Post by roofed! on Dec 14, 2004 15:40:10 GMT -5
www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~29553~2596140,00.html
Three-peat goal in sight for Trojans
By Frank Burlison
Staff writer
The USC volleyball team came into this season with aspirations of becoming the first program to win three NCAA women's national championships in a row.
And its players didn't care who knew it.
"There was a lot of talk about winning a third in a row (after last season)," Trojans coach Mick Haley said Monday morning, not quite three days before his team's next step toward No. 3, a 7:30‚p.m. NCAA championships semifinal match against with Minnesota in the Long Beach Arena on Thursday.
And most of it was generated by Haley's players.
"We decided that, as a team, it was something we were going to embrace," he explained while most of his players were busy on campus wrapping up semester finals.
"We looked upon it as an opportunity, not as a burden to carry on our shoulders."
With that in mind, T-shirts were made for the players of a program that had gone 66-1 over the previous two seasons and were taking an NCAA record of 47 consecutive victories in a row into 2004.
"We made them T-shirts with targets on the backs," he said, chuckling. "They were to remind them every day that people were going to play their best against us, and to use that to our advantage to make us even better."
The Trojans, with seven newcomers on their roster, opened the season with five wins, victories, three of which came over nationally ranked clubs, including Minnesota.
their Thursday night opponent in the Long Beach Arena.
The first speed bump on the ultimate path south to Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach came when the Trojans were stunned by then-No. 16 Illinois (3-2) in Champaign on Sept. 11.
Then there It wasn't their last, either.
There were home Pacific-10 Conference losses to Washington and Cal, and on the road to Stanford and Washington State.
Haley thinks each of those contributed to his team being one of the four teams still suiting up and practicing this week.
"This is kind of what we planned," he said.
"We felt that if we were going to win (the championship) again, we had to not so much focus on a 'perfect' performance in each conference match but in working on the things that were going to make us an (ultimately) better team."
Those four conference losses including a stunner at Washington State in the regular-season finale that left the Trojans in third place in the conference, and with a No. 8 seed when the tournament field was revealed on Nov. 28.
A near-three-hour, in duration, five-game victory of almost three hours' duration over No.‚1-ranked Nebraska on Saturday in Louisville means that Haley and his players are still being asked about "three-peating" and don't mind it in the least.
"It (losing some of those Pac-10 matches) didn't feel so good at the time," he said, not trying to disguise the enthusiasm for what will be a busy and possible historical week for his players and staff.
"But, at this point, it looks like it was a pretty good plan."
Bonus digs
* Haley, whose 1988 University of Texas team won the national title, thinks that Stanford outsider hitter Ogonna Nnamani, a four-time All-Pac-10 choice and member of the 2004 Olympic team, is a leading candidate to be the national player of the year when the choice is announced Friday as part of the American Volleyball Coaches Association convention that is also taking place in Long Beach as part of the NCAA championships week.
Nnamani and her teammates take on Washington in the first semifinal Thursday at 5:30.
Haley also thinks another senior, Stacy Gordon of Ohio State, is a strong candidate for the honor.
"She was really something last weekend (in the Buckeyes' five-game loss to Minnesota in Minneapolis, in which she had 44 kills)," Haley said of Gordon.
* Haley believes the Pac-10's overall strength actually worked against it when the NCAA announced the tournament field, which left conference champion Washington as the highest seed (No. 7) in the West.
"Our conference was kind of misunderstood, nationally," he said. "Because Stanford, Washington and USC lost some matches (in conference) the (national) perception was that we were kind of 'down."
"But all of the teams were improving, we were just beating up on each (other). It's sort of like the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) in basketball."
* The four teams' workouts in the Long Beach Arena on Wednesday are open to the public.
Washington goes from 10 to 11:30 a.m., followed by Stanford (11:35 to 1:05 p.m.), Minnesota (1:20 to 2:50) and USC (2:55 to 4:25).
The first 500 spectators in attendance Wednesday will receive Spalding mini volleyballs.
Three-peat goal in sight for Trojans
By Frank Burlison
Staff writer
The USC volleyball team came into this season with aspirations of becoming the first program to win three NCAA women's national championships in a row.
And its players didn't care who knew it.
"There was a lot of talk about winning a third in a row (after last season)," Trojans coach Mick Haley said Monday morning, not quite three days before his team's next step toward No. 3, a 7:30‚p.m. NCAA championships semifinal match against with Minnesota in the Long Beach Arena on Thursday.
And most of it was generated by Haley's players.
"We decided that, as a team, it was something we were going to embrace," he explained while most of his players were busy on campus wrapping up semester finals.
"We looked upon it as an opportunity, not as a burden to carry on our shoulders."
With that in mind, T-shirts were made for the players of a program that had gone 66-1 over the previous two seasons and were taking an NCAA record of 47 consecutive victories in a row into 2004.
"We made them T-shirts with targets on the backs," he said, chuckling. "They were to remind them every day that people were going to play their best against us, and to use that to our advantage to make us even better."
The Trojans, with seven newcomers on their roster, opened the season with five wins, victories, three of which came over nationally ranked clubs, including Minnesota.
their Thursday night opponent in the Long Beach Arena.
The first speed bump on the ultimate path south to Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach came when the Trojans were stunned by then-No. 16 Illinois (3-2) in Champaign on Sept. 11.
Then there It wasn't their last, either.
There were home Pacific-10 Conference losses to Washington and Cal, and on the road to Stanford and Washington State.
Haley thinks each of those contributed to his team being one of the four teams still suiting up and practicing this week.
"This is kind of what we planned," he said.
"We felt that if we were going to win (the championship) again, we had to not so much focus on a 'perfect' performance in each conference match but in working on the things that were going to make us an (ultimately) better team."
Those four conference losses including a stunner at Washington State in the regular-season finale that left the Trojans in third place in the conference, and with a No. 8 seed when the tournament field was revealed on Nov. 28.
A near-three-hour, in duration, five-game victory of almost three hours' duration over No.‚1-ranked Nebraska on Saturday in Louisville means that Haley and his players are still being asked about "three-peating" and don't mind it in the least.
"It (losing some of those Pac-10 matches) didn't feel so good at the time," he said, not trying to disguise the enthusiasm for what will be a busy and possible historical week for his players and staff.
"But, at this point, it looks like it was a pretty good plan."
Bonus digs
* Haley, whose 1988 University of Texas team won the national title, thinks that Stanford outsider hitter Ogonna Nnamani, a four-time All-Pac-10 choice and member of the 2004 Olympic team, is a leading candidate to be the national player of the year when the choice is announced Friday as part of the American Volleyball Coaches Association convention that is also taking place in Long Beach as part of the NCAA championships week.
Nnamani and her teammates take on Washington in the first semifinal Thursday at 5:30.
Haley also thinks another senior, Stacy Gordon of Ohio State, is a strong candidate for the honor.
"She was really something last weekend (in the Buckeyes' five-game loss to Minnesota in Minneapolis, in which she had 44 kills)," Haley said of Gordon.
* Haley believes the Pac-10's overall strength actually worked against it when the NCAA announced the tournament field, which left conference champion Washington as the highest seed (No. 7) in the West.
"Our conference was kind of misunderstood, nationally," he said. "Because Stanford, Washington and USC lost some matches (in conference) the (national) perception was that we were kind of 'down."
"But all of the teams were improving, we were just beating up on each (other). It's sort of like the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) in basketball."
* The four teams' workouts in the Long Beach Arena on Wednesday are open to the public.
Washington goes from 10 to 11:30 a.m., followed by Stanford (11:35 to 1:05 p.m.), Minnesota (1:20 to 2:50) and USC (2:55 to 4:25).
The first 500 spectators in attendance Wednesday will receive Spalding mini volleyballs.
