Junior middle blocker Vanessa King, left, passes the ball to senior outside hitter Heather McDaniel while Minnesota middle blocker Lauren Gibbemeyer gets ready to block during Saturday’s game at Jenison Field House. The Spartans were defeated by the Golden Gophers 3-1.
Despite having a young team this season, the MSU volleyball team will be stacked with talent next season, as it will return its top eight point-scorers while losing only one senior.
“Losing Heather (McDaniel) is really hard — just because she’s such a great leader and she has a lot of heart and she’s so inspiring to all of us, but we’re going to come on strong next year,” sophomore libero Allyson Karaba said.
The team will be led by middle blocker Vanessa King, who led the team in hitting percentage, blocks and kills this season, while putting herself in the record books with a .348 hitting percentage, the fourth highest in school history. Karaba, who also is returning to lead the team, finished this season with 518 digs, the second-best in one season in school history.
“I think they’re going to look good,” McDaniel said of next year’s team. “I think they can gain some confidence. Most of the freshmen have been playing on the court, actually understanding how the game is played at the college level.”
MSU got major contributions from four freshmen this season and should see more output from them in 2009.
Setter Natalie Emro started every match this season, totaling 1,245 assists, the fourth highest for a freshman in MSU history.
Outside hitter Becca Zlabis had a big season too — racking up 296 kills, fifth-most for a freshman in school history, tying with sophomore teammate Jenilee Rathje, who set the mark last year.
Outside hitter Kyndra Abron and defensive specialist Carli Weiler also played big minutes, helping MSU make a charge at the end of the season.
“Those girls are going to have that Big Ten experience and to top it off we have two experienced seniors that will be here — Vanessa and Misch (Nelson),” Karaba said. “I think our defense will be stronger. I think our blocking will be stronger. I think everything will just be that much stronger and experienced. We’ll be ready to go.”
The team also will be helped by the return of Rathje, who led the team in kills and points before injuring her knee in the opening weekend of Big Ten play.
“We’ve got to grow and get better as a team and that’s going to be very important for us to move forward,” head coach Cathy George said. “Yes, we’ll be older, we’ll be more experienced, we’ll know what the Big Ten is about and how we need to pursue the Big Ten title.
“It’s more evident that now they understand what I’m talking about. Only a portion of the team knew what that meant (before this season). Now the full team knows what that means. We’ll have to pass that on to the newcomers and be ready to go to the next level.”
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