Indiana University Athletics
Volleyball Opens 2014 Season at UConn Classic
8/28/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana volleyball team opens the 40th season of IU volleyball by traveling to Connecticut for the UConn Classic.
The Hoosiers will open tournament play against Central Connecticut State on Friday at 5:00 p.m. ET. The following day Indiana will battle New Hampshire (10:00 a.m. ET) and Connecticut (7:30 p.m. ET).
The Hoosiers opened preseason on Aug. 9 and head coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan said she has been pleased with the effort from the team.
“It is a different feeling in the gym than in years past and that is due to the kids,” she said. “They have taken care of the effort and communication, where the staff has been able to focus on just coaching. It has allowed us to move forward in a much quicker fashion than we had hoped to and so we feel more prepared as we head into the opening weekend.”
The Hoosiers return 11 letter winners from a season ago and add four newcomers to the team. The lone senior, Morgan Leach is back after leading the team in kills with 313 last season. Other key players include junior Awele Nwaeze, who led the team with 98 blocks and junior Amelia Anderson, who was third on the team with 268 kills and was named to the All-Tournament team for the Indiana Invitational and Hoosier Classic in 2013.
On defense two of the key players will be juniors Courtney Harnish and Kyndall Merritt. Doing the majority of the setting duties will be sophomore Megan Tallman. The Hoosiers added two freshman and two transfers as well. Sophomores Makayla Lundin (Colorado) and Mallory Waggoner (Cal State Fullerton) join the program in addition to freshman Kennedy Fabian (Lake Elmo, Minn.) and Jessica Leish (Cincinnati, Ohio).
HEAD COACH Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan ON OPENING WEEKEND
“The good thing about the first weekend, you aren’t spending all your time scouting,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “We are spending time on our team and what we have tried to develop and an identity and a culture of how we want to play.”
40TH SEASON OF IU VOLLEYBALL
This year is a special one, as the team will celebrate the 40th season of Indiana Volleyball. On Oct. 11th there will be a special alumni banquet leading up to the Hoosiers home match against Purdue.
FOLLOW THE HOOSIERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans can keep up to date with all things IU volleyball by following the team on social media. On twitter you can find the Hoosiers at http://twitter.com/IUVolleyball.
On facebook it’s http://facebook.com/IUVolleyball and on instagram, http://instagram.com/IUVolleyball.
SPECIAL SHOWS
In addition to special features and Q and A’s with coaches and student-athletes there will be two regular shows all season long. The first is Inside IU Volleyball with head coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan. Hosted by the voice of IU Volleyball, Sean Nash this show will recap past matches, preview upcoming matches and add special features as well. Also sophomore Jazzmine McDonald will have a weekly video blog called “Smooth Jazz”, where she gives an inside look into the program from the perspective of a student-athlete.
