More on Volleyball in Argus 9/2/04

[JBNJBQ]

(Story also talks about Auggie, USD and USF teams)


College volleyball teams aim high in 2004
Matt Zimmer
For the Argus Leader



SDSU

The first season of Division I volleyball should be intriguing.

The Jacks open the season at the Seasider Invitational in Laie, Hawaii, Sept. 3-4. From there, the Jacks, which will compete as an independent with no conference affiliation, head to the New Mexico State Invitational, where they will face Texas-El Paso.

The Jacks are coming off their worst season under Andrew Palileo, a 13-19 campaign that placed them eighth in their NCC finale. But Palileo, who still has an impressive 69-32 mark in three years at State, will have a few key players to lean on for the move to the big time.

Senior Sarah Biggerstaff, who is poised to become the school's all-time leader in block-assists this year, will move from the middle to the right side, while All-NCC middle-hitter Kim Bostrom, also a senior, brings her 3.57 kills per game back for another year.

The Jacks will also welcome Sara Hinrichs, a libero transfer from the University of Wyoming, who will have four years of eligibility.

While they've left the NCC, the Jacks will still face several familiar regional opponents, such as Minnesota-Duluth, Northern Colorado, North Dakota State, Northern State and Dakota Wesleyan.

They'll finish their season with the LaQuinta Independent Championships in Orem, Utah in November.

[Mike_H]

Re: More on Volleyball in Argus 9/2/04

OK boys, help me out. I had a caller today that asked why SDSU, now a D1 program, is going all the way out to Hawaii to play in a D2 tourney. I did not have a good answer for him. Anyone?

[Coyote_Jack]

Re: More on Volleyball in Argus 9/2/04

Scheduling is a difficult process normally, not to mention being a probationary member and having to change things the last minute. Typically schedules are set 2-5 years in advance and any late adjustments are a reaction to something else (like tv contracts or turning D1)

The easy answer/guess was that is was previously scheduled and an alternative could't be found. Or there was a hole in the schedule and they thought going to Hawaii would be a good idea.

My sources for baseball and softball tell me this: For rpi purposes probationary members do not count toward the rpi ranking , thus D1 opponents are not that excited about playing probationary members because they gain nothing. D2 teams get more points for a D2 opponent than a D1 opponent (not like the old days) thus no advantage from an rpi standpoint to play up.

The coaches need to play the full allotment of contests otherwise they would be cheating the student athletes etc. Baseball plays 56 games half (28) need to be D1, half of the other half have to be D1 (14) So if you play a 56 game schedule 42 need to be D1. NDSU is probationary as well so those contests did not count towards the 42. Thus baseball recently changed their schedule adding Nebraska (3) KU (3) K-State (2) No. Iowa (2) MN (2) plus others. The other difficulty is people will play but you have to typically go there because you have to get the games and the people you are scheduling against have a conference schedule and prior relationships.

Side note: many have mentioned that the schedules in many of the sports are "killer" I would disagree, they are more difficult than before ,with a few marquee games, but wholistically not overwhelming. If you want to see an eye-popper check out the updated baseball schedule.

To summate the question they probably had a hole and filled it or it was already done and couldn't find any alternative. Although I would think it would have been more economical to start your own tournament and give guarantees for half of what it would have cost to go there.

[Coyote_Jack]

Re: More on Volleyball in Argus 9/2/04

Whoops, eight games against Nebraska and KU and I neglected Notre Dame. Sorry for getting off track

[jackmd]

Re: More on Volleyball in Argus 9/2/04

OK boys, help me out. I had a caller today that asked why SDSU, now a D1 program, is going all the way out to Hawaii to play in a D2 tourney. I did not have a good answer for him. Anyone?

Would you turn down a trip to Hawaii?  I think Joe Jackrabbit did a fair job of explaining things.  Not that it will help the guy calling your show, I doubt he visits this site.

Maybe a call to the coach or those in charge of scheduling would be the best way to answer this question?  Calling KWSN probably isn't going to get you too far.  It requires a certain level of intelligence to ask the right people the right questions.  Seems like this listener hasn't achieved this level, however, it appears that Mike has.

[SDSUFAN]

Re: More on Volleyball in Argus 9/2/04

OK boys, help me out. I had a caller today that asked why SDSU, now a D1 program, is going all the way out to Hawaii to play in a D2 tourney. I did not have a good answer for him. Anyone?

Mike:
I was listening to your show when this caller who identified himself as Steve raised this question and gave an emphasis comment to the affect that he WAS a SDSU supporter.

I think what Steve the caller did not understand is that in all sports, scheduling does not fall in place with in a year.  I believe that is one reason that they have the provisional 5 year period, namely for getting an adequate schedule and for meeting your increased financial budgets that result in going form D2 to D1.

Joe Jackrabbit has given you good reasons from the NCAA Current D1 members prospective and how they view a provisional member such as SDSU. I dont disagree with any thing he said.

That said, you gave some credence when you told Steve that this would be about the only chance that the student athletes  may have to see Hawaii.  If Steve's daughter were on the team, he would have called and said this trip was the greatest thing since sliced bread.  

It has been my impression that all these trips to Hawaii generally pay a guarentee to the traveling team that would cover all the expenses and maybe a little extra.  I believe this would have been true when our basketball teams played in Hawaii too a few years back.  You could check with all the AD's that you talk with and ask, what the financial terms are for trips to Hawaii. I would be willing to bet that they all bid on these trips every year, but are often turned down.  

As covered in your Tuesday Interview with Coach Palelio, you talked about the coach being from Hawaii.
If I were from Hawaii I would want to bring my fine team home too, so my relatives can see the team that I proudly coach.  That sounds kind of self serving, but I think it may be a factor.  Also its a benefit to the team to learn about the culture that the coach grew up in too.

As far as only D2 teams participating, this trip could have been in the works prior to the offical announcement of going D1.  It takes time to line them up. Maybe you could ask Coach Palileo the next time you interview him about how this trip fell into place. I willing to bet it did not happen yesterday, and that he probably was bidding on these trips ever since he was hired as coach at SDSU.

Also there is only one D1 school in Hawaii I believe, and if that institution had an invitational tournament, it was very likely filled long ago. I am sure what the U of Hawaii pays for a guarentee is much more than the one paid by BYU-Hawaii, the D2 school.

I wonder if Steve has given any dollars to the Jackrabbit Club.  The ones that seem to be very vocal and oppose and fault the D1 move, are those who never gave a red cent to begin with. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D (Could not resist adding that comment.)

[JBNJBQ]

Re: More on Volleyball in Argus 9/2/04

It certainly helps recruiting!

What high school kid wouldn't get excited about Hawaii, Florida, California, Texas, New York or the Virgin Islands?

A tournament scheduled in a warm climate at least every four years will draw some recruits.

[rabbit_tracks]

Re: More on Volleyball in Argus 9/2/04

Sarah Biggerstaff, a senior on this year's volleyball team, touch on this at the Backers Lunch on Wednesday. (More people should be there, BTW) She said that the Hawaii trip was included as part of her recruitment 4 years ago. I has been inplace for a while ant there is no reason to drop it just because we move up to DI. It is just another piece of the experience athletes at SDSU will have now and in the future.

[JBNJBQ]

Re: More on Volleyball in Argus 9/2/04

Sarah Biggerstaff, a senior on this year's volleyball team, touch on this at the Backers Lunch on Wednesday.  (More people should be there, BTW)  She said that the Hawaii trip was included as part of her recruitment 4 years ago.  I has been inplace for a while ant there is no reason to drop it just because we move up to DI.  It is just another piece of the experience athletes at SDSU will have now and in the future.  

[glb]YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT![/glb]

[89rabbit]

Re: More on Volleyball in Argus 9/2/04

I think we went to WIN!    From the Argus:

http://www.argusleader.com/sports/Sa...article5.shtml



SDSU wins volleyball opener

Sophomore Minette Ridenour had career highs with 26 kills and 22 digs to rally South Dakota State to a 28-30, 30-22, 20-30, 30-18, 17-15 victory over St. Martin's (Wash.) to open its volleyball season Friday in the Seasider Classic in Laie, Hawaii.

Kim Bostrom had 18 kills, Kristina Martin 12 and Carley Boll 11 for SDSU. Martin hit .429. Kristie Klusaw had 48 set assists. Sarah Simet had 20 digs.  .  .  .

Go State!  ;D