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August 16, 2007
Hello Again Cal Volleyball Fans, It's time for another season to begin and this year the Bears will be better than ever. We began preseason training last Wednesday (Aug. 8) and the team is fit and ready to compete and build on last year's successes. Most of our returning team spent the second half of the summer working camps, going to summer school, lifting and conditioning. They had "open gym" just about everyday and I'm sure they took advantage of the time playing volleyball without coaches around. Our three seniors, Angie Pressey, Ellen Orchard and Am'ra Solomon (she's a senior academically, a junior eligibility) all are in great shape. Angie spent part of her early summer months competing in the USAV National Championships for our USA National B Team. Matt (McShane) was one of her coaches and they finished second with Angie receiving All-American honors. She is jumping higher and hitting harder than ever. Ellen stayed in Berkeley all summer going to school and working out. I think she is in the best shape of her life. Am'ra also came back to school in July, worked out with the team and is in great shape starting practice. The junior class is three strong also, Morgan Beck, Bryte Nielson and Kat Reilly (a sophomore by eligibility). Morgan is very fit and is pounding the ball in practice. Her passing game is right on and after her great year last season is looking to improve even more this year. Bryte is starting the pre-season with an injury sustained late in the summer but should be 100% and joining our practices soon. She had a great spring setting every game for our team in three tournaments and one scrimmage. Kat is strong and healthy after her medical redshirt year last season. She is jumping better than she ever has since coming to Cal. Our sophomores are very strong this year. Hana Cutura played most of the summer with the Croatian Junior team competing in the Junior World Championships in Thailand. Kristen Kathan spent most of the summer here at Cal working out and working our camps. She looks great and is ready to compete to fill Jill's Libero role. Mindy Wiley and Cat Dailey, both very healthy and fit look great in the early practices and are hungry to break into the starting line up on September 24. We have four newcomers this year. True freshman Carli Lloyd is very impressive in practice and shows why she is considered one of the top freshman setters in the country. Caitlyn Murphy and Meagan Schmitt are both working as hard as anyone on the team and showing that they can play defense and pass with the best college players. They are fit and enthusiastic. We have a fourth addition this year, Maria Zizka, a sophomore here at Cal joined us on day one of our pre-season to give us a needed depth in the setter position. Maria has been a great addition to our team and is playing in practice like she's been with us all along. We welcome Maria to our 2007 team. Next Saturday, Aug. 18 we will have a "Scrimmage/Practice" open to the public. This will be a free event in Haas at 3 p.m. I invite all of you within driving distance to get an early glimpse of the 2007 Bears. We open our season at home hosting the Molten Classic and first serve will be against University of Idaho at 7 p.m. Aug. 24. We have a great home schedule this year and some really good road trips. Please look at the website for updates and news. There will also be a new video feature showing highlights and clips of matches in addition to the web-streaming of every home match, for free. Please pass this email along to friends of Cal volleyball that do not receive my postings. Send me your email corrections or if you would like to receive "snail mail" updates, send me your address. Thanks for being a Cal volleyball fan.
Until next time,
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