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Show DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE August 2009 VOLLEYBALL continued from Page El One leading candidate to step up is junior Karolina Bartkowiak, who was an AllMountain West Conference selection last season. The Poland native was a strong contributor to last year's success and finished the season as No. 4 on the team in kills, behind Baird, Haynie and Toone. • Other players expected to have an impact are returning starters Cinthia Silva, Keisha Fisher, Chelsey Sandberg and Stephanie Shardlow. Silva collected 207 kills and 234 digs for the Utes last season while Fisher paced the team with 393 digs. Sandberg notched 123 kills and Shardlow led the Utes with 798 assists. Incoming recruit Brooke McAlister was expected to play a vital role tmVseason, but knee surgery will leave her sidelined. "Losing Brooke is a big blow," Launiere said. "She was one of the top players in the state and now she's out for the season. With her out, we don't have outside depth." McKenzie Odale and Natalie Nichols are other freshmen who will be counted on to contribute. "McKenzie is just a very good all-around volleyball player," Launiere said. "Natalie will be a nice addition to our team. She has a great desire and passion to play at this level." Also new to the team this year is assistant coach Brian Doyon, who compiled a record of 113-38 in six years as head coach of Battle Mountain High School in Vail, Colo. Doyon will prove to be a valuable addition to the coaching staff and will assist Launiere with player development as well as strategy. Last season, the team employed the 6-2 formation, but Launiere is undecided on which formation will be used this year. "We never make that decision this early," she said. "Instead, we wait until the preseason to go with one or the other, although we've worked both formations in the spring. It's one of many decisions we have to make, in addition to a lot of personnel decisions. We just throw everything into the hat." Replacing departed seniors won't be the only challenge for the Utes and their coaching staff this season. The 2009 schedule could prove to be one of the most difficult in recent years for the program. The Utes will play six matches against 2008 NCAA Tournament teams including Cincinnati, Santa Clara, Oregon, Long Beach State and two matches with Colorado State. Utah begins the season by hosting the annual Utah Classic, a four-team event that will include Arizona State, UC-Riverside and Cincinnati. The Utes will play two more tournaments, the Utah Valley Tournament and Santa Clara Tournament, before returning home to face Oregon and then begin their conference schedule. Utah will play rival BYU in Salt Lake City on Sept. 25, and will travel to Provo to face the Cougars on Oct. 23, and conclude the regular season on the road at Long Beach State. Whether the 2009 Utes prove to be as successful as the 2008 team remains to be seen, but Launiere is focused on maximizing this team's talent. "You just can't know (if the team can replicate last, year's success)," she said. "You just have to work and train to get better and see what happens. That said, our goal is always to win the Mountain West Conference. We want to get to the NCAA Tournament like last year. This year, we're just starting from a different position. Every year is a whole different scenario. We've got a lot of work to do. Every player on this team is in a new role. We have a lot of question marks, but an equal amount of opportunity." Although last season's successes have been replaced by this year's questions, Launiere remembers lessons learned from 2008. "You have to approach every year by forming the group of girls into a team and get them to be the best," she said. "You have to make sure every player understands what it takes." b.brown@chronicle.utafhedu E9 SWIMMING continued from Page E2 large group of freshmen will be joining the team this year. After placing No. 3 at last season's MWC Championships, the women are looking to derail rival powerhouse BYU and win the championship this year. Losing only three seniors from last year's team, the women have a good shot at winning the championship. Last season's standout freshmen Hannah Caron and Whitney Lapus will be returning along with Annie VanLeeuwen and Maiya Otsuka, who are expected to lead the team this season. "We will be smart about putting together lineups and strategies," Winslow said. "It would be awesome for us to knock BYU off their pedestal." The men's team will be getting 12 new additions—four divers and eight swimmers— from around the country. A few of the new swimmers will be expected to step up and contribute from the getgo, as the Utes lost team leader Adam Oliver to graduation after last season. "We have men coming in from all over the country, which should be fun," Winslow said. "Ryan Hansen and Bryan Michaels both have faster times than Adam's fastest. All of our recruits will be big and are going to help us rewrite our record." Having placed No. 6 in the past two conference championships, the men's main goal is to move up in the conference standings and turn the program around. "On the men's side, it would be hard not to move up," Winslow said. "We are really looking to leapfrog a couple of teams." Although winning a championship is the goal for both the men and women, Winslow wants his teams to have more fun and win more dual meets than they did last season. "Our goal is to have as much fun as possible and do as well as we can at MWC championships arid win the dual meets along the way," Winslow said. "We have some really big dual meets this season and we want to win as many of those as possible. We're not looking for swimmers to get recordbreaking times at every meet, but nobody likes losing." p.fieldsted@ chronicle.utah.edu tffi lhf\\ You CAN have your IPod and Sufowoofer too... Ail of your favorite tunes are on your ipod or MP3 Player, why give them up while driving? Enjoy your favorite playlist through your car's sound system. (l)Simple Options m a y include: GOLF continued from Page E2 and Kaleb- and the consistency we need out of Derek, Chase and Jeff, we'll have a pretty good core of guys," he said. Although it might be tough battling the cold winters of Salt Lake City and competing in the Mountain West Conference with perennial powerhouses such as San Diego State, UNLV and New Mexico, McCracken said if his current group can play to its potential, there's no reason why the conference championship should be out of reach. 'Are we going to win the conference championship?" McCracken said. "We definitely have that potential. Is it going to be on a regular basis? Probably not. But should we contend for this conference's championship year in and year out? 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