As head coach of one of only five teams to make the Big East Tournament four consecutive years, Holly Strauss-O’Brien has established the Huskies as one of the most competitive squads in the nation’s largest Division I volleyball conference.
With only eight of the conference’s 15 teams qualifying for the Big East Tournament, Strauss-O’Brien says the Huskies hope to improve beyond last year’s 14-17 record and go beyond the conference’s 2010 pre-season coaches’ poll that ranked UConn at No. 9, just below the tournament cut line.
“Our sophomores have a lot of playing experience under their belts from last year,” she says. “Our freshmen are no doubt hungry to play. They’re excited and share in the vision of that Big East title and trying to get the program to a place it’s never been before, which is the NCAA tournament.”
With senior Lauren Lamberti out for the season with a back injury, the Huskies will rely on the leadership of senior Rebecca Murray, an All-Big East second team selection in 2009, and a talented group of younger players led by defensive specialist Kelsey Maving, who averaged just shy of three digs per set despite being slowed by a knee injury, and hitter Mattison Quayle, who averaged 2.23 kills per set before enduring a spring-season torn meniscus, which will delay the start of her 2010 season.
“The people who have been faced with adversity are coming back tougher and stronger,” Strauss-O’Brien says. “Matti is coming back by mid-season and is really excited to come back. That attitude becomes contagious to the rest of the team. We’re relying a lot on Rebecca and our juniors to share with the freshmen how every play, every day, and every game matters.”
Strauss-O’Brien hopes that her team stays healthy while waiting for Quayle to return, and that the Huskies can maintain greater consistency in their play throughout the four months of the volleyball season.
The season includes four early tournaments, including the UConn Toyota Classic on Sept. 3-4 in Storrs, in which the Huskies play three matches in two days.
Murray will guide the middle blockers for the front line, with sophomore Cayla Broadwater and junior Allison Nickel bringing solid experience. The trio will also help freshmen Colby Billhardt, Morgan Freeman and Jackie Wattles through their first Division I season.
While awaiting Quayle’s return to the court, Murray will be joined on the outside by junior Jordan Kirk, who is a reliable offensive threat after 239 sets on the court, and rookie Julia Hamer, one of the Top 20 Canadian Prospects who was the 2009 Halton Female All-Star of the Year.
Transfer Angela Roidt will be commanding their offense as a setter, and Keeley Abram, a sophomore is sidelined with an ankle injury.
Strauss-O’Brien says the grueling Big East schedule will again have lessons for her young team about how to be successful in the conference.
“We have to take every game one game at a time,” she says. “It’s hard not to look ahead, when you have Notre Dame around the corner; but you’ve got to respect Rutgers and DePaul. If our players learned anything last season, it was that you can’t take any opponent lightly. If we can take each opponent one by one we’re going to be OK.”
As for the goal of making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the program’s history, the hope is to put up enough wins during the season so that there is the possibility of an at-large bid if another team earns the automatic bid awarded to the Big East Tournament champion.
“At the Big East Championship Tournament, anything goes, because it’s the second time playing teams and it’s for an automatic bid to NCAAs,” she says. “Anything’s possible.”
For the women’s volleyball 2010 schedule, go to the Athletics website.
