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Show - ... ... ' . . . I.l.l . M I - II J II U. ..J 1. . 1 ..I . .. 1 " -"""'WMr i ,-- I - ir. . " -1 i ' : - --..,.?'" i :i. i ; 1 -s v ' ; i . v : : : t - V - ; "-(- - ; : - ; rA N. i ' KJ , ' . ; I 4 I - Xx t i t -----V ...... : ' r x -' - ' "TT i nr 11 i: .,- V ; nxC- k x ' : fxHfkii - - - - s - - : : xfc ; X- . -iV - ' t ',X - I -'h v ' - " - - xv , j y v - - X ' I . . : J w -v t. , . v. w v.i-. . f .; x , , , ,f 4 - - - - . ' S -K t A f ? V - " " . " " "- ' '----"' ' . " ' " . y.-- i- , ., :::'. . , -y .-.::t ,. :. .. ;.;-. ... . Wjs)S .- ww.- .. " ' a 1 ' A,,, ..--jrr...ftB ,wr,,-.t...,. w.,,.,.v Text: Robert Potts This year was head volleyball coach Cindy Smoker's first year at Weber State. When she came to Weber she had two main objectives. The first goal was to have a .500 season. The Lady Wildcat team accomplished that with a 18-17 overall record, a big improvement over last year's 9-22 record. The second objective was to play the home matches in the Dee Event Center. That did not happen this year, but beginning next fall, all home matches will be played in the spacious Center. "That showed me that the athletic department is behind me," said Smoker. "When I first came to WSC, I wanted to get in there. The administration is fantastic for supporting me." Looking back on the year, Weber started out very good but had troubles in the final stages of the season. Because of the Wildcats' late-season struggles, the team could only manage a sixth place finish in the Mountain West Athletic Conference MWAC) standings. The Weber women barely missed making the four-team final field. In-state, the Wildcat spikers defeated Utah State twice and went five games with both Utah and BYU before losing. But the gap between Weber and the other big schools in the state is narrowing. "We're not going to be dominated much longer by BYU and Utah," she said. Top players for Weber this year were seniors Simone Fritz, Susan Murray-Pitts and Sharon Bashford. The trio led the team in just about all categories, with Fritz and Murray-Pitts garnering all-conference honors. Other performers who were instrumental in the Wildcats 18 wins were Niki Nye, Lisa Kuiper, Teri Okelberry and Kim Benesh. Nye is a sophomore while the other three are all , freshman. The rest of the team included Carol Nunn, Ruth Blankenship, Renee Rupnow, Erna Yamauchi and Kaohu Kanakaole. Helping the team this year as assistant coach was Mashallah Farokhmanesh. Smoker hit the recruiting trail hard following the season and will be bringing nine new faces into the program. Although Smoker says she doesn't want to have to recruit that many players in one season again, she has plenty of confidence in her new players. "The first part of the year will be tough, but once everybody learns to play together, we'll be good," she said. Smoker also says this team will be the team to watch in two years, because there are will be no seniors for that period of time. Next year the Lady Wildcats will move uptown to the DEC and will have BYU, Minnesota and Pepperdine on next year's schedule. The Wildcat volleyball program is on the rise. SPIKERS Simone Fritz (4), Drena Kalani 7j, Niki Nye 5), Renee Rupnow, and Kim Benesh (15) watch the flight of the ball. Simone Fritz (I) and Niki Nye stop an opponents ball. (Signpost photos: Scott Miller) Volleyball |