Team looks for 'sweet revenge'

First game: Aug. 30. \nFirst official team practice: Aug. 9. \nFrom the look of things, the season is still a little way off for the women's volleyball team. But, numbers can be deceiving.\nHere's a few that aren't. Six women from last season's team stayed in Bloomington this summer to work in the weight room and condition. The rest of the team -- five of the younger players -- came back to IU on July 13 to lift some iron plates and warm their calves with mid-summer wind sprints. This is all because the team had made a commitment last spring to putting a lackluster 2001-2002 season behind them.\n"I'm looking forward to bouncing back from last season," the team's sole senior, Hillary Toivonen, said. "We lost a lot, and it was very hard on the team. We're working hard to erase that."\nToivonen said the summer stay-over was a first for the team, as previous teams had always opted to do off-season conditioning on an individual basis.\nThe work has produced what many players said they consider a stronger, tighter IU club that is much better physically and mentally prepared to handle the rigors of a Big Ten schedule -- which includes facing such ranked teams as Wisconsin, Ohio State and Penn State.\nBut team leaders, including sophomore Katie Pollom, said they are confident that IU will be able to slug it out with top competition this year.\n"We should have some very strong ball control this year with Hillary playing the libero position," Pollom said.\nShe said this year's team will not only be stronger but better at ball control because of its maturity and the addition of the libero position to collegiate volleyball. This position, which was borrowed from club volleyball, is for a ball-control specialist and allows one player to replace any player in the back row without it counting as a substitution.\nIn short, where IU is best -- ball control -- they should be better with one of the team's best passers and defensive personnel, Toivonen, filling the new position.\nPollom said the team has also been working on swing blocking -- something they introduced in spring workouts -- to put the pressure on opponents to second guess ball placement. In essence, this would bring those players closest to the net near the middle, opening up at the last minute as they move outward and giving IU's defense less gaps to fill and opponents less room to operate.\n"The defense works around the swing block," Pollom said. Like line- or cross-blocking (in which players move further out or stay in closer), the movement helps to channel shots to different spots and gives the defense a better sense of where the ball will be returned.\nBut concepts only go so far. The rest rides on intangibles such as team chemistry and maturity -- two things IU considers its strong suits in 2002.\n"I think we have a lot of experience and very good team chemistry," Toivonen said. She said IU is not only stronger but smarter, with "smarter hitters" who are very proficient in ball placement.\nLooking to be an emotional leader is junior Melissa Brewer, who was on on the Freshman All-Big Ten team. Members of the team said Brewer is known for being vocal, and they said she is the firestarter, constantly getting others around her excited on the court.\nOther players expected to contribute significantly this season include junior Monique Pritz, sophomore Christina Archibald and junior Nicole Hill. Incoming freshmen Ashley White and Mandy Eberle are also expected to see the light of day bouncing from waxed floorboards between painted lines.\nOverall, coaches said they are wary about making any preseason assessments, as official practice is still a few weeks away. But assistant coach and '99 graduate Cyndrice Carter said she was very optimistic about this year's prospects. \nAlthough no goals will be set in stone until August, Carter said IU will probably be aiming at a top four spot in the Big Ten.\n"It's always a sweet revenge to come off a not-so-good season," Carter said of surprising other teams.