USD Volleyball 1996

1996 PREVIEW 1 Toreros '96 Goal: Return To NCAA' s ,. •

After making their third consecutive playoff appearance, a trip to the Na– tional Invitational Volleyball Championship Semifinals, the Toreros open the 1996 looking to stretch the streak to four. The Toreros want to return to the NCAA tournament where they last were in 1993. In the Toreros path is a tough '96 schedu le which includes five teams that reached the NCAA's last year. Head Coach Sue Snyder returns for her seventh campaign and has nine veter– ans with playoff experience returni ng which should enable USD to battle for the West Coast Conference crown once again. The past three years have seen the Toreros finish with twenty or more wins and a third place or higher ranking in the final WCC standings. The '96 Toreros will be led by junior outside hitter LaManda Mounts, who was named to the 1995 All-WCC First Team. Mounts led the team in kill s, digs and hitting percentage whi le affixing her name in the USO record books. Mounts' 395 digs last season was the best in Torero history while her 447 kill s was second best. Mounts also ranked second in the WCC in kill s and ninth in hitting percentage. Also receiving conference awards and retu rning for the Toreros will be junior middle blocker Sara Gunsaulus, junior setter Luann Petix , sophomore outside hitter Deanna Bretz and sophomore middle blocker Li sa Ravensberg. Gunsaulus, made her second appearance on the All-Conference team, cho– sen in 1995 as a Second Team member, after being selected a First Team mem–

LaManda Mounts, First Team All- WCC

ber and the WCC Freshman of the Year in I 994. Gunsaulus ranked second in the WCC in bloc k average (beh ind teammate Ravensberg) despite mi ssing the last three matches due to injury. Gun saulus led the team with 13 1 blocks and her 27 1 career blocks rank her fifth in Torero hi story. Bretz was named the West Coast Conference Freshman o f the Year, the third Torero to rece ive th at honor, after rank ing second on the team in kills and recording a team high 34 servi ce aces. Rave nsberg, who was named to the All -Freshmen Team, led the league with a 1.50 block average in WCC games. Gunsaulus and Rave nsberg helped the Toreros lead the league in bl ocking for the fifth straight year. Petix was named All WCC Honorable Menti on and ranks third in Toreros history with 1,950 career ass ists. Petix al so recorded the second-hi ghest ass ist total in hi story thi s season with 1,219 over 32 matches. USD will begin the 1996 season hosting its own tournament on August 30-31 featuring Minnesota, Cal State Northridge and San Diego State. The USD Tournament is the first o_f three for the Toreros also competing in tournaments at UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The Toreros will open up WCC play on the road at Santa C lara on October 4 . The two toughest weekends for the squad are October 25 & 26 and November 22 & 23 when they face Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine in matches that should determine the conference champion ..

1995 WEST COAST CONFERENCE HONORS & STANDINGS

First Team

Final 1995 Standings

Second Team

WCCRecords

w

LaManda Mounts, San Diego

PCT l.(XX)

Sara Gunsau lus, San Diego Vanessa Dahl, Saint Mary's Auli'i Ellis, Santa Clara Dawn Eudaly, Portland Kelly Harris, San Francisco Becci Roehl , Pepperdine Carrie Romer, Pepperdine Wendy Wilson, Gonzaga

L

Kim Blakinship, LMU

LoyolaMarymount( 19-1 0)

14 10 IO

0 4 4 5

Julie Greer, LMU

San Diego (22-11 ) Pepperdine (24-1 1) Santa C lara( 13-18

.714 .714 .643 .286 .286 .2 14 .143

Tracy Holman, LMU Karissa Meith, LMU Sara Noriega, LMU

9 4 4 3 2

Portland(9-2 I ) Gonzaga (6-25)

10 10

Nicole Sanderson, Pepperdine

Mardell Wrensch, LMU

Saint Mary's (8-21) San Francisco (9-26)

11

12

All-Freshman Team

Deanna Bretz, San Diego Li saRavensberg,San Diego Jeanine Dwyer, Portland Anna Witkowski , Pepperdine

Laura Echolds, Santa Clara Nicole Lamoure,Gonzaga Kara McKeown, Saint Mary's

Player of the Year - Julie Greer, LMU Defensive Player of the Year - Kim Blakinship, LMU

Freshman of the Year - Deanna Bretz. USO Coach of the Year - Ste ve Stratos, LMU