Volleyball heads north
Madison hits the road to take on CAA rivals
By John Galle, sports editor
Posted on September 28, 2006

Following a 5-0 home stand, the JMU women’s volleyball team will go back to a place they haven’t been since Sept. 9 — the road.

“We’ve done a great job at home,” JMU coach Disa Garner said. “But to have a chance to really push for a conference championship, you have to have wins on the road.”

The Dukes have risen to third place in the Colonial Athletic Association, having won four straight conference matchups. However, they not face an unbeaten first-place Hofstra team tomorrow, and then play an overachieving fourth-place Northeastern team after an off-day.

“In the last few years we’ve played well up at Hofstra,” Garner said. “We just need to beat this team, we need to pick them off because nobody’s been able to do it yet. And Northeastern is a feisty team. No one expected them to be doing as well as they are doing right now, and they’ve picked some teams off that I think were surprises to a lot [of people].”

The Dukes and the Pride are both 9-5 overall, but JMU suffered two CAA losses on the road, while Hofstra remains undefeated (5-0) in conference. Northeastern (6-7, 3-2 CAA) is right below JMU in the standings and poses a legitimate threat in the conference.

Weapons for the Dukes start up front with the CAA Co-Player of the Week JMU junior middle blocker Allyson Halls. The 6-foot-4 Colombus, Ohio, native is averaging 4.46 kills, 5.23 points and 1.31 blocks per game in the last three matches. She is ranked fourth in the CAA in hitting percentage (.343) and sixth in points (4.49 per game). The other part of the Co-CAA Player of the Week was Hofstra’s setter Shellane Ogoshi. Ogoshi was the 2005 CAA Player of the Year.

Garner said the team’s 1-4 road record does not reflect how well they have played out of town — particularly in playing opponents like Rutgers and Wake Forest early in the season. Senior right side Bayli Stillwell agreed.

“The first weekend in conference, we lost two on the road,” she said. “And those were two games that could’ve gone the other way had we had a little more confidence that weekend. [Now], we’re ready to go out and prove that we can win on the road as well as at home.”

Three of Garner’s concerns going into this season were defensive play, blocking and depth. Since then, junior libero Jenna Pierson has racked up 330 digs on the year — good for first in the CAA by 90 digs. Also, JMU has been blocking better overall, led by Halls with a CAA eighth-best 1.14 blocks per game and a total of 58 on the season. JMU also has the No. 2 assist leader in sophomore setter Lauren Miles, who averages 12.5 per game. Although Garner said consistency in these areas is still not as good as it can be, the Dukes have found a way to win.

The team did just that on Sunday hosting VCU, even without one of their senior leaders. Stillwell said she went down with an ankle injury in her first offensive attack of the game. Garner said Stillwell is expected to play this weekend and that the injury was not anything major.

“We definitely lost one of our [best] players,” freshman outside hitter Nicole Fenner said. “But we weren’t like ‘Oh my gosh, what are we going to do?’ In fact, I think it actually made a couple of us [more fired up]. If one of our girls go down, we’re going to support her.”

This weekend gives JMU the opportunity to move up in the conference rankings with the test against Hofstra, and defend their third place standing against Northeastern.

“These are probably, right now, the biggest games we’ve played in conference yet,” Stillwell said. “We haven’t been on the road for a while, and neither of these two games will be a cakewalk.”