Young and talented, Scots will be title challenger this fall

Release Date: September 5, 2005

MONMOUTH, Ill. — For the second straight year, Monmouth College volleyball coach Kari Shimmin has assembled an outstanding recruiting class. The Fighting Scots figure to be very successful in 2005 – one league coach picked them as the Midwest Conference favorite this fall – and their best volleyball could still be a year or two down the road.

The Scots certainly played some great volleyball last season, reeling off 12 straight victories during the month of October and eventually placing third at the MWC Championships. In all, the Scots were 22-12, marking the third time in the last four years that Shimmin has led Monmouth to a 20-win season. She’s nearly a perfect 7-for-7, as she’s guided the Scots to no fewer than 19 wins in each of her seasons while compiling a record of 149-91 (.621).

While the Scots’ talent is definitely bunched in the sophomore and freshman groups, there is one big-time player among the upperclassmen. Do-it-all senior Karissa Murray posted 363 kills, 431 digs and 61 aces last year while earning All-MWC honors.

“There have been a few players in our program who have gotten better every year and peaked their senior year, and Karissa is going to be one of them,” said Shimmin. “I’m amazed at how much ball control she has now after playing sand volleyball all summer.”

Murray certainly looked strong Thursday as she helped lead the Scots to a straight-set, season-opening victory over MacMurray College. Her jump serve produced three aces, and she added 10 kills and a team-high eight digs.

She will hope to repeat that type of all-around effort Saturday as the Scots host the Monmouth College Invitational. Monmouth has matches at 9 a.m. against Coe College and at 1 p.m. against Principia College. The Scots hope to be in the championship game at 5 p.m. against one of the following teams: Lincoln Christian College, Hannibal-LaGrange College or Cornell College.

There are four juniors on Shimmin’s roster, but only one – Kari Jefferson – is on the varsity at this point. The other three are Heather Giacobazzi, Yvonne Sample and Melissa Haverback.

Both the present and the future of Monmouth’s program lies in its underclassmen. If Shimmin had only recruited at one high school the past two years, she would have added enough talent to at least be competitive with the group of sophomores Kendra James, Colleen Wilkin and Jessica Phillips and freshman Amanda Boonstra, all from Fulton High School.

James (284 kills, 122 blocks), who was an All-MWC performer for the Scots last season, led Monmouth on Thursday with 13 kills. Wilkin, who saw plenty of action as Monmouth’s second setter a year ago, delivering 562 assists, totaled 29 in the win over MacMurray.

But Shimmin got around to more than just Fulton, and other newcomers who are expected to contribute at the varsity level include Rachel Leffelman (Dixon), Jessica Serritella (St. Charles North) and Crystal Myers (Byron). The latter two players took turns as the Scots’ libero on Thursday, combining for eight digs.

Two other impact freshmen – area stars Anna Damos (United) and Emily Colclasure (Roseville) – will be part of the rotation when they return from injuries. Rounding out the freshmen additions are Ashley Parer (Rock Island), Felicia Roberts (West Prairie), Samantha Robinson (Rockridge), Amanda Meitzler (Proviso West) and Tanesha Hughes (Woodruff).

Rounding out Shimmin’s top players are sophomores Ashley Lawrence, Jessica Travis (308 kills, 378 digs), Ashley Yeast (137 kills) and Jessi Ott (156 kills).

Besides a great freshman class, what else is new about Monmouth volleyball? As it seems to every year, college volleyball has made some substantial changes. In the recent past, rally scoring and the libero position have been added, and this year’s changes include two significant moves by the Midwest Conference and even a change to the volleyball itself.

The latter move to a multi-colored ball is a win-win situation, according to Shimmin. Besides adding some more color to the sport, Shimmin believes it will be easier for players to read the spin on the ball, and it will also be easier for officials to discern if a ball has been tipped at the net.

Monmouth is the school most affected by one of the MWC changes, as the conference’s annual crossover tournament, where teams from the North Division meet teams from the South, will now be split between two weekends. Beloit formerly hosted all 25 matches, but now Monmouth will be the site of 10 of the matches on Oct. 8. Beloit will host the first 15 matches on Sept. 24-25.

In another change, the site of this year’s MWC Championships is yet to be determined. In the past, the site has rotated among the conference members regardless of record but, starting this year, only the top six teams in the league will advance to the tournament, which will be hosted by the regular season champion. Two points will be awarded for intradivision victories and one point for each of the interdivision wins at the two crossover events.

The tournament will also be a true single-elimination event, making it even more attractive for teams to finish as either the regular season champion or the second seed.

“Our goal is to do better than our third-place finish last year,” said Shimmin, whose main competition should come from top-ranked St. Norbert, the defending champion, as well as No. 2-ranked Lake Forest.

In order to better prepare her team for the season-ending challenge, Shimmin is having the Scots play an ambitious tournament schedule that includes events at Illinois Wesleyan University and UW-Platteville. The Scots are guaranteed a match against Washington (Mo.) University, the nation’s top-ranked team, at the IWU event, while UW-Platteville is ranked 16th in the nation.

“We’re also traveling to Texas to play a couple matches,” said Shimmin. “We try to fly someplace every other year. It’s a good team-building experience.”

It’s definitely safe to say that the young and talented Fighting Scots are going places. One destination that could await them – maybe this year, maybe soon after – is a trip to the NCAA tournament.

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