Volleyball preseason work begins
8/12/2013 10:15:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Preseason camp for head coach Brenda Gray's 2013 Sam Houston volleyball team opened Monday.
With last year's Southland “Player of the Year” and an all-league setter both returning, the Sam Houston volleyball team will be out to defend its conference championship this fall.
“This is my favorite time of the year,” Gray said. “Everyone is excited to get started.”
The Bearkats earned the Southland Conference championship with a 15-3 league record in 2012, hoisting the volleyball regular season trophy for the first time since 1994.
The season marked a banner year climaxed by having Deveney Wells-Gibson named as “Player of the Year,” Brenda Gray receiving league “Coach of the Year” honors and four Bearkats voted as All-Conference performers.
Wells-Gibson was the top scorer for a Bearkat team that rolled to a 21-11 overall season mark and posted its highest Southland victory total ever.
Two senior starters return along with Wells-Gibson for the coming campaign.
Tayler Gray, an All-Southland setter, assisted on 1,162 of Sam Houston's 1,413 kills last year and led the squad with 383 digs. Outside hitter.
Middle blocker Haley Neisler has totaled 562 kills in 84 matches including 76 starts for the Bearkats.
“We're young again this year,” Gray said. “But every team is different. We had a team with great chemistry last season. We'll see what develops this year.”
Last year's Sam Houston team rolled up 13 consecutive victories during the march to the conference title. The 13-match winning streak is the longest since Sam Houston moved up to the Division I level in 1986.
Brenda Gray, one of only 29 active head coaches in NCAA Division I women's volleyball to post more than 500 career victories, to a season of 20 or more victories for the 12th time in her coaching career.
In her 29th year of coaching this year's honor marked her third “Coach of the Year” award in the Southland Conference.
Other returning players from the championship squad include Bridgette Bennett, Lauren Bohlen, Cherise Coleman, Michelle Griffith, Sarah Guzman and Carling Urben.
The Bearkats also look to reload with freshmen Claire Kilpatrick, Sarah Sherman, Brenna Homer, Shelby Genung and Avery Zamzow and transfers Krista Koopmann and Morgan O'Brien.
Sam Houston's first home volleyball opponent will be Texas State. The Bobcats visited Tuesday Sept. 3 for a 7 p.m. start.
Tickets for Sam Houston volleyball matches are on sell now online at www.gobearkats.com or at the SHSU ticket office located in the Ron Mafrige Field House in the south end zone of Bowers Stadium.
