ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 12, 1996 TAG: 9612120010
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
TYPE: HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
SOURCE: ANGIE WATTS STAFF WRITER
Last season Jennifer Arbuckle was on the court, leading the Virginia Tech volleyball team from the outside-hitter position. This year, her position has moved - to the sideline. Arbuckle is the coach of the Blacksburg Indians, a team she thinks has unlimited potential.
After winning the now-defunct New River District last season and advancing to regional play, Blacksburg is looking for bigger and better things in its first year as a member of the Blue Ridge District.
"Our big long-term goal is to be in the top two in our district and advance to state," Arbuckle said. "I think if they just work their butts off and play their hearts out they can do it - the talent is definitely there."
Leading the charge for the Indians will be seniors Rachel Barker, Andrea Feret and Megan Notter, all returning starters from last season's squad. Also back from the 1995-96 starting lineup is junior Amy Lucas. Juniors Natalie Mutispaugh and Brea Strager along with sophomores Heather McCoy and Katie Tront could have considerable playing time as well.
"We have a really deep team," Arbuckle said. "Any combination of any six girls could play right now."
Notter leads the team on the court both verbally and physically. In the team's 15-12, 15-10 season-opening win over Graham High School from Bluefield, Va., Dec. 2, Notter took charge.
"When we needed someone to make a big hit, she made the play," Arbuckle said. "She's the kind of player that won't make too many mistakes. She'll be the steady force when the rest of the team gets stressed."
Despite the unfamiliar opponents posed by a new league, this first-year coach said she has few worries.
"With the team I have, I'm not going to worry a whole lot about what other teams do," Arbuckle said. "All we need to do is concentrate on what's happening on our side of the court. If our team plays together every night out, things will take care of themselves."
A look at other area teams:
A rebuilding year lies ahead for the Three Rivers District defending champion Auburn Eagles. Second-year coach Sherry Akers lost four key players from last year's squad, which went 9-1 through district play and advanced to regional action. Among the players lost were Crystal Moles, who took home district player of the year honors as well as first-team all region and honorable mention all-state awards as middle blocker, and Anna Smith, the team's setter.
"Right now we have to learn to play as a team," Akers said. "We've got so many new players. The season is going to depend on how well our younger players develop. I have three freshmen and three sophomores on the varsity, and all six are good players, but they're not mature players yet."
The team's senior middle blocker, Deanna Dickerson, is expected to fill the void. Dickerson leads the team in every statistical category early in the season, and is providing much-needed leadership.
"Deanna is a very mature player, a good leader on and off the court," Akers said. "She's going to have to pick up the slack where Crystal left off and put the ball down. She's was probably our most consistent player last year as far as not making many mistakes.
"As a team our serving and passing is pretty good compared to last year, but I have to find someone to hit the ball and it has to be Deanna."
Juniors Bonnie Alderman and Kristen Bishop, along with sophomore Tammy Stiles, also return from last year's championship squad. The team will turn to sophomore Sharla Webb to fill the setter position vacated by Smith.
The Christiansburg Demons are hampered by two key injuries as they head into their first year in the Blue Ridge. Senior middle hitters Lisa Heaster and Nora Turner have both sustained injuries to the rotator cuffs in their shoulders, and are undergoing physical therapy.
"It's horrible," said coach Lisa Holland, in her 10th season with the Demons. "It's a bad injury to have at such a young age, and we've got two of them. They're both going through rehabilitation, but they're definitely not at 100 percent."
The temporary loss of Heaster and Turner will put added pressure on the team's other three returning starters: outside hitter Lisa Dalton, and setters Michelle Goncz and Sarah Pace.
"I expect a slow start because we've got the two girls with injuries and a relatively young team as well," Holland said. "A lot of our season will depend on if we can get them healthy."
The Demons' biggest assets this season may be their height. Dalton, the team's big-play maker, stands 5 feet 10 inches tall. The squad also has four girls at 5 feet 9 inches and one at 5 feet 8 inches.
Holland said the team's height will be an advantage, but you can't overlook talent of some of the team's shorter players.
"Sarah Pace (5 feet 6 inches) has very talented all-around skills," Holland said. "She's the team's best passer, the second-best hitter on the team and setter as well. She's also developing a really powerful and effective serve that I'm real impressed with."
Still reeling from the loss of all-region performer Gina Claytor, the Giles Spartans surprised sixth-year coach Neil Schmidt with a come-from-behind victory over Christiansburg in the team's first match of the year.
"I was pleasantly surprised," Schmidt said. "We don't have a lot of height, which seems to be a proverbial problem around here, so we just have to counter with hustle, good defense and all-around good ball. We also have to be patient, and let the other team make the mistakes."
Giles took third in Three Rivers a year ago, but advanced to regional play as the district tournament's runner-up. The Spartans were ousted in the first round of regionals by Narrows.
Setting the pace for Giles this season will be Michele Johnston, Whitney Matlock and Dawn St. Claire. The trio of seniors will be joined by a number of underclassmen who moved up from the junior varsity team - a squad steeped in its winning tradition.
"I have to give a lot of the credit this year to the junior varsity coach, Tammy Brown," Schmidt said. "The JV team has only lost two matches in the past two years, so they know what it feels like to win."
Fairly even from top to bottom, Schmidt said any of the Spartans could be the one to step up in a big game.
"We're not going to be the type of team where you have to look to just one player to get you fired up," Schmidt said. "It's going to be someone different who steps up and makes her presence felt every night."
With four returning starters off a team that went undefeated through the Mountain Empire District last season, Narrows is again the team to beat. Seniors Amanda Clemons, Melissa "Bud" Lucas, Suzanne Webb and Natalie Wheeler combine for a formidable offensive and defensive attack.
But the loss of Melissa Lawrence and Becky Turner to graduation leaves the Green Wave in need of a setter. Expected to fill the role is sophomore Kristan Conley, a member of the junior varsity program last season.
"Of course our top goal is to win the district again and then take it step by step through the regionals," said fifth-year coach Erin Burton, whose team lost to George Wythe in the regional semifinals last season. "We've got nine seniors on the team who know how to win."
Heading that group is Lucas, an all-around top athlete for Narrows. In addition to volleyball, Lucas also excels at basketball and outdoor track for the Green Wave.
"Bud has been our leader," Burton said. "She speaks more freely than the rest of the girls. She's an athlete, that's for sure. When a play needs to be made, she's always there she's a total power hitter.
"Personally, she's one of the players I wouldn't mind just to stand back and watch."
The Buffaloes of Floyd County are slowly but surely coming together. Five of the team's 12 players, including four starters, were members of the Buffaloes' girls basketball team that advanced to the state quarterfinals. The lengthy basketball season left coach Annette Wilson short-handed for most of the preseason practices.
"We haven't been able to practice as a whole unit very much," Wilson said. "We'll be competitive, we've just got to get going. We've got a really young, inexperienced team this year and having the shortened practice time may hurt us early."
Wilson lost four of six starters off last season's team that placed second in the Three Rivers District including Heather Burnette, Melissa Cantrell, Kim Morgan and Charity Schrewsbury. Expected to fill the void will be juniors Tracie Poff, Karen Pursifull, Jill Quesenberry and Julie Sowers. Sophomores Amanda Marshall and Erin Yearout-Patton should also see considerable playing time.
Chad and Jessica Callihan enter their first year as coaches of the Radford Bobcats with high expectations. The Bobcats finished in fifth place in the Three Rivers District a year ago, but Chad Callihan said he hopes to make the jump from worst to first this season.
"There's nowhere to go but up," Callihan said. "We'd like to finish on top of our district for sure. And I think we'll be able to do it. The girls have all had really great attitudes, they're always coming up trying to find out what they can do better - what they can do to learn more."
The Bobcats' weakness is their lack of height, but the coaches hope that will be overshadowed by their strong defensive play.
"Because we're new coaches, the girls are still in a learning process," Jessica Callihan said. "We'll be strong defensively. We're not a huge team, but our defense is what is going to win it for us."
Seniors Louisa Fellin, Melissa Garnett and Kim Kimbleton will provide the leadership on an otherwise young team. Eight members of the varsity squad will return next year. The Callihans hope that, and other players moving up in the system, will solidify a solid base for Radford volleyball.
"We're coaching eighth grade, the junior varsity and the varsity teams this year," Chad Callihan said. "We hope to be able to take them right up through high school."
The theme for Shawsville this season is improvement. The Shawnees aren't thinking championship; they just want to improve upon last season's 2-10 record in the Three Rivers. With all six starters returning from last year's team, coach Mike Naff is optimistic.
"The big team goal is to do better than we did last year," said Naff, in his second year at the helm. "We also want to be at least considered a winning team and to do the best we can. We don't want to have any excuses for our performances."
Shawsville earned its first victory of the season in its opener Dec. 2 against Craig County.
"I told them it was a step in the right direction," Naff said. "This team has good athletes, it's just whether or not they come to play. Sometimes they have mental cramps where they make a couple of bad decisions, and it costs us."
Naff said they biggest surprise of this season's team may be the play of senior Sarah Hasenfratz, a transfer student from Sweden.
"I think they're all talented," Naff said, "but technique-wise, Sarah Hasenfratz is excellent. She played on clubs in Sweden because they don't have a varsity team there, but I told her that somewhere down the line someone really coached her well."
LENGTH: Long : 189 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM Staff. Blacksburg High volleyball playersby CNBprepare for today's game with Lord Botetourt. color.