Young Spikers Make Their Mark in SCIAC
By Hailey Anderson
Sports Editor

The women’s volleyball team ended their most successful season in the past 3 years at home with a win against a tough Whittier team November 6. This year’s squad saw a marked improvement from a disappointing 6-20 overall record in 2002, and an even more dismal 3-20 record in 2001. 2003 Sagehen Volleyball boasts a 16-12 overall record, and an impressive 9-5 SCIAC record.

Pomona-Pitzer finished second in SCIAC behind four-time champion La Verne, who won their seventeenth conference title. Could this exciting season mark the beginning of Sagehen volleyball dominance? Fourth -year Coach Valerie Cowan seems to think so.

“I am very excited about next year, especially since we only lose 2 starters – Renee [Faulkner ’04] and Elena [Shih ’04],” said Cowan. “We have a very good base to work with and I'm working on bringing that next person who will help take us to the next level.”

In addition to losing only two graduating seniors, the successful Sagehens are young; seven freshmen make up half of the fourteen player roster. Laura Laakso ’07 dominated the Pacific Coast Tournament early in the season and was named to the all tourney team. This was just the beginning of the freshman setter’s stellar season; Laakso went on to earn a place on the All-SCIAC second-team, and was named The SCIAC Freshman of the Year, as well as the all West Region Freshman of the Year. Laakso notched an amazing 1035 assists in her first season, which placed her second on the single season assists list for Pomona-Pitzer Volleyball. Cowan noted that Laakso is “only the second P-P player to go over the 1000 mark in a season.”

This is not to say that the older players did not contribute. Shih used her trademark hustle to tallied 305 digs this season.

“Elena’s passes were beautiful,” sad Cowan.

Middle hitter Faulkner was named SCIAC Athlete of the Week September 28, and contributed 166 kills to this years winning season. Faulkner has 698 career kills which is the eighth most on the all time kills list at Pomona-Pitzer. She is second on the career blocks list with 183. Her dominance in the middle will surely be missed by next year’s Sagehens.

Junior setters Jeannie Kenmotsu and Ashley Lascano had successful seasons, as well, adding to their career assists by 27 and 14, respectively.

Sophomore outside hitter Katie Hopkins joined Laakso on the All-SCIAC second team and was named SCIAC Athletes of the Week, November 8, and Honorable Mention Athlete of the Week, October 5. Hopkins had 267 kills on the season to lead the team, as well as 372 digs.

Laakso and freshman Rachele Treger, an outside hitter, were the only Sagehens to play in all 99 games. “Treger had a very nice year in the middle garnering 218 kills – the only other player over 200 is Kat with 267 kills. Emma Spiro was the other freshman seeing a great deal of court time. She played in a little over half of our games and tallied 104 kills and 139 digs,” said Cowan.

Cowan came into the season with reasonable goals. “My goal this year was to have a .500 season and move up in the conference standings,” Cowan said.

The team, however, could sense the energy and potential of this year’s squad, and chose to set higher goals for themselves. “The team went a step further with the conference goal and wanted to have a top three finish,” recalled Cowan.

This energy carried the team through the first round of conference play. They posted a 5-1 conference record, with a loss only to powerhouse La Verne.

“I'll be honest, once we started having success, the expectations increased, and although we had a rough stint when we started the second round of conference, the team rebounded very well and finished on a very strong note,” said Cowan.

The rough stint that Cowan mentions is a four-game losing streak in conference play. After beating Redlands and CMS in the first half of the season, P-P dropped to split matches in the second round of conference. The Sagehens did bounce back to win their final four games, and finish second in SCIAC play.

Some season highlights for Cowan were “sweeping Cal Lu, including beating them on their home floor, sweeping Oxy and the wins over CMS and Redlands. When we started conference, we had a five match win streak in which three of those were tough five game battles that we finished with a strong game five in each.

“I am very happy about the outcome of our season and am looking forward to even more improvement next year. I would also like to thank all of our supporters throughout the season – you make it fun for the team to play!” said Cowan.

So, come out next year and support the Sagehens as they continue to improve and become a SCIAC powerhouse.