. Our scrimmages are even better than our matches were last year," she continued.

Wustrack is one of only of four returning seniors, another of whom is setter Sarahliz Braugh, JE '99, who last season tallied the seventh highest total number of assists in school history with 810, finishing third in the league. Another returning quality player is 6'2" Colette Fitzgerald, SY '01, who led the team in blocks last season with an astounding total of 116 and was second to Wustrack in kills with 253.

Last year's recruiting class was solid, and the freshmen are all slated to contend for starting positions. Six-foot Carissa Abbott, SM '02, should be one of the top freshmen in the league, as should Candace Green, JE '02. Wustrack raved, "We have five really good freshmen who are all so strong and talented." Head coach Peg Scofield added, "Our freshmen have a lot of talent and add the depth that we need. They also have a lot of versatility so we can move them around." In her 13th year of coaching at Yale, Scofield believes this year's team to be stronger, faster, and more skilled than any previous Bulldog squad she can remember. Scofield also deemed the incoming freshmen to be arguably "the best class ever."

As the Elis learned last season,when expectations are high, the potential for letdown looms all the more large. Just as every team goes into a season with dreams of success, many teams come out with the disappointment of defeat. The harshness of the word "defeat" is not exactly appropriate to describe last year's season--the team finished with a record of 18-13 (4-3 Ivy). The mark did not quite match the level of prowess projected in the beginning of the season.

Still, the team was not entirely dissatisfied with its results. "The personnel we used worked well and for some time, the personnel was unhealthy," Scofield commented, "but I am not disappointed." Scofield feels that perhaps one of the problems with last year's team was that the freshman recruit class, though talented, was not quite prepared for the high level of competition that greeted them in Division I. In time, this class developed into a skilled group. Scofield made a point to mention, "Those freshmen are now a very strong sophomore class."

The season officially begins with the Yale Invitational, an Ivy League round robin tournament which will take place in New Haven on Wed., Sept. 9 and Thurs., Sept. 10. The Elis have been training hard since last spring and are eager to take their skills to the court. Scofield described this spring's conditioning regime as "the best work we've ever done." Wustrack added, "Everyone worked so hard in the spring and over the summer and it is definitely paying off." If the Bulldogs continue to exert the intensity they displayed in the spring, the players have great potential to deliver a long-awaited championship back to New Haven. Still, Scofield cautioned, "I just hope everyone stays hungry."

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