Marshall University Athletics
Herd Volleyball Picked No. 1 in Preseason C-USA Poll
8/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Aug. 1, 2007
2007 All C-USA Preseason Team
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Irving, Texas - Conference USA announced the 2007 volleyball preseason poll on Wednesday, August 1, and for the second consecutive year, Marshall is the preseason favorite with 130 votes. All-American Kelly-Anne Billingy was also selected as C-USA Preseason Player of the Year.
The Thundering Herd, who won the 2005 C-USA regular season and tournament titles, concluded the 2006 campaign with an overall record of 20-12 and the second-best conference mark of 12-4. Six-year head coach Mitch Jacobs returns four starters and a libero in addition to Billingy.
"We're getting an awful lot of respect when you consider Tulane and UAB are returning their starting lineups, minus one for Tulane," said Coach Jacobs. "We still have giant holes to fill at the setter and middle positions. It is flattering to be preseason favorite, and as of now we're looking up at Tulane, UAB and Memphis to name a few."
Billingy, a native of Trincity, Trinidad, returns as the NCAA leader in kills per game with an average of 6.61 per outing. The powerful 6-3 outside hitter received AVCA All-America honorable mention and AVCA All-Midwest first team merits as well as All-C-USA first team accolades for the second-consecutive year. Her offensive potential also earned her College Volleyball Update (CVU.com) Stellar Spikers first team honors in 2006. Billingy wrapped up last season by being named to the C-USA All-Tournament team after recording a championship record 44 kills against Houston.
"The league knows what we have in Billingy," said Coach Jacobs. "We need to focus on building a team around her that will compete for a championship."
Coach Jacobs and the Thundering Herd also look to take advantage of Marshall serving as host of the 2007 C-USA Volleyball Championship on Nov. 15-18 in Huntington, W. Va.
Tulane finished second in the voting with 128 votes, while UAB finished third with 123 votes.
Tulane ranks second in the preseason poll and returns two preseason All-C-USA selections in junior Sara Radosevic and sophomore Jenn Miller. Radosevic led all sophomores in the NCAA and finished fifth in the nation with an average of 5.50 kills per game last season. The 6-1 outside hitter finished with 495 kills and was second to Billingy in C-USA rankings. The Zagreb, Croatia, native became the first player in Tulane history to earn multiple All-America honors from the AVCA, earning honorable mention merits for the last two years. She was also named first team AVCA All-Region for the second-consecutive season and picked up first team All-Conference USA honors.
Miller, a libero, became the first Tulane volleyball player to rack up 500-plus digs in a single season. The second team All-C-USA and all-freshman team pick hustled for 507 digs in 98 games.
UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith welcomes back her starting lineup and 12 letterwinners from a team that captured the 2006 C-USA Championship title. Leading the veteran squad will be 2007 Preseason All-C-USA picks Ivana Bozic and Fernanda Domingos.
Bozic, a junior outside hitter, is a two-time all-conference selection and was named to the AVCA All-America honorable mention team last year. The Arandjelovac, Serbia, native averaged 4.90 kills and 2.82 dig per game, while hitting .232 percent from the floor last season. She enters the 2007 season in ninth place on the school's career kills leaderboard with 1,105 and ranks 10th in total attack attempts with 2,847.
Domingos was voted C-USA's 2006 Newcomer of the Year after transferring in from Cowley College in Kansas. The Brazilian was second on the team in kills (3.20) and third in aces per game (0.41). Domingos welcomes her younger sister, Eliane, to the program after transferring in from the same junior college. The duo were NJCAA All-Americans at Cowley College.
Memphis is chosen to finish fourth with 107 points, while Houston and Tulsa tied for fifth with 83 points each. The Cougars were awarded one first-place vote. East Carolina, Rice, SMU, Southern Miss, UCF and UTEP are also expected to be contender for the 2007 title.
Memphis made a vast improvement last season. The Tigers went from a 16-16 mark in 2005 to an impressive 27-8 record in 2006. Head Coach Carrie Yerty is eager to build upon the 2006 season as she welcomes back four starters and a libero. Yerty, with 210 career wins, is just three victories shy of becoming the winningest coach in Memphis volleyball history.
Memphis will be led by All-Americans Shelby Burton and Laura Côté. Burton and Côté were All-C-USA first teamers in 2006 and both appear on the 2007 Preseason All-C-USA list. Burton ranked second in the league and fifth in the nation in hitting efficiency with a .413 clip last year. She also ranked at No. 24 on the NCAA aces per game chart, landing a C-USA best 0.57 per game. Côté led the conference and ranked 28th in the NCAA in assists per game, dishing out 13.02 per outing.
Houston, guided by one of the NCAA all-time winningest coaches Bill Walton, will be looking to junior outside hitter Justine Farmer to lead a very young team as UH sports 10 underclassmen on a 14-person roster. Farmer is 98 kills shy of ranking among the program's all-time top 10 kills leader and is 320 kills shy of ranking 25th on Conference USA's all-time list. Over the last two seasons, Farmer has been the only player in C-USA to be ranked in the league's Top 10 in kills and digs per game. The El Paso native is also just 125 digs away from the illustrious 1,000 kill-1,000 dig club. In 26 years, Walton has won 626 games ranking him 11th on the NCAA all-time wins list.
Tulsa is coming off its best volleyball season in program history as the Golden Hurricane experienced league-best records of 27-7 overall and 13-3 in league action. Then first-year head coach Ed Allen became the third TU coach to guide a program to a championship title in his/her inaugural season. Tulsa's 27 wins were the most since the NCAA started holding a championship for volleyball in 1982 and the 13 conference victories were a school record. Returning for Tulsa is one of the best setters in the conference, region and nation in Julia Silva.
Silva, the 2006 C-USA Setter of the Year, became the first TU player to earn consecutive AVCA All-America honorable mention honors in 2005 and 2006. The senior also earned first team All-C-USA honors en route to breaking her own school record for assists in a single season (1,414). Silva's career total of 2,753 assists rank second in program history and is 1,615 shy of ranking on C-USA's all-time top 10 chart.
Rounding out the 2006 Preseason All-C-USA team are SMU's Rachel Giubilato and East Carolina's Kelley Wernert.
Giubilato is a 5-11 senior outside hitter that concluded the 2006 campaign ranked 26th in the NCAA in kills per game with an average of 4.66. She's the top returning Mustang and garnered Midwest Region honorable mention accolades and a spot on the All-C-USA first team a year ago.
Wernert, a 6-0 outside hitter, was also named to last year's All-C-USA first team after leading the Pirates and ranking sixth in the conference with 4.39 kills per game. The senior will be expected to guide the five starters and eight letterwinners that return from the 2006 ECU squad that finished 19-12 overall and a program-best 10-6 in conference play.
