FAIRBANKS, AK - The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team comes into the 2009 season looking to improve on their 2008 mark of 15-11 and 9-7 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference: good for fourth place. Head coach
Phil Shoemaker enters for his 10th season and returns 10 players from last year's squad, which includes two all-conference performers.
Leading the way for the returnees are GNAC all-conference honorable mention selections outside hitter
Megan Thigpen (Spokane, WA) and setter
Alexa Sherman (Calabasas, CA). Thigpen finished second on the team in kills per game (2.66), led the team in digs per game (3.31), ranked 13th in the GNAC for kills per game, and 10th in digs per game. Sherman, who quarterbacked the Nanooks offense en route to 978 assists a year ago, also made contributions defensively with the second most digs on the team (211). Sherman's 10.40 assists per game were third best in the league.
The three remaining seniors in Shoemaker's largest and deepest senior class include
Heather Lyons (5-10, OH, Anchorage, AK - Alaska Anchorage),
Jessica Hill (6-0, RS, Colorado Springs, CO - Doherty) and
Hannah Armstrong (5-7, DS/L, Eagle River - Chugiak). Lyons notched 120 kills in 2008, while Hill averaged 2.54 kills per game, 51 blocks and 46 assists. Armstrong chipped in 147 digs and recorded 13 service aces.
Shoemaker knows the five-member senior class gives his team an added advantage. "Having five seniors is a huge bonus: their experience, leadership, physical and technical talents will be major factors in our success. They are all well prepared and will impact our success significantly."
Rounding out the returners are outside hitters
Melissa Refuerzo (5-8, Jr., Anchorage, AK - Bartlett) and
Simone Chavous (5-9, So., Aurora, CO - Beshop Machebeauf Catholic), middle blockers
Marybeth Wikander (5-10, So., Aloha, OR - Valley Catholic) and
Erica Gage (6-1, Jr., Palo Alto, CA - Palo Alto), and libero
Jennifer Holland (5-3, So., Sterling, AK - Skyview).
Refuerzo recorded 81 kills and 124 digs in 64 sets, while Chavous earned 60 kills and 41 digs as a rookie in 44 sets. Like Chavous, Wikander gained valuable experience in her first season of play with 61 kills and 46 blocks in 70 sets and Gage connected for 28 kills and 23 blocks. In the backcourt, Holland led the liberos with 149 digs.
Adding an infusion of talent to the 2009 squad are a trio of freshmen. Libero
Allison Oddy (5-6, Chilliwack, BC - Highroad Academy), setter
Mandy Grierson (6-0, Abborsford, BC - Yale Secondary) and middle blocker
Sydney Van Munster (6-1, Portland, MI - Portland) will add depth and push the 10 returners for playing time this season.
Alaska also welcomes transfer
Jordyn Montgomery (5-3, L/DS, Fr., Topeka, KS - Rockhurst University) and Lathrop High School grad,
Julie Gilhuly (OH, 5-8, Fairbanks, AK), who will redshirt her first season with the Blue and Gold.
Coach Shoemaker feels that the incoming freshmen "are all well prepared for the collegiate level and will see action, it is not at all unlikely that one or more will crack the line-up by mid-season."
Oddy had a successful career at Highroad Academy in British Columbia, where her career statistics placed her first in digs (1120), second in points (1185), and third in kills (979) and aces (146) in the all-time volleyball record books. Oddy also earned MVP honors as a member of the undefeated provincial championship. Grierson comes to the Nanooks after claiming back-to-back-to-back MVP honors (2005-2007) at Yale Secondary, and was named a First Team All-Star at the Abbotsford City Tournament in 2006 and 2007 and at the Columbia Bible College Tournament in 2007. Van Munster finished her prep career on a high note, including a .315 season clip offensively and an average of 3.47 kills per game her senior year while also setting the PHS school record with 1,152 career kills.
Expectations are high in Fairbanks coming off a successful '08 campaign. "We are going to be very good," said Shoemaker, "I will not predict results because there's a lot we don't know yet, but I do know that we are going to be very strong and exciting. I believe this team has the ability to go places few can go: to the top."
Alaska will open up the season when they travel to California to battle Cal Poly Pomona and are set to return home to Fairbanks on September 4 for the Auto Service Company Nanook Classic, when they will battle Rockhurst, Urbana and Hawaii-Hilo. GNAC play opens on September 17, when Montana State Billings visits the Patty Center.
