Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Volleyball's Sonya Locke Pleased With First Day of Practice
08/11/2004 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 11, 2004
By Lou Antoine
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois Volleyball team held its first day of practices on Wednesday for the 2004 season with 15 athletes, including 12 returners and three newcomers. Head coach Sonya Locke was pleased with her team's first day of practices after the Salukis worked on some light individual skills in the morning and had a full blown team workout session in the afternoon. "I think there is a lot more flow this year to open camp because we have a greater comfort level than last year. It's much calmer and less stressful since so many of the kids are familiar with what we want to do. I'm pleased with their attitude and hopeful that it will continue like this throughout preseason, because we still have a lot of work to do," SIU head coach Sonya Locke said. "We had so many new people last year that we had a lot of explaining to do. This year we're so much more comfortable. They're giving me the feeling that this is more of a veteran team, so we'll be able to progress much faster this season and add additional team concepts." The Salukis are coming off a 7-23 season and a tie for eighth place in the Missouri Valley Conference last year when 11 newcomers and eight freshman joined the team. The Salukis have five starters returning and nine athletes that started matches in 2003, in addition to two redshirts and three freshman. SIU will hold two-a-day practices through Saturday, August 21. The Salukis will open the season with against Georgetown on September 3 at the Trosclair Memorial Tournament in New Orleans, La. The Salukis will also face host Tulane and Nicholls State on September 4.
