Texas Tech University Athletics
Tech Volleyball 2004 Preview
September 14, 2004 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 14, 2004
The 2004 women's team will leave this year's fans with only one question on their minds as they open up play this season, "Who's That Girl?" This year the Red Raider fan should be prepared to learn the new faces, nine of them to be exact, of this year's Red Raider volleyball team.
The Texas Tech coaching staff, after a year of intense recruiting, will be bringing in seven freshmen and two junior college transfers this season.
Only the most significant number is not how many new faces there will be on the bench, but of how few famliar faces there will be. With only seven of the 16 player roster returning letterwinners from last year's team, that only leaves three returning starters. Yet while most coaches would cringe at these numbers, Tech's coaching staff looks at the glass as half full.
While head coach Nancy Tood knows that this year's team is filled with a large number of new faces, the coaching staff is prepared for the challenge of bringing together the new recruits and returning letterwinners and making them into a competitive force within the Big 12.
"We are just excited about this season," said Todd. "The coaching staff knows that bringing in so many new girls to the team creates a huge need for us to create a good team chemistry on and off the court. Fortunately the recruits have been here working our summer camps and working out with this year's returners, and are getting the chance to form those bonds before the season starts."
Coach Todd, while only entering her second year as head coach of the Red Raiders, has been with the Tech program since 1995, and enters her ninth-year overall. Todd is joined by assistant coach Doug Babington, who came to Tech a year ago after leaving his assistant coaching position at Rice University. Second assistant coach Mike Moffitt rounds out the last of the volleyball coaching staff. Moffitt enters his second season with the Red Raiders after serving as head director of volleyball at the All Saints Episcopal School in Lubbock, Texas. Moffitt, like Todd, is not stranger to the team as he worked as a student assistant under then head coach Jeff Nelson from the 1998 season, to his graduation from Tech in 2002.
The 2004 season is filled with excitement of the approaching atmosphere that is Big 12 volleyball, a atmosphere that this years freshmen class are prepared to face head on.
The freshmen roster begins with Amy Charlebois, who comes to Tech from Ontario, Canada. Chalerbois, a graduate of Waterdown District boasts a resume that includes particpating in the Tiger Volleyball club team that won the National championship in 2004. Laura Gottschalk, a native of Lamar, Colorado, joins Tech after a stellar senior year at Lamar high school where she lettered in volleybal,l basketball and track. Amanda Hiller of Denver City, Texas, comes to Tech after posting a great career at her high school where she was named 3-3A 2003 MVP, along with helping her team advance to the 2002-03 state semi-finals. Leaving Austin, Texas, Lindsey Louis joins the Red Raider roster after a competitive year at Austin Westlake where she was named the 25-5A Co-Most Valuable Player Of The Year. After graduating from Bandera High School, Danielle Nickle comes to Tech after finishing a great year that featured Nickle being named the Defensive Player of The Year 25-3A. Another Texas native, Colleen Tomlin, becomes a part of the Red Raiders after graduating from Boerne High school, located in Boerne, Texas, where she helped lead her team in 2002 to state runner-up title, and in 2003 advance to the state semifinals. Rounding out the last of the 2004 freshmen class is Emily Ziegler, a native of Dallas, Texas. A graduate of Highland Park, Ziegler helped lead her team to a district champioship every year she was a player.
Filling the junior transfer slots of this years recruiting class are Desiree Batista and Brianna Florus. Batista, a native of Cambionha Cabedelo, Brazil, embarks on her new career as a Red Raider after leaving Frank Philips Community College where she was named the WJCAC MVP for 2003. Florus, of Flatonia, Texas, comes to Tech from Blinn Community College where she participated in volleyball under head coach Dave Rehr.
The 2004 season will definitely be a different one compared to last year. Court leader, and one of three seniors on this year's squad, Kelly Johnson hopes this is one that will see the Red Raiders in the post season.
"I am just hoping for a great season as a team and personally," said Johnson. "But more importantly, I want to do well and make it to the post season. And who knows, this could be the year that we make our stand as the top team in the Big 12."
